By David Morgan, Associate Editor
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Justin Allgaier and JR Motorsports will be in the field for the Daytona 500 for the second year in a row after locking in on time during qualifying on Wednesday night.
A year after making its first NASCAR Cup Series start in the 2025 Daytona 500, the team and driver returned to Daytona looking to run it back and improve on their debut in the Great American Race a year ago.
After a nail-biting journey to even make it into the field for last year’s race, Allgaier persevered through the chaos to bring his battered No. 40 Chevrolet across the line in ninth place, leaving the entire team, including owner Dale Earnhardt, Jr. counting the days until the calendar rolled around to this year’s running of the Daytona 500.
Even with the knowledge of having run this race a year ago and all that comes with that experience, Allgaier noted ahead of qualifying that the nerves were still there this time around given that once again, he and the team would have to either time in on single car speed on Wednesday or be the fastest in their respective Duel on Thursday night.
“Going back 365 days later, it’s not any different,” Allgaier said leading into qualifying. “There’s still that stress, there’s still that want. But it’s more so now, how do we do better? How do we qualify tonight and not have to worry about tomorrow? How do we finish better in the Daytona 500?
“All these things last year, we just wanted to make it in, we just wanted to finish. We didn’t necessarily have a set goal. I feel like this year we’ve just elevated our game and want to be better. So far so good.”
Allgaier joked that he hoped for a much calmer run-up to the Daytona 500 with eyes on locking in during qualifying, saying: “I would love to make Wednesday exciting and Thursday boring, I really would. No offense to anybody.”
And he did just that. The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series regular timed in as the second fastest of the Open cars just behind Corey Heim and ahead of Corey LaJoie in the running order. With all three still in the top-10, it was a bit of a wait to see if they would stay there and have to make another run in the second round, but LaJoie would get bumped, locking Allgaier and JRM in.
“I was confident that if we had to run a second time, we were still going to be in and fine,” Allgaier said of the nerve-wracking wait to see if their opening round time would stand.
“So, I think it’s hard to contain that emotion. You sit out there and you watch car after car and I said something, if you look at the draw, there’s nothing worse than going out first and second and then sitting there until 25th knowing that if you’re up there you got to wait on somebody to knock you off. And it came down to the last guy and last year we missed qualifying in by nine one thousandths. This year it’s four one thousandths the other way. So you can never take those moments for granted when it’s just a little bit of speed and we definitely didn’t do that tonight.
Earnhardt added that the nerves were there watching Allgaier make his run, but they were the good kind of nerves with the way everything worked out.
“We got here today and we had some nerves and I kept thinking, man, this is why it’s fun, you know? If it was all handed to you, it wouldn’t be as much fun,” Earnhardt said.
“And so coming down here nervous and scared and standing out there worried and wondering if you’d run a good enough lap, I mean that really is the payoff to being in racing and motorsports is anxiety and stuff, but it’s really, really enjoyable because when it works out it’s such a great feeling. So just enjoyed the process, enjoyed everything about that out there.”
The focus for JRM now shifts to Thursday’s Duels, which will be a calmer affair than a year ago, one in which everyone involved can focus on dialing in the car for Sunday.
But just how will the No. 40 team attack the Duels? If Earnhardt had it his way, it’d be to go all out.
“I want to race like hell,” Earnhardt exclaimed. “I don’t know if I get to make that choice.
“Greg Ives has done such an incredible job and so I think him and Justin will get together and they’ll sort it out. The plan that they have…it’ll be a plan about the entire weekend encompassing everything they need to do to put themselves in a position to win the Daytona 500. And so, I’ll likely have to buy into whatever that is at the end of the day.”
Allgaier will start seventh in the second of the two Duel races. The broadcast begins at 7:00 pm ET on FOX Sports 1.
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