Allgaier’s resilience yields second O’Reilly Series title in three years
NASCAR Creative Design
It took Justin Allgaier over a decade to win his first NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series championship in 2024.
Just two years later, "Lil' Gator" can call himself champion once again.
Allgaier secured the 2026 O'Reilly title Saturday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway after finishing seventh in the championship race at the Florida 1.5-mile oval.
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The No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet driver entered the season finale with a 22-point lead over Jesse Love and staved off a five-driver fight for the series title, where Love, Corey Day, Carson Kvapil and Sheldon Creed were all mathematically eligible to take the championship crown.
In what has become the norm for Allgaier, he overcame hefty struggles early on in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 to rally back and win the championship.
Allgaier entered The Chase as the No. 1 seed – dominating the regular season with six victories and clinching the top spot in The Chase by a whopping 229 points.
However, errors and obstacles plagued the longtime O'Reilly veteran's start to The Chase.
Handling woes in the Darlington Chase opener parachuted Allgaier to a 17th-place finish, and damage from a William Sawalich-Corey Day incident at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway forced the No. 7 to settle for 13th.
Allgaier was then caught up in a two-car wreck with Brandon Jones at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that ended his race early. Just four races in, a 25-point advantage was flipped to Allgaier being 30 points back of Creed for the championship.
Allgaier flipped the script in the final five races, earning top-five results at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Phoenix Raceway, Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway to re-take the points lead and close the deal at Homestead.
At the age of 40, Allgaier proved he still has plenty in the tank to continue competing and winning championships, and heading into Homestead, JR Motorsports announced that he will be back with the team on a multiyear deal.
Allgaier will look to make history in 2027 and beyond as the first O'Reilly driver to win three championships.
This story will be updated.