AVONDALE, Ariz. – In her short eleven years, Harper Allgaier has known only disappointment and pain when it came to the NASCAR Xfinity championship race for her father Justin.
Two years ago, she cried after he took the lead late in the title race before finishing third as Ty Gibbs won the championship.
Saturday night, Harper cried again. The tears came after she ran to her father and hugged him at his car.
They were tears of happiness.
Allgaier had just won its first Xfinity Series championship in his seventh appearance in the title race.
“I was so happy and overwhelmed that it just happened,” Harper told NBC Sports.
She had never cried tears of joy before.
“Tonight was so cool because I think she saw a side of me that she’s never seen before,” Allgaier told NBC Sports. “I feel like when she’s older, these are the moments that I think are really going to mean something to her, and it was cool to be able to celebrate with her.”
Allgaier’s journey to Saturday night’s championship was one of family with wife Ashley and daughters Harper and Willow.
“Family is where this sport started for me,” Allgaier said of his parents Mike and Dorothy. “It is what the sport has carried for me. It’s what I will always go back to. They are the most important part.
“To have them all here tonight and to celebrate it and be a part of it… there are no words.”
Allgaier won the championship wearing a helmet designed by Harper. She has helped design his helmets since she was four years old.
The first one showed her handprint in pink. On the back of his helmet was a message that read: “Get in the driver’s seat, Dad. Love, Harper.”
This year’s helmet featured a horseshoe, which had special meaning. Justin’s grandfather always had a horseshoe in his pocket.
“When my grandfather passed away, we actually made like a little memorial sticker for my grandfather and it was literally that horseshoe, and I put that on all my race cars,” Justin said prior to the helmet’s debut in the playoffs. “… (Harper) knows my relationship with my grandfather, how much he meant to me and my racing career and how much I miss him.”
Harper continued the tradition of putting a message on her father’s helmet. This year she added her younger sister, 3-year-old Willow.
The message:
It’s your lucky year. Go have some fun and win some races! I love Harper and Willow
But it looked like this year’s race would also end in disappointment for Allgaier and his daughter.
Allgaier crashed in practice Friday after just three laps when another competitor’s blown engine spilled fluid onto the track and sent several cars sliding into the wall. Allgaier had to move to a backup car, which forced him to start at the back of the 38-car field on Saturday.
Allgaier’s title chances seemed over after he was penalized for a restart violation on lap 100 and then penalized for speeding on pit road when he issued the first penalty. He dropped to 35th place.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., owner of the JR Motorsports team with sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller and Rick Hendrick that Allgaier drives for, can relate to what Harper has gone through in the past.
As Earnhardt held an 8-foot flagpole bearing the champion’s flag, the 50-year-old was transported back in time to 40 years ago and the memory of his father racing in Bristol.
“Dad led the race,” Earnhardt said. “Something happened that immediately turned him around at the front and turned. I was sitting on top of a van, right in the middle of the track in the infield. I could see him spinning around and I thought, ‘It’s okay,’ but his tires were flat and he couldn’t get going and they patched him up.
“I was old enough to realize what was happening and my heart was so broken. … It scarred me.”
Tonight Harper wouldn’t be in so much pain.
The race changed when Anthony Alfredo broke down and brought out the caution 45 laps from the scheduled distance. It came in the middle of a green flag pit cycle, allowing Allgaier to get back on the lead lap.
Allgaier rose through the field to finish second in overtime behind Riley Herbst, who was not racing for a championship. Allgaier was the highest finishing title contender.
Allgaier was a champion.
And a daughter couldn’t get to her father fast enough.
