Car: No. 7 | Team: JR Motorsports | Manufacturer: Chevrolet
Status: Full-time | Hometown: Riverton, Illinois | Age: 40
Career Highlights
Justin Allgaier is one of the most accomplished drivers in NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series history. His 33rd career victory, at Pocono on June 13, 2026, came a week after his 32nd at Nashville broke a tie with Jack Ingram on the all-time O'Reilly Series wins list. The 2024 O'Reilly Series champion, Allgaier has anchored the JR Motorsports lineup since joining the organization in 2016, and is now in his 10th season with the team.
In 2026 he leads the O'Reilly Series standings by 250 points over second-place Jesse Love through 17 races, a commanding margin built on a series-leading five wins. Back-to-back victories at Nashville and Pocono matched the five he won in 2018, his career best, with most of the regular season still to run. At Bristol on April 11 he finished fourth and collected a $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus, one of several career checks from the program.
Allgaier finally won at Pocono on June 13, the one big track that had kept beating him — surviving a three-wide final restart to take the MillerTech Battery 250 by .607 seconds for his series-leading fifth win of 2026 and second straight after Nashville. He had led more laps and won more stages at Pocono than any driver in O'Reilly Series history without ever winning the race, and broke the trend that no driver over 30 had won there in the series' previous seven visits. Read the recap.
Kvapil came in tied for the most runner-up finishes without a win in series history. He led the last 22 laps at Indianapolis to end it, and JR Motorsports took the next three spots behind him.
The team has put a car in the top 10 in 78 straight races. One more ties the all-time mark. Chase Elliott is in the car on the oval where his father won the Brickyard 400.
Justin Allgaier came from 16th through 13 cautions and three red flags to win the Focused Health 250 at Atlanta, his sixth O'Reilly Series win of the season. He now leads the championship by 240 points.
Austin Hill has five wins at Atlanta, tied with Kevin Harvick for the most in NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series history. On Saturday, in his home state, he can break the tie. Justin Allgaier's 195-point lead looks safe, but his form has quietly cooled over the last month.
Brandon Jones started 29th at Chicagoland, led 12 of 201 laps, and won the Cuervo 300 in overtime, the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series' first extra-lap finish of 2026. Chase Elliott and Connor Zilisch led 126 laps and won both stages between them. They left with zero points.
Justin Allgaier has five wins, the points lead, and the best average finish in the O'Reilly Series. The one thing he hasn't done is win a road course, and Saturday's Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250 at Sonoma is the last one of the season.
Austin Hill won the inaugural O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race at San Diego's Naval Base Coronado, surviving a 25-car wreck and a run of engine failures for the 16th series victory of his career. Justin Allgaier still leads the championship comfortably.
Justin Allgaier has already clinched the Chase, JR Motorsports has won 11 road races in a row, and the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series has never been more lopsided. This weekend it races a San Diego street course nobody has ever lapped, where all that homework counts for nothing. Saturday, 5 p.m. ET on the CW.
The NASCAR All-Star Race goes to Dover Motor Speedway Sunday for the first time in the event's 41-year history — the 42nd running of the showcase, three segments, 26 cars, the trophy on the line. A preview of what to watch and who's hot heading in.
Corey Day won Talladega last Saturday by leading exactly one lap — the last one — for Hendrick Motorsports. Six days later, the same Concord-Mooresville pipeline runs at Texas, with Kyle Larson in the JR Motorsports No. 88, Connor Zilisch in the No. 1, and Austin Dillon in the Richard Childress No. 3. Three Cup drivers, the final Dash 4 Cash of 2026, and Justin Allgaier with a stage-points pace nobody has hit since Denny Hamlin in 2021.
Saturday night, Byron runs the No. 88 for JR Motorsports. Sunday afternoon, he's in the No. 24 for Hendrick Motorsports. Same Kansas weekend, same Charlotte story — thirty miles on either end of I-77.
JR Motorsports placed four entries in the top five at Bristol. The Mooresville operation's organizational depth — from Rodney Childers' strategy call to the talent corridor that feeds it — is the real story of the Suburban Propane 300.
Kyle Larson is the defending winner of Saturday night's Suburban Propane 300 at Bristol — and he's not eligible for the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus. The reigning Cup champion has won his last two O'Reilly Series starts at Thunder Valley. The four drivers fighting over six figures still have to beat him.
Justin Allgaier enters Saturday's Suburban Propane 300 at Bristol with seven Dash 4 Cash wins and $700,000 collected — both all-time records. His three competitors for the $100,000 bonus have never won one. This one isn't as balanced as it sounds.
Brent Crews turned eighteen on March 30. Six days later, the Hickory native was leading the North Carolina Education Lottery 250 at Rockingham Speedway in his first career start at this oval distance class. He didn't get the result. But the kid from Hickory is just getting started.
William Sawalich won his first O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Rockingham Speedway on Saturday, becoming the youngest winner in track history in his 42nd career start. The nineteen-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing driver charged from 14th to lead 80 laps, outlasting Corey Day's dominant early effort that faded on tire wear.
Lee Pulliam — the late model legend making his first NASCAR national series start — led 40 laps at Martinsville, caused a 19-car pileup on a late restart, apologized immediately, and still finished fifth. Justin Allgaier won his third race of the season.