Justin Allgaier excels in fill-in effort for Kyle Larson

CONCORD, N.C. — “Justin Allgaier, you did one hell of a job. You should be proud. Hendrick Motorsports and all of us are.”

Crew chief Cliff Daniels gave Allgaier that parting message Sunday as he planned to hand off the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet to Kyle Larson in the NASCAR Cup Series’ Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Larson arrived at the track right when a caution for rain fell on lap 246. The caution soon turned into a 30-minute lightning hold and an hours-long rain delay just three laps later on lap 249.

Mother Nature did her part, just like Allgaier did. Allgaier worked his way up to 13th and finished there when NASCAR called the race during the delay.

Sunday marked the fifth time that Allgaier filled in for someone during a Cup Series race. 13th was far and away his best fill-in finish, besting a sudden 25th-place effort he had to put in on a doubleheader Sunday at Pocono Raceway in June 2021 when a hard wreck in the preceding Xfinity Series race sidelined Justin Haley for the Cup Series race.

In the grand scheme of his 81 other Cup Series starts, Allgaier has only three finishes better than what he did Sunday: 8th at Bristol Motor Speedway in April 2015 and two 12th-place finishes — at Auto Club Speedway in March 2015 at Bristol in August 2015.

Allgaier’s 13th-place finish Sunday in the Coca-Cola 600 becomes even more impressive when you consider he never turned a competitive lap in the Gen 7/NextGen car on a regular, non-drafting track before taking the green flag at the rear of the field Sunday.

“To be honest, I think even at like 3:00 (p.m. ET) I was pretty confident there was no way I was going to be driving today,” Allgaier said post-race.

At that point, Larson and the rest of the Indianapolis 500 field were just over two hours into a rain delay that pushed back the start of the race. Around that time, Doug Boles, the president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, told the media that Kyle Larson would stay and run the 500.

At the same time in Charlotte, Hendrick Motorsports began fitting Larson’s car with Allgaier’s seat so Allgaier could start the Coca-Cola 600.

At 4:45 p.m. ET, the 200-lap Indy 500 went green. Two hours and 35 minutes later, with 91 laps left in the 500, the Coca-Cola 600 went green.

The race against time was on.

When the race began, Allgaier was one of four drivers who started at the rear of the 40-driver field. He rose to 35th after lap one. The opening laps weren’t easy, however, as Allgaier even dropped back to 36th a few laps later, trying to get a feel for the car.

“To be honest with you, starting the race, I was pretty disappointed in myself just getting acclimated. Kyle’s seat is so different from what I run, and the steering,” Allgaier said.

Allgaier picked off a few spots, getting to 33rd after green flag pit stops as the leaders neared.

Allgaier benefitted from having teammate William Byron take the lead. Byron didn’t play nice, though, as Allgaier fell a lap down.

Crew chief Cliff Daniels worked with him to get him up to speed. Allgaier said post-race that Daniels and the team looked at the SMT data to aid him enough to where he made a pass that turned the tide of the race.

“To be able to unlap myself was probably the highlight of the night, to be honest with you, to pass a Hendrick Motorsports teammate, to pass Ty, which I have a lot of respect for on the racetrack, was really, really nice, and it just kind of helped elevate the way the race went,” Allgaier said.

A caution flew on lap 87 for BJ McLeod blowing a tire in turn four, which solidified that Allgaier would stay on the lead lap.

Allgaier did his part and his crew rewarded him. They kept him in the mix as restarts proved tough.

During the lap 87 caution, the crew vaulted Allgaier to 23rd. Then, he placed 26th in the first stage on lap 100 before the crew’s efforts pushed him to 23rd again.

A strong stop on lap 159 again pushed Allgaier from 27th to 20th. Then, Allgaier fell outside of the top-25.

Again, on lap 172, Cliff Daniels’ call to keep Allgaier out put him in 14th. Then, Allgaier slipped back to 27th.

“Restarts were definitely tough just with the aero,” he said. “You guys all hear about aero blocking and aero wash and all those things every week from all the Cup drivers. You don’t need to hear it from me. But as somebody coming from the Xfinity Series, it was pretty wild how much different it was in traffic.”

With those restarts under his belt as the race passed halfway, Allgaier rose to the occasion. During the caution for stage two, at lap 200, his pit crew got him to 19th. Then, as stage three began on lap 207, Allgaier minimized the losses, only falling to 21st.

As the run went on, he jumped to 19th before another caution on lap 230. That set up a stop where the crew vaulted him to 14th.

On lap 236, Allgaier gained ground for the first time all night on a restart, moving up to 13th on what proved to be the final restart.

“My biggest weakness tonight was dirty air, knowing where to place the car, how to get myself in clean air,” Allgaier said. “Once we were able to do that, right there at the end, I think we ran the exact same time as the 20 maybe a couple laps before the end.”

When the caution fell for rain, Allgaier told Daniels that he had his most comfortable run of the race, only suggesting a slight adjustment. By that point, he did his job – get the car in position and set up well for Larson to pounce.

“Kyle Larson is the reason that we’re all here. The double is so important. Me driving this car, my only job was keep the fenders on it, keep it as far forward as we can to make sure that we have a great opportunity for Kyle to get back in it, and if it was five laps to go or rain delayed like it is currently or if it was on lap 5, my job was to make sure that I handed him over a clean race car and try to adjust the balance to where he’ll be good,” Allgaier said.

Unfortunately, Larson never got to jump in and savor the fruits of his team’s labor.

Who knows what may have happened at the end? Had the race gone green, Larson would’ve dropped from 13th to 35th due to the driver change.

“A little bit of pit strategy, getting a little bit of clean air, I think Kyle has the opportunity to go win the race,” Allgaier said during the delay.

We’ll never know.

All we know is NASCAR called the race, leaving Allgaier and the No. 5 team with a stellar 13th-place finish – but Larson dejected after never turning a lap in his Cup car.

The Double, while a disaster for Larson, was not all for naught.

Larson ran up front, led laps and was competitive in the Indianapolis 500, proving year two could be a winner should he and HMS take it up.

Meanwhile, Allgaier helped the No. 5 team maintain the regular-season owner points lead by 18 points over the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team.

Kyle Larson posted this Monday on X/Twitter:

“What I thought could be one of the best days of my life quickly turned into one of the most disappointing ones I’ve ever experienced. I hate it for Rick Hendrick, Jeff Gordon, HAG, Hendrick Motorsports, everyone a part of the 5 team, everyone on the 17 indycar for speeding, my family, my friends, my fans, and the documentary crew that has followed along the journey the past 8 months. So much time, money, and effort went into this experience and it just kills me to have it all end the way it did. I feel like I let so many people down. We knew all along weather could throw a wrench into things but seeing it come to reality is a horrible feeling.

Up until Sunday it was truly one of the greatest experiences of my life. I can’t describe how appreciative I am of everyone’s support of me to live out a dream. I hope it’s not the last opportunity I have to try the Double but if it is I guess it was memorable.

Thank you to everyone at Arrow McLaren, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and all the competitors there for making me feel welcomed.

Ready to get back on track now and get refocused on winning a 2nd championship for our team.

KL 😞”