Emotions run high as JR Motorsports makes Daytona 500 field with Allgaier

JR Motorsports will make its highly anticipated — and long-awaited — NASCAR Cup Series debut Sunday at the Daytona 500.

It became official on Thursday night when Justin Allgaier raced his way into the starting field. Allgaier finished ninth in the first qualifying duel race, which beat fellow Open driver JJ Yeley. Yeley finished 17th.

Allgaier is driving the No. 40 Chevrolet, sponsored by Traveller Whiskey. The whiskey brand is owned by country music star Chris Stapleton, who was sent Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller’s way by Rick Hendrick when looking for an opportunity in NASCAR. In doing so, the situation ended up giving the Earnhardt family the chance to finally enter a Cup Series race.

On Sunday, they will race in one. And at a place that means a lot to their family and fans.

“It’s hard to sit here and put it into words,” Earnhardt said. “It really is probably the toughest thing I’ve ever had to answer. Man, we have kind of tried to downplay how badly we want to race in the Cup Series. At least I have. It’s like one of them things where you are like, man, if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. I’m not going to make it drag down all the other great things happening in my world.

“But man, we got here, and we got a taste of it. Holy moly, yesterday was so disappointing. I didn’t know exactly how badly I wanted to do this or wanted to be a part of something like this until we started going through it. Yesterday was just so tough to understand something as simple as just being 0.0008s too slow. It was really hard to understand and hard to accept.”

Allgaier was not fast enough in single-car qualifying to lock into the field Wednesday night. He was the third-fastest Open driver in qualifying, and only the fastest two were locked in on speed.

“It’s just special,” Earnhardt said. “There are a lot of people that have helped us and are on this journey with us. Man, yes, we got to check the big box, and that’s getting to race. From here on out it’s really icing on the cake.

“The last two laps, I didn’t think we were in a good spot. I didn’t think there was a third groove. I didn’t think anyone would want to go out there with us. It was tried a couple of times in the race, didn’t look very good. Our car was a little sluggish at points, but Justin didn’t have any other choice. He went up there and got some help and made it work. I’m just thankful.”

Allgaier started 17th in the 23-car field. Under the first caution, he had to take tires when he slid into his pit stall for what would be a fuel-only stop. The unexpectedly extended pit stop put Allgaier toward the rear of the field, and on lap 14, a multi-car crash broke out in Turn 1.

Fortunately, Allgaier avoided any significant issues. But he ran into the rear of Yeley and sent his rival bouncing off the side of Bubba Wallace’s car.

The rest of the night was less sketchy, with two cautions for debris. However, Earnhardt joked he couldn’t handle seeing Allgaier getting called to pit road, reputedly for tires, and having to regain lost ground.

“I don’t know what day of the week it is, what time it is. I feel like we’re in a time warp,” Allgaier said. “Last night was probably emotionally one of the more draining qualifying efforts ever because I knew how important qualifying was and how much easier the race is tonight. It was funny – I was pushing Martin with three or four to go, and I mean pushing. He’s got his hand at the window like, ‘What are we doing? I can’t go anywhere.’ I said, apologize to him but we got to go.

“Dale and Kelley being up here, L.W. , when you look at the emotion of them and the emotion of everybody on pit road tonight, I don’t know there’s words to describe it. Dale has already said it, but I don’t know why this feels different, why this is more emotional, why this is more pressure and stress. I think for me, I just don’t want to let Dale down, don’t want to let Kelley down, don’t want to let our fans down. Chris Stapleton has been extremely excited about this project with Traveller Whiskey. He’s coming on Sunday, hopefully, and I didn’t want him to show up and not have a car in the field. That would be pretty weird.”

Over the final laps, Allgaier ran in the third lane and had help with Chevrolet driver Michael McDowell behind him and Chevrolet driver AJ Allmendinger in front of him. On the final lap, the field nearly stacked on the backstretch going into Turn 3 when Ty Dillon jumped to the outside lane.

“I thought we were wrecking,” Allgaier said.

But the field stayed straight and Allgaier brought it to the finish line. Yeley did not have enough help coming to the finish to make up any significant ground.

“Coming across the line was like this relief that I don’t even know if I got that same relief winning the championship last fall,” Allgaier said. “It was really weird. Proud of the effort. Proud of the team. We got a lot of work to do before Sunday, some damage we got to fix from the first incident, things like that. Some things we can clean up as a driver and as a team.

“Like Dale said, this is icing on the cake now. We can go have some fun on Sunday and know that we’re locked into the Great American Race. And feels good. Feels good to say we’re going to start the Daytona 500.”

Earnhardt got to Allgaier at the car on pit road and hugged him. Earnhardt Miller received high fives walking down pit road. As the team pushed the car back toward the garage, some of Alex Bowman’s crew members applauded as it went by. The fans standing on top of the garage cheered the team as they pushed the car back there.

“I was really nervous,” Earnhardt Miller said. “None of us would be sitting up here if it wasn’t for Traveller Whiskey to get behind us. We wouldn’t be able to have this opportunity. So from my business brain up here, I’m just really excited that we have a car in the 500 for them, our team, and everybody on board who has worked really hard.

“We came here with a really first-class effort in every single thing that we put together between our hauler and our car and our team and our uniforms and just everything together. … It’s really special to be up here with Dale and Justin and be here for JR Motorsports.”