Why Kyle Petty labels Justin Allgaier "almost" the Denny Hamlin of Xfinity Series

Former NASCAR driver Kyle Petty has compared Justin Allgaier to Denny Hamlin for being a strong contender and also for not being able to win a championship title. Petty described Allgaier as "almost" like the Hamlin of the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Justin Allgaier is a 38-year-old American driver racing in the Xfinity Series since 2008. While Allgaier holds a record for eight straight years with a victory, the Illinois native has no championship title under his belt yet. This is similar to Denny Hamlin, who has been in the Cup Series full-time since 2006.

In a report by Frontstretch’s Daniel McFadin, Kyle Petty didn’t hold back on his thoughts about Justin Allgaier’s Xfinity career, saying:

“Kyle Petty says Justin Allgaier is ‘almost’ the Denny Hamlin of the Xfinity Series, since he's always in the championship discussion and can't seal the deal.”

As a consistent race winner, Justin Allgaier was always in the mix in the championship fight in the second-tier series. His last championship attempt at Phoenix in 2023 saw him finish 3rd and 2nd in the Championship 4 grid behind Cole Custer.

The race was the JR Motorsports driver’s sixth Championship 4 appearance, the most in the sport’s history.

Denny Hamlin, meanwhile, has four Championship 4 appearances in the NASCAR Cup Series, with Joey Logano having the most in the premier series with five appearances. Hamlin’s best finishes were recorded in 2014 and 2021, where he finished third.

The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry driver has amassed 54 wins in the Cup Series, the most by a driver without a championship. He joins Junior Johnson in the 50-win club without a Cup title.

For this season, Allgaier is among the favorites to win the Xfinity Series championship.

However, Allgaier, who entered the postseason with the most playoff points, lost control and hit the wall at Kansas on lap 70. He eventually had to retire his No. 7 Chevy due to heavy damage and make do with a 36th-place finish.

During a post-race interview via Frontstretch, Allgaier expressed his frustrations, saying:

“Just a really frustrating couple of weeks. I don’t know if I ever had a stretch like this in my career. Hats off to everyone at JR Motorsports, everyone in the seven team. I mean, they don’t deserve to be out in the races early and it’s super frustrating but we’ll get it figured out and go next week to Talladega and hopefully have a good weekend and go from there.” [0:19]

The Kansas Lottery 300 was won by Aric Almirola, followed by Cole Custer and Chandler Smith.

The action will return at the Talladega Superspeedway for the second race of the Round of 12 next week.

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Kyle Petty once called out Denny Hamlin's strategy in Atlanta

Kyle Petty called out Denny Hamlin's strategy at the 2024 Cup Series playoffs opener at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. The NASCAR veteran slammed the JGR driver for staying at the back to avoid potential wrecks and settling with 20 points.

Per @WhoisSkid on X, Kyle Petty said:

"Who goes into the playoffs saying, 'I want to get 20 points in the first race.'? I've never heard anything like that in all the history of when we've had playoffs."

In the end, the strategy didn't work out for Hamlin. He walked out of Atlanta with 13 points from a P24 finish.