Championship 4 photo with Dale Jr. fuels Justin Allgaier
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Justin Allgaier will race for a Xfinity championship Saturday night at Phoenix (coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET on USA). This is his opportunity to cap a season fueled by the photo of him after a disappointing loss.
Allgaier tearfully embraced team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. after last season's Xfinity championship race. This moment was captured in a photo that became the lock screen on Allgaier's cell phone.
“I set that picture as my lock screen because I knew when we left Phoenix that I didn't have anything left,” said Allgaier, who seeks his first title in his sixth Championship 4 appearance.
“I mean, I did everything I knew how to do and it didn't equate into a championship. And I've been here and I've had these moments of you don't have that opportunity to go on to Phoenix. I've been at Phoenix and I've had defeat. I've had a lot more defeat than joy in this playoff format.”
Why would Allgaier constantly remind himself of falling short of the biggest prize? The answer is simple — it helped motivate him for the 2023 Xfinity season.
“How do you how you motivate yourself?” Allgaier asked. “You can let it eat you inside or you can let it be the fuel that you need to go to the next one. And for me, this momentum is fuel but the defeat would have equally have been as much fuel to be better next year.”
Earnhardt can relate: "You're trying to win this championship. You've had these years where you've got an amazing race car. Seems like it's your time and repeatedly time and time again, it doesn't happen. And every year you've had to brush aside the sorrow, the devastation and try again.
"So eventually you get tired of trying so much every year. It's hard to rebuild your confidence and get over that heartbreak and try to go back and fight just as hard or even harder."
Allgaier kept fighting.
He followed last season’s defeat by winning four races — the second-most he has won in a single Xfinity season.
This season of success was not guaranteed. NASCAR history is full of examples of those who came within one race of winning a championship one season but never repeated the feat.
"When he loses it like he did last year, we're standing on pit road crying together, you're like, 'Damn, is he gonna be able to get over it?'" Earnhardt said. "Sometimes, those types of losses can be really detrimental that you never really emotionally or mentally recover. Even if you come back and race, you're just never quite as driven."
The photo of Allgaier and Earnhardt was only on the lock screen of Allgaier's phone for a few weeks after the season's end. Allgaier switched it out in favor of photos of his children opening Christmas presents.
Mere days before the Xfinity championship race, the current lock screen photo is of his two kids sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in the sand. Their backs are to the camera as they face the water. An understandable choice for a proud father, but with Allgaier, there is a deeper meaning.
“This one's interesting to me,” Allgaier said while holding up his phone. “Because people asked me a lot of times, ‘Hey, why do you still do this? Why do you still come to the racetrack year after year? Why are you still in the sport?’
“Right there. I want them to understand why I'm doing what I'm doing and the time away from my kids and the time away from home. I hope one day they understand it. They won't right now — they maybe never will — but I hope one day they do.”
Allgaier doesn’t know if he will win the championship on Saturday night. His plan is to check off this goal but whether this happens won’t change how he feels about his career and the special moments he has experienced with his family.
A win on Saturday night might lead to another lock screen photo change. It would certainly lead to a special moment for him and Earnhardt.
"Just watching Justin go through the process and celebration of (winning a championship), I'll just sit there and watch him go through that whole thing," Earnhardt said. "Four, eight hours or whatever it happens (to be) after winning a championship. You're here taking pictures, talking to media for hours. I'd want to watch him do that, to see him finally be able to enjoy that."
