Justin Allgaier, JR Motorsports, NASCAR, Xfinity Series (Photo by Chris Graythen / Getty Images)
Justin Allgaier’s replacement start for Jimmie Johnson in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race could just be a replacement start, or it could lead to the greatest opportunity of his career.
After 663 consecutive NASCAR Cup Series races since he became the full-time driver of the # 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson will sit in this afternoon’s Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway .
The 44-year-old El Cajon, California native tested positive for COVID-19 and will not be allowed to return until he tests negative twice, with those two tests negative at least 24 hours apart.
Prepared to replace him at the wheel of the Chevrolet # 48 for this 160-lap race around the four-lap, 2.5-mile (4,023-kilometer) oval at Speedway, Indiana is JR Motorsports Xfinity Series driver Justin Allgaier.
Allgaier made his most recent start in the Series Cup in 2016 as the replacement for Michael Annett, now one of his JR Motorsports teammates, at HScott Motorsports at Bristol Motor Speedway. He had competed full time for the team in 2014 and 2015.
With all due respect to the 34-year-old Spaulding, Illinois native, the hope is that this will be his only start behind the wheel of the Chevrolet # 48 this year and that Johnson returns for next Sunday’s race at Kentucky Speedway. And the priority is undoubtedly the health and well-being of Jimmie and his wife, Chandra, who tested positive before Jimmie was tested.
Fortunately, Jimmie has been asymptomatic the entire time, while Chandra has been recovering from the symptoms she suffered from.
But there is still an undeniable race element to this whole situation, and that means Allgaier is ready to compete in the most important race of his career in NASCAR.
Why? It is well documented that Chevrolet # 48 still needs a new driver for next year. Amid speculation of a comeback next year, Johnson has confirmed multiple times that despite how this season has gone, he will not be returning full time in 2021.
Several names have been released since Johnson announced his impending retirement last November, but seven and a half months later, there is still no clear favorite to replace him.
And now Allgaier has an unexpected opportunity to “audition” for that role, an opportunity that no other pilot has. Could Hendrick Motorsports the next new driver be Allgaier?
Allgaier’s name has not been one that has been regularly related to Johnson’s seat, but at least he is on the run. Having a chance to compete against the best in the sport this afternoon can only help boost your case by allowing him to stand out after being thrown at the Wolves as the unexpected replacement driver for a seven-time champion.
It’s worth noting that he had already been the designated backup driver for Hendrick Motorsports. He’s no stranger to the organization, and I don’t hesitate to put him behind the wheel of Johnson’s Camaro ZL1 1LE once Johnson tested positive for COVID-19.
If Rick Hendrick doesn’t end up hiring 2012 champion Brad Keselowski, the hottest free agent left on the market, away from Team Penske for next year, Arguably Allgaier is the best choice when it comes to veteran drivers.
While the Allgaier’s Cup Series experience is limited to just two full seasons driving for a backmarker team, he has competed full-time in NASCAR for 12 consecutive seasons since 2009, including 10 Xfinity Series seasons.
He is in his fifth season driving for Hendrick-owned JR Motorsports and qualified for Championship 4 in three of his first four seasons. The only season in which he failed to advance to the championship round was the 2018 campaign, and that was ironically a great campaign for him as he won the five highest races of his career.
In nine seasons of the Xfinity Series competition, he has never finished outside the top seven in the championship standings, and ironically, it was his outstanding season that resulted in his worst seventh-place finish in his career, simply because of how things unfolded at the end of the game. The playoffs. It has never been more than competitive.
Erik Jones of Joe Gibbs Racing, Corey LaJoie of Go Fas Racing and Matt DiBenedetto of Wood Brothers Racing are also seen as potential candidates to replace Johnson, among the current Cup field.
But none of them are over the age of 28, and Hendrick Motorsports, a team that recently consisted of Johnson and Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne, now retired, currently don’t have a driver over the age of 27 under contract for the upcoming year. Alex Bowman is 27 years old, Chase Elliott is 24 and William Byron is 22.
There’s also no guarantee that any of those other outstanding free agents will be available, and given the fact that Allgaier has been with the Hendrick-associated JR Motorsports team since 2016 and is a veteran who has performed well for over a decade in NASCAR’s second Higher level, it could be a perfect fit for the team, at least in a year of testing.
Another driver in the mix appears to be JR Motorsports’ Noah Gragson, but at 22 and only in his second season of the Xfinity Series, it may be too early to promote him to the Cup.
Also, by promoting an older driver at Allgaier, this would give Hendrick the flexibility to retain Gragson at the Xfinity level and potentially keep him in line for a seat a few years down the line.
But all of this possibility begins this afternoon on Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400, which will air live on NBC starting at 4:00 p.m. ET. While Johnson had drawn the fourth starting position for this race, Allgaier is set to fall back before the start due to the driver change behind the wheel of the # 48 Chevrolet. Where will he end up in his first race driving for Hendrick Motorsports, and could Is this a sign of what is to come next year?
