Justin Allgaier reacts to Austin Hill dictating Atlanta after a ‘not normal’ move on the superspeedway

On Saturday, February 22, Austin Hill of Richard Childress Racing roared to victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It was his third consecutive victory at the 1.5-mile, quad-oval speedway and with that, the native of Georgia secured his spot in the playoffs.

However, Hill did something unusual during the race and it did not miss fellow racer Justin Allgaier’s eyes. During a post-race interview, the reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion recalled the same and said (via Matt Weaver) ,

“I think he spun the tire on the 21, which we normally don't see here in a place like Atlanta. I checked up a little bit to make sure that I wasn't driving on the way of the 21 and then once we got rolling...it seemed like once we got to turns 1 and 2, we just didn't have the pack behind us that we needed.”

Allgaier finished second behind Hill, marking the end of an otherwise fruitful day. Notably, there was a time when he could have capitalized on the push his teammate Sammy Smith had given him out of turn 2 and disrupted Hill’s momentum. But he did not.

Hill was getting pushed hard by Aric Almirola at the time, so the job was perhaps doable, had Allgaier chosen to go that way. As reported by Frontstretch, the JR Motorsports driver reflected on the same saying:

“I had gotten enough separation from Sammy that I knew my speed wasn’t going to be there. … I did it earlier in the race. I pulled up to get in front of the outside row and got swallowed up middle of three wide and I think I was about 20th by the time it sorted back out.”

“So I made the decision that I felt like preserved the best finish,” he added.

Allgaier and Hill will next race against each other next week at the Focused Health 250, scheduled for March 1 at Circuit of The Americas (COTA). The 48-lap feature will be televised on CW with radio updates on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio from 2:30 PM ET onwards.

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Justin Allgaier reflects on “great piece of advice” from wife Ashley following 2024 Phoenix overkill

Justin Allgaier had made the coveted Championship 4 on six occasions before 2024, but none of them had translated into him winning the ultimate honor, the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship. It took him 14 full seasons in the series before he got his hands on the titular win.

However, Allgaier’s wife, Ashley, knew that none of that would matter when the grid got to Daytona for the season-opening race. The way she put it, her husband would be a “zero” when he showed up at Daytona International Speedway.

“I had a great piece of advice from my wife. It is the truth, and I love it," Allgaier recalled. "She said, 'Enjoy the championship while you can because when you get to Daytona, you're a zero again.' She said, I don't mean you personally are a zero, but she said you have zero points when you get to Daytona. Like, they don't give you an extra five bonus points at Daytona because you won a championship last year.”

Allgaier placed 18th in last week’s race at Daytona. However, it was a good day for him as he bagged 30 valuable playoff points. As of today, the Illinois native sits fourth in points with one top-five and one top-10 each to his credit.