Column By: HOLLY CAIN / NASCAR – AVONDALE, AZ – JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier arrives at Phoenix Raceway as the most seasoned NASCAR Xfinity Series driver competing for the 2024 championship.
The 38-year-old Illinois-native will be making his seventh appearance in the Championship 4 Round and third in a row — but will be racing for the first title in a 25-win, 15-year career in the series in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race (7 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Allgaier’s two Phoenix wins in the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet (in 2017 and 2019) are most among the four Championship-eligible drivers, but his best showing in the final championship standings is runner-up last season and in 2020.
This season, Allgaier has 19 top-10 finishes, including a pair of victories (at Darlington, S.C., and Michigan) and has led 705 laps, his second-highest total in the last four years, with a race still remaining.
“I think it’s understated what this team has really accomplished,” Allgaier said Thursday during NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship 4 Media Day at the track. “[Crew chief] Jim Pohlman told me two weeks ago, ‘We’re going to go win Phoenix, it’s just a matter of whether you race for a championship or not. If we’re going to raise a trophy, I’d rather it be the big one rather than the little one.’
“He’s very confident in that, and to have your leader of your group that confident kind of exudes confidence through everybody.”
“The confidence level is high. We’re ready to go,” he added. “When you show up here with a group that you know is capable of executing at a high level, it makes it a lot more fun, knowing everybody’s on the same page.”
Allgaier conceded his experience overall—and specifically at racing for a championship—has played a major role in his approach.
“I feel like in years past, I’ve kind of carried it on my back of like, you have to go here and there, lead every lap, qualify on the pole,” Allgaier said. “You get caught up in that mentality. Last year, I spun out on Lap 5 just trying to get in front of the other Playoff cars. That’s not what we needed to do.
“I’m just looking at this [Championship Race] a lot differently than I have in years past. I don’t feel the pressure of the championship like I have in years past. I come to this weekend, and I think being here as many times as I have and it’s not worked out, you get this sense of peace of like, ‘I’ve been here before and not been able to accomplish it.’ So, with a different mindset we’ll see what happens.”
Cole Custer wants to cap Stewart-Haas career with another title
Cole Custer’s life is about to change again—and he wants it to happen with as much gusto as possible.
The reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion is carrying the banner for Stewart-Haas Racing, which will cease to exist at season’s end.
Next year, Custer will return to the NASCAR Cup Series with reconstituted Haas Factory Team, but he would like nothing better than to reward the current ownership and employees at Stewart-Haas with a second straight title in the No. 00 Ford.
“We had a going-away party on Tuesday and seeing all the people that have been there for so long… everybody’s had a part in our team,” Custer said. “We used a lot of notes from the Cup guys (Chase Briscoe, Ryan Preece, Noah Gragson and Josh Berry).
“We asked a lot of questions. A lot of guys have touched that car. It definitely means a ton if we can try to finish this thing out strong… It would mean so much to everybody in that building, but at the same time, I think it would be so cool to see (co-owners) Tony (Stewart’s) and Gene (Haas) names go out on top.”
From a personal perspective, Custer would join an impressive list of consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series title winners that includes Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Tyler Reddick.
“It would be huge,” Custer said, “and from another standpoint, just having the shot to win a championship in NASCAR—you don’t get a ton of shots at that, so you want to make every single opportunity at that count.
“So, we’re going to try to make that happen and hopefully have that title again.”
To accomplish the goal, Custer will have to beat veterans Justin Allgaier and AJ Allmendinger, along with Championship 4 newcomer Austin Hill. He’ll also have to deal with a challenging one-mile, irregularly-shaped race track.
“You’re taking a 3,000-pound stock car and trying to make it go around a flat corner,” Custer said. “So, it’s very difficult to make the car do that. The two ends are different, and trying to get the car to work at every single point isn’t easy, because it’s so different.
“(The track is) starting to get some age to it, so the tires are falling off throughout a run, so you have to have a little bit of everything here.”
Christian Eckes likes his chances in NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck title race
Christian Eckes makes his debut in the Championship 4 as an absolute favorite to hoist his first series trophy.
Not only is he coming off a dramatic win in last weekend’s Martinsville (Va.) Speedway race, but he is also the only one among the four title contenders to have a past win at the Phoenix Raceway mile—claiming the trophy last year although he wasn’t part of the Championship 4.
The 23-year-old New York native likes his chances but says he’s kept his week purposely ‘business as usual’ entering Friday night’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“We have momentum, but it’s Phoenix, anything can happen,” said the driver of the No. 19 McAnally Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet Silverado, who has an amazing 21 top-10 finishes in the 22 races this year, including four wins.
“All you have to do is be good at one race and that’s this weekend. You can be good all year or you can be bad all year, come win this race and you’re a champion. I don’t necessarily look at momentum, but I’d say it was on our side if there was some.”
Further, Eckes says he’s not overly concerned with payback in Friday night’s race following the thrilling finish at Martinsville—a race he dominated but had to come back and make aggressive passes in the closing laps to win. That involved contact with two-time series champion Ben Rhodes and Taylor Gray, who was racing for a Championship 4 position.
“I talked to Ben because I felt like, he hit me first for sure, I hit him and then I hit him again so I was disappointed with the second contact, although it wasn’t intentional,” Eckes said. “I reached out to him because I felt it was warranted. I did not reach out to Taylor, because I didn’t think he wanted to hear what I had to say.
“Same deal though, he hit me before that caution came out, and I hit him back—maybe a little harder than I probably should have—but at the end of the day, I’m happy we won the race and just moving on to Phoenix.”
With new deal for 2025, Corey Heim is focused on NASCAR Truck Championship Race
For Corey Heim, last year’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship Race fell apart in the final stage—in a big way.
After starting from the pole, finishing second in the first stage and winning the second stage, Heim was collected in an accident on Lap 120 triggered by fellow championship contender Carson Hocevar.
His title hopes gone, Heim retaliated against Hocevar on Lap 147 and took the checkered flag in 18th-place after 29 crash-filled laps of overtime. Ben Rhodes won his second series championship with a fifth-place finish to Grant Enfinger’s sixth.
Heim has learned a lot since then. In 2024, he has six victories to his credit, doubling his total from a year ago, and he comes to the Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway armed with a contract to drive for TRICON Garage full-time for a third straight season.
“I don’t flash back to last year as a redemption by any means, but I’m as motivated as anyone sitting in the room,” Heim said on Thursday during NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship 4 Media Day at the one-mile track in the Sonoran Desert.
“I certainly learned a lot from last year, just circumstantially and how to handle myself in tough situations, but I feel like every race this year I’ve grown as a driver, and I feel like I’ve done that every race with TRICON ever since I started out with those guys.”
Though the 22-year-old from Marietta, Ga., has won more races this year, he also has been more inconsistent.
“A lot of people talk about how we’ve been more hit-or-miss this year,” Heim said. “Compared to last year, I feel like we were always top five but couldn’t quite close the deal out. This year, it seems like we’re dominating (and) winning, or we’re kind of struggling a little bit.
“I feel like our stuff is as good as anybody’s when we’re on point, and we’ve just got to be on point this weekend.”
As to his future beyond the Championship Race, Heim felt another season with TRICON was his best choice.
“There’s always options on the table,” said Heim, who also has run 13 NASCAR Xfinity Series races for owner Sam Hunt this season. “But I never had a doubt that my development with Toyota Racing has led me to where I am today, and it’ll get me through the future as well—so it wasn’t a hard decision.”
