After the NASCAR O'Reilly race at EchoPark Speedway concluded, Dale Earnhardt Jr. discussed what the future holds for race-winner Justin Allgaier when he eventually decides to end his racing career. 

Speaking at the Focused Health 250 post-race press conference, the former racer feels that Allgaier could transition into a major leadership role within the O'Reilly series or the Cup garage, attributing the belief to the qualities he has shown. 

“I think that his place could be in the series. There's a real opportunity for him to have a massive role in the O'Reilly series and possibly, even 20 years from now in the Cup series, in the Cup garage as a sort of Elton Sawyers-type," said Junior.

As NASCAR's Senior Vice President of Competition, Elton Sawyer oversees everything related to on-track competition, inspection, rule development, and officiating. That too across all three national series. Junior sees Allgaier do this.

"He's just got a great head on his shoulders, sensible, calm, thoughtful, you know, problem-solver, can bring people together and work things out when there's contrasting opinions and so forth," added Junior, in the video uploaded by Cup Scene on YouTube.

He's really good at kind of bringing the room together and getting everybody to go in the right direction. So, I think he could, if he would want to do that, I think he could be a big role player in the future of this sport and whatever he wants to do.”

Dale Jr. also highlighted Allgaier’s unique ability to rapidly shift his mindset. He can be visibly frustrated by an on-track incident, yet immediately transition to making jokes under caution and then re-focus entirely for race-winning execution. 

Amid the ongoing retirement talks, back in May, after winning the Nashville race, Allgaier had expressed that he's having more fun than he's ever had in his career.

“There’s a higher likelihood of you seeing me next year than there isn’t,” he said. So maybe not this year, but the time isn't far.

Allgaier currently leads the O’Reilly Auto Parts series with 966 points. In 21 starts, he has had 6 wins, 13 Top-5 finishes, and 2 DNFs. Behind him is Jesse Love, who trails Allgaier with an extensive gap of 240 points. 

When fans criticised Dale Jr for his thoughts on the delayed race

The Quaker State 400 at Echopark Speedway was red-flagged due to heavy rain and lightning. As a result, there was a three-hour delay, and the race eventually came to an end at 1:45 AM local time.

Acknowledging the delay, Dale Jr. tweeted, “Damn, that was a long day but worth it. Glad we got to see the finish. Atlanta Motor Speedway can't be beat. What a show.” 

This did not go down too well with fans, with many people complaining of the race starting late and then extending well into Monday. Some also questioned if there was actually any TV viewership by the end of it. 

One user said, “I understand there are a lot of stuff that needs to happen for these races, but a race that starts after 4pm should be on Saturdays. I would of loved to watch it, but have to work early in the morning. One of my favorite tracks too.”

Another user followed with, ““I'd love to hear the viewership numbers as well as the in-person fan numbers. There's no way the working-class viewers stayed up until 2am Monday morning watching. I understand wanting to finish the event, but the whole point of the event is for us, the fans. Fans = money.”

Ultimately, Ryan Blaney won the race, his second of the season, while Bubba Wallace faced a penalty despite crossing 2nd that put him back in 29th.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest! 

Written by

Aaradhya Singh

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason