Garrett Smithley was having fun with a meal at a neighborhood Mexican restaurant final yr in Mooresville, North Carolina, when Justin Allgaier walked up.

The 2 are opponents within the NASCAR Xfinity Sequence, though Smithley doesn’t have many begins. However he was driving for B.J. McLeod final yr, and McLeod’s group makes use of previously-run JR Motorsports automobiles – the crew Allgaier is a full-time driver for.

“He knew that info,” Smithley stated of the automobiles. “So, he was asking me in regards to the chassis quantity and was like, ‘Oh, that was an excellent automobile!’ He sat there and talked to me for about 10 minutes, encouraging and pumping me up. He’s simply all the time been a super-nice man.”

It’s onerous to search out somebody from the storage who doesn’t have a pleasant factor to say about Allgaier. The 37-year-old is just not solely a NASCAR veteran, however one who has made a profession for himself within the Xfinity Sequence by means of two totally different stints. Allgaier ran full-time within the collection from 2009 by means of 2013 earlier than returning in 2016 after a short, powerful tenure within the Cup Sequence. He hasn’t left since.

Wayne Auton, the NASCAR Xfinity Sequence managing director, jokingly calls Allgaier the “senior citizen” of the storage. Allgaier, as Smithley, Auton, and others will attest, he’s grow to be the collection chief.

“The way in which he handles drivers is simply superior,” stated Auton. “He’ll come and inform me, ‘I’m going to speak to this driver,’ and he does it in such knowledgeable method.”

For 4 years, Noah Gragson had entry to Allgaier as a teammate at JR Motorsports. Whether or not it was Allgaier lending time to himself or Sam Meyer, Gragson was regularly impressed by Allgaier’s dedication to educating.

‘Whenever you’re a younger man, you don’t know the questions it is advisable be asking, particularly coming into the Xfinity Sequence,” stated Gragson. “You simply don’t know what the precise really feel is for the automobile.

“I actually respect Justin’s work ethic and his friendship and his teammate bond. He’s actually opened-minded and prepared to go the additional mile to assist anyone out.”

Allgaier has embraced the function of chief within the storage. However it comes with a stability.

“I’m nonetheless competing towards drivers so that you don’t wish to be out of bounds,” stated Allgaier. “Each driver makes errors, it’s only a matter of scale and the way you make them. However typically youthful drivers don’t get the credit score for making the great choices they make, so we’ve talked rather a lot about that.”

Not all errors are malicious, Allgaier defined. And typically, a driver won’t perceive why that mistake occurred the best way it did.

Allgaier is without doubt one of the Xfinity Sequence most fierce opponents, however he’s an open e book on the subject of sharing methods of the commerce with younger drivers. Nigel Kinrade/Motorsport Photographs

NASCAR officers, like Auton, are effectively conscious the Xfinity Sequence is filled with youthful drivers trying to make a reputation for themselves. Those self same drivers, nonetheless, hope to be on the quick monitor to the Cup Sequence. Allgaier has nothing however respect for Auton’s function or the opposite officers who mentor drivers, however Allgaier, who loves being a collection common, needed to play an element.

“I mainly informed (Auton), I like this collection, and I like the place I’m at, so how do I assist? How do I make it easier to?” Allgaier stated. “How do I assist the collection get higher? That’s been essential to me. It’s onerous if you nonetheless make errors. That’s the place it turns into tough is once I’m nonetheless actively making errors.”

There may be plenty of turnover within the Xfinity Sequence from yr to yr, be it drivers altering groups or leaving the collection altogether. Even nonetheless, Allgaier doesn’t hesitate to cross on any classes as a result of these drivers want to know the knowledge and apply it one of the simplest ways potential.

“I really feel like I had lots of people invested in me once I was youthful and first stepping into this sport, and it was my aim to assist all people,” Allgaier stated.

Harrison Burton ran within the Xfinity Sequence from 2019 by means of 2021. It didn’t matter that Burton was on a special crew as a result of he and Allgaier talked “fairly a bit” throughout these years.

“I don’t know if he ever did what you imagined Dale (Earnhardt) Sr. would do placing the hand in your shoulder and saying, ‘Hey man, what are you doing gout there?’” stated Burton with amusing. “What was cool about him, even in my first yr, I felt like he revered me as a driver and needed to get to me.”

Throughout his time within the Xfinity Sequence from 2018 by means of 2020, Chase Briscoe simply bonded with Allgaier. In keeping with Briscoe, they talked “on a regular basis,” and Allgaier was all the time there with a serving to and main hand.

“He was all the time the primary man to come back over,” stated Briscoe. “I bear in mind my third or fourth race at Fontana, he got here to the automobile proper after follow and was like, ‘Hey, it is advisable do that, this, and this.’ So, he’s all the time been actually good to me.”

Allgaier has revamped 400 begins within the Xfinity Sequence with 20 profession wins. He’s by no means completed worse than seventh within the championship standings. However his character will all the time stand above his accomplishments.

Smithley isn’t the one driver that Allgaier has come throughout whereas out and about. The best dialog Allgaier stated he had, was with Ryan Preece at a Panera Bread.

“He was consuming lunch once I walked in, and I sat down with him, and we ended up speaking for about two hours about what the long run regarded like for him,” stated Allgaier. “He was debating about transferring again residence and quitting the game fully. We sat and simply talked. Now, he’s bought an ideal automobile within the Cup Sequence. Dream journey. I’m so pumped as a result of my dialog with him didn’t have an effect on the end result of what he was going to do, nevertheless it was an ideal dialog.

“I believe plenty of occasions in life, we don’t want a particular course to go, we simply want the excessive factors. Then you definitely type of formulate your individual resolution on what the precise reply is. I believe for all of us, for those who can take one piece of constructive out a dialog, it’s completely value it.

“The whole lot we do in life is about folks and communication. So, for me, I simply make investments again into folks, and the remainder will kind itself out.”