Justin Allgaier doesn’t consider himself superstitious, but as the saying goes, if it weren’t for bad luck, he wouldn’t have had any luck at all during the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.
That might seem incongruous for a driver who enters the series Playoffs as the top seed, with two victories and a series-best 14 stage wins.
But Allgaier’s season could have been exponentially better, had fate not intervened at the most inopportune times.
At Phoenix in March, Allgaier had a commanding lead before blowing a tire and crashing with fewer than five laps left. That set an ominous tone for the campaign.
In last Friday’s regular-season finale at Bristol, Allgaier felt he had the fastest car in the race, but on Lap 52, with the No. 7 Chevrolet leading, the Chevrolet of Austin Green bounced off the wall into Allgaier’s path and launched a chain of events that ruined his day.
The 30th-place finish at Bristol cost Allgaier the Regular Season Championship, erasing the 43-point lead he held entering the race.
During a NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff Media Day Zoom conversation on Tuesday, Allgaier held up a driver’s helmet designed by his daughter Harper. It featured a golden horseshoe.
Rather than a symbol to change his luck, however, the design was a tribute to his grandfather, Harold “Bud” Allgaier, who was integral to the early stages of Justin’s racing career. Bud Allgaier passed away in 2006.
“I’m not superstitious by any stretch,” Allgaier said. “One thing that is funny is that this helmet was painted before Bristol, which I think is kind of hilarious, ‘cause all of the writing on the back and the horseshoes on the side definitely would not add up to Bristol, for sure.
“But one of the things I love about Harper is her attention to the past. My grandfather—my dad’s dad, Grandpa Bud—he always carried a horseshoe in his pocket, and he would carry my autograph cards… he would have me sign a handful of autograph cards, even as a younger kid, and he would carry them in his back pocket.
“He never met a stranger. If he was at a restaurant, if he was at a race—wherever he was at—he would pull those autograph cards out and give them to whoever he was sitting near and try to make as many Justin Allgaier fans as he could.”
After his grandfather died, Allgaier ran horseshoe stickers on his race cars, a bit of history his daughter reprised on the helmet.
“To have that and see it on a helmet really makes it special,” Allgaier said. “It’s definitely a cool ode to a family member who really thought those were special—and to bring me luck, by the way.”