Dale Earnhardt Jr. reveals warning he gave to Justin Allgaier after Kyle Larson wreck at Indianapolis

Connor Zilisch won this past Saturday’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway but for a while, it looked like Justin Allgaier would be the driver to capture win No. 100 for JR Motorsports. Allgaier led a race-high 37 laps but hit the wall in Turn 2 off the Lap 87 restart after contact with Kyle Larson while battling for the lead.

Allgaier, who has a quarter of those 100 wins for JRM, badly wanted to be the driver to deliver the 100th victory. Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed on the “Dale Jr. Download” that Allgaier was “heartbroken,” and looked as if he wanted to voice his frustration with Larson. Earnhardt said he had to cool down Allgaier and urge him not to do anything that would rock the boat between JRM and Hendrick Motorsports. JRM and HMS share information and Rick Hendrick has an ownership stake in JRM.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. opens up about conversation with Justin Allgaier after Indianapolis

“I felt bad for Justin,” Earnhardt said. “He hit the wall pretty hard in Turn 1 and he’s old like me. Justin has done all these things here. He’s raced here forever for JR Motorsports, and he wants to be the guy that gets the 100th win, badly. I knew he was heartbroken, and he had a little bit of a chip on his shoulder about it like he was gonna go say something or voice his frustration. I was like, ‘Man, let’s not do that.’ Larson is in the Xfinity car a couple times a year and he’s in that car to win. Yes, he busted his ass, but he also has two of those 100 wins for JR Motorsports. I wouldn’t mind his ass getting in those cars and getting a couple more. That just might happen.

“… The engine shop is working their ass off to build us really great motors. The same engine shop that’s trying to win a Cup championship that builds dozens of Cup engines every week, their focus is on winning Cup races. But they’re tasked to build our engines and build them well and they do. If we get to arguing with each other, if we get to arguing with that 17 or bad-mouthing Kyle and we get to starting something that don’t mean nothing, then it upsets the momentum that all those people are creating. The engine shop could lose a little steam, so we all gotta keep pulling the rope in the same direction. … I don’t care what Justin does, I just wanted him to know let’s not turn this into us versus them.”