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.
Allgaier played defense to a T in the 200-lapper at Homestead. He scored 11 stage points and kept the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet mostly clean to bring home a seventh-place finish to clinch the title.
“Means more than you’ll ever know,” Allgaier said of winning his second O’Reilly championship. “It’s obviously not the finish we wanted tonight. Wanted to be in Victory Lane, but this team never quits. The effort, the time they put in. The pit crew, phenomenal job. The first one was for me. The first one I really enjoyed. This one is for all these men and women standing back here. They have worked their tail off.
“To add O’Reilly Auto Parts to the primary sponsor of our sport, I thought I was going to be a one-and-done with them as the primary, here we are standing as a champion. I’m going to enjoy that ‘2x’ in front of that next year. This is a family sport for me. If it wasn’t for my family, I wouldn’t be here. Very proud of that. We’re going to enjoy this one, for sure.”
It didn’t come without some slight scares, though, as Allgaier scrubbed the wall at the race track and had two separate instances of tires going down that forced Allgaier down pit road. But the veteran and the No. 7 pit crew kept their cool to close the deal.
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.
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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.
No. 7 crew chief Andrew Overstreet talked about the benefit of being able to continue to build Allgaier’s legacy versus the two-time champ calling it a career after 2026.
“We talked about it. We knew that if we could get this going, I mean, we can start a dynasty here,” Overstreet in his post-race press conference. “He’s won two of the last three. He has been a staple of this series for a long time, as long as I’ve known him. If he can keep building on that, it’s going to be great for this sport.”
Allgaier will look to make history in 2027 and beyond as the first O’Reilly driver to win three championships.
“I’ve had more fun this year than I think I’ve ever had,” Allgaier said after entering 2026 thinking it would be his last. “I think a lot of that came from the fact that I knew this is probably going to be it. I think I’ve spent this year in a totally different mindset than I’ve ever had in my entire career. I’ve been so proud of what we’ve accomplished through that. It makes me realize that next year is going to be all about fun just as much as this year was.”