Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s ace Justin Allgaier makes his Daytona 500 intentions crystal clear in the wake of devastating Xfinity crash

Justin Allgaier recently made his intentions clear for the Daytona 500 on Sunday following his major wreck in the Xfinity Series opening race on Saturday. The 2024 Xfinity Series champion who drives for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his team JR Motorsports in Xfinity will compete in the Great American Race in what is the team's first Cup Series appearance.

The lead-up to the Daytona 500 went according to plan for Justin Allgaier, as he secured his No. 40 entry a spot on the 41-driver starting grid for the 500-mile race. However, the same can't be said about his performance in the Xfinity season-opening race, the United Rentals 300. The Xfinity Series field got involved in a big wreck as they were coming to take the white flag in overtime.

After getting released from the medical center, Justin Allgaier took the blame for the crash and shared that he was in a tight spot before the incident happened. However, he also made it clear that he plans to do a much better job in the Daytona 500. When asked if he'll be okay to race on Sunday after the wreck, Allgaier said:

"Oh yeah, I mean actually, the odd part of that crash was that the energy was so weird. I never hit the fence, I barely hit anything that wasn't moving in the same direction that I was going. So I am not sore at all so that's all good. Tomorrow is its own animal, we'll go and try to run 500 miles and do a better job than we did today. I am just hopeful I hit a lot less stuff tomorrow than I did today because today was not fun," he told Bob Pockrass as shared on X.

The overtime period of the United Rentals 300 saw Allgaier involved in several incidents, including contact with teammate Connor Zilisch, which led to the chaotic restart. Speaking about the wreck in the overtime, he shared:

"That outside row we were in kind of stacked up and I don’t know, I run in the back of Jeb and to kind of keep from crashing him I head to the middle and unfortunately, I think the 32 was coming with a big run, and just too late. I should have pulled left a little earlier but at the end of the day just a really frustrating night," Allgaier was quoted as saying by On3.com.

The 38-year-old ultimately took the blame for the crash and felt sorry for all the drivers who got their car 'torn' apart. However, he also said that he doesn't see what he could have done differently to prevent the crash.

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Dale Jr. tells Justin Allgaier to go full throttle in the Daytona 500

Dale Earnhardt Jr., owner of JR Motorsports, has given Justin Allgaier the green light to go all-out in the Daytona 500. He urged his driver not to worry about fuel conservation and to aggressively push toward the front of the pack.

The strategy comes after Allgaier secured his spot in the Daytona 500 by finishing ninth in the first qualifying Duel. In a video shared on X by Dirty Mo Media, Earnhardt Jr. explained his approach, saying:

"I am lobbying for the rest of the weekend with Greg Ives (No. 40 team crew chief) to let him (Justin Allgaier) mash the gas on Sunday. We're going to the front. If we lose the Daytona 500, it'll be because of fuel mileage."

At superspeedways like Daytona, fuel mileage is a critical aspect of race strategy. However, Dale Jr. made it clear that he prefers an aggressive approach, even at the risk of losing out due to fuel strategy.

"I would rather lose the race because the cautions didn't fall perfectly than because I was sitting in 20th and it was time to go and I couldn't go," he added.

Justin Allgaier will start the Great American Race from the tenth row in P19 alongside Christopher Bell as the green flag falls at 1:30 pm ET on Sunday.