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NASCAR’s Championship Weekend continues at Phoenix tonight! It was time for the NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers to take to the track for the final time this season. Four drivers started tonight’s race with their eyes on the prize–the illusive NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship trophy. Of the four, only one driver has hoisted the trophy in the past, defending series champion Cole Custer who was looking to go back-to-back tonight. But for Austin Hill, A. J. Allmendinger, and Justin Allgaier, they were all chasing their first. Who was able to rise to the occasion and win the big trophy tonight? Let’s break it down!
As it turned out, the seventh attempt was the charm! Lucky number 7 for driver number 7! Justin Allgaier is your 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Champion! And it was anything but an easy road. It was clear early on in this race that Allgaier had one of the fastest cars in the pack but he had to start from the rear of the field. He made his way through the field in a hurry during Stage 1 and ended the stage 7th. But cracks seemingly started to appear during the second stage. Allgaier had a slow pit stop just before the beginning of Stage 2.
During Stage number 2, Justin made perhaps an overly aggressive move on Riley Herbst which caused a leak in his left rear tire. He was able to nurse it to the end of the stage which saw him subsequently pit. To begin the final stage, Allgaier jumped out of line prematurely, meaning that he was forced to serve a pass-through penalty for a restart violation. To make matters worse, while serving the penalty under green, Allgaier sped on pit road, meaning that he would have to serve yet another pass-through. He ended up going a lap down.
A cycle of green flag pit stops, which saw Justin stay out, and a perfectly timed caution saw Allgaier earn his lap back. It was on from there. Justin Allgaier shredded through the field, battling hard with Cole Custer and Austin Hill in the closing laps and through 2 overtime finishes. Congratulations to Justin and that entire number 7 JR Motorsports team. They had been waiting for that win for a long time. It’s nice that now, they will forever be NASCAR champions!
As stated above, this was Allgaier’s 14 full-time season and 7th Championship 4 appearance in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Finally, at long last, Justin Allgaier is a NASCAR Champion! You can tell how much it meant to him as tears welled in his eyes during his post-race interview. Good for him and that JRM crew!
In a clip provided by Dustin Long, Justin Allgaier watches their baby boy’s dreams come true. Their son is a NASCAR champion!
Before we get into the ones who came up just short, 2-time Xfinity Series Champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. watches his driver celebrate. Dale Jr. and Kelly Earnhardt-Miller won the owner’s championship tonight in addition to Allgaier’s driver’s championship.
The Stewart-Haas Racing cars unloaded some seriously fast racecars in the Valley of the Sun. They dominated the night as a tandem. Riley Herbst swept the stages onto the race win while Cole Custer, not far behind, led the Championship 4 drivers for a bulk of the race. What was ultimately Custer’s undoing was that his car faded on the long run while Justin Allgaier’s car got better and faster as the race went on. Once he was past late by Justin Allgaier, he never really recovered.
The defending series champion ends 2024 as the runner-up finisher in the NASCAR Playoffs. In 2025, Custer will move back up to the NASCAR Cup Series to drive the 41 Ford for the Haas Factory Team.
Consistently throughout the night, Austin Hill was the third-best driver of the Championship 4. He fired off decently enough and was in the mix early on. But as the race drew out, Hill’s car faded. He ran the middle portion of this race in the mid-teens to the bottom half of the top-10. Watching his championship opportunity slipping away, the 21 crew threw a Hail Mary pass in strategy during the final pit stop. Out of fresh rubber, Hill put on right side 7-lap scuffed tires. And the rubber just wasn’t a match for the fresher tires of Custer and Allgaier.
Hill will have to wait until 2025 to chase his first championship. He will return to the 21 RCR Chevy next year to give it another go.
It was clear early on in this race that the Kaulig number 16 Chevy just didn’t have the speed to keep up with the rest of the Championship 4. After starting in the back, Allmendinger slowly started to work his way through the field but stalled out once he slid into the 18th position. He did a little better in the second stage, riding around 12th and the low teens for much of it. He stayed out after a caution late in the second stage to assume the 3rd position but he couldn’t make it stick on his worn tires. Allmendinger subsequently finished the stage in 7th. After the second stage, he pitted for some fresh Goodyear rubber.
From there, he was more of an afterthought. He never really sniffed the other Championship 4 competitors save for a brief moment where he ran inside the top-10. For 2025, Allmendinger will head back up to the NASCAR Cup Series to drive the number 16 Chevy for Kaulig Racing full-time.
That does it for us, Daily Downforce readers. There were two championship races down this year’s championship race weekend, and there is still not a ton of drama. Is it a sign of things to come? Or is it the calm before the storm? Let us know what you think! Again, we congratulate Justin Allgaier. What do you make of his championship win? Let us know that as well. Be sure to come back here tomorrow for our coverage of the Cup Series Championship race!
