The Forgotten JRM Bristol Incident: 'It’s Bristol baby!'

JRM has always been the pinnacle of excellence in the Xfinity Series, especially now heading into Bristol with a streak of winning 7 out of the last eight races. However, there’s always trouble in paradise, and in 2020, the issue was particularly severe. When teammates Noah Gragson and Justin Allgaier collided while battling for the win. Here’s the inside on why and when it happened and what this means for the upcoming Xfinity Series race at Bristol.

The Incident

It was a JRM 1-2 in the closing laps in June’s Bristol night. With the experienced and calm Allgaier leading his much less skilled and fiery teammate, Noah Gragson. With Allgaier making up for his mistake of slipping off the bottom. Gragson made the 2 JRM cars side by side, but Gragson snagged the preferred inside line. Allgaier, though, was using his experience and thoughtfulness to squeeze him tight but not make contact with Gragson, and cutting off his corner momentum so he could stay alongside him and keep his lead and take a win he earned. But Gragson’s always been aggressive, so it was no shock when there was some doorslamming from the 9.

They kept their cars straight for now, however. But Gragson’s desire to win at a track he had been terrible at till this point was making him more impatient. That’s when Gragson sent it deep into Turn 1, trying to finally get his JRM teammate off his back and take the lead, finally. But he sent it too deep and got his car loose, which almost wrecked him. While he saved his car, though, he slammed into Allgaier’s door, sending him all the way up the track and into the wall with a hard smack.

And so the former leader of the race, coming off turn 2, had spun around, back bumper destroyed, and lost hopes of a win tonight again. All because of contact from his JRM teammate. Kurt and Kyle Busch were in the commentary booth that night, and you could hear both of them cringe when that happened. Probably because both had incidents with teammates in the past and knew exactly what the consequences of that were like.

Kyle, unlike Kurt, had experience on the other side of the coin with Gragso,n too. As Gragson drove for Kyle’s truck series team, KBM, in one race in Canada, Gragson took out his own teammate, Todd Gilliland, going for the win, but instead spun both of them around, costing them both the win. Unlike then, Gragson went on to win his 2nd race of the season, so there’s improvement.

The Aftermath

While Gragson and the 9 team were ecstatic about winning at 1 of NASCAR’s best tracks, there were lots of people angry at Gragson too. And Gragson himself had pretty mixed feelings over everything. Allgaier did acknowledge it was only because he made a mistake, but he wasn’t letting his JRM teammate off scot-free. “I’m more mad at myself for making a mistake and getting off the bottom,” Allgaier said. “But, yeah, we got wrecked. We did talk after the race was over. Not very much, but we did talk. We’re not allowed to go to the shop, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens in our video conference meeting.” Gragson did own up to his mistakes, too.

“Yeah, I really apologize to Justin and the 7 team,” Gragson said in his post-race interview.“That’s not how I want to race, but I saw the position open up. He kind of slipped off the bottom the lap before, and then I tried to get to the bottom, and I just got too loose. All of us top five guys, really everybody in the field, this track’s like ice out there right now. We were slipping and sliding, but what a heck of a night for this No. 9 team. This car was fast, and I’m worn out… It’s Bristol, baby!”

Dale Jr.’s Take on the Incident

However, no one was more upset and had more mixed emotions than Dale Jr., the owner of JRM. Episode 300 of his podcast, the Dale Jr. Download, was recorded immediately after the Bristol weekend. He gave everyone a perspective they hadn’t heard before on that kind of format, the owner of JRM, after 2 of his drivers crashed for the win.”And my initial reaction as soon as it was happening was anger and frustration with the fact that Noah got loose and got into Justin, and now Justin’s not only going not to win the race, but he’s going to finish terribly, right?

He’s crashing. And so that’s the right, as it’s the 1st flash in your mind happening; that’s like the first flash in your mind is “dammit.” Noah, now we’re screwed right now.Justin screwed up, and now you’ve got it, and then a switch will flip immediately in seconds, and your mind goes to Noah. You better win this race right now.”That’s you. If you lose this now, you opened up the opportunity for all of us to set you down and say, ‘What the hell were you thinking?!’

The only way that he can, and it’s not really the winnings that are going to make this right, but the only way he can come out of this with any kind of argument is to win. And he goes and wins.” The JRM owner didn’t want to take away how proud Gragson was of winning at Bristol, and he knew there was nothing he could say to Allgaier that would make him feel better.So Junior went up to the JRM driver who won that race and said to be proud but to try not to wreck his car next time he’s in that situation.

Although it wouldn’t be the last time the 2 JRM flagship drivers (at this time) would clash with one another. In 2022, after Las Vegas, Allgaier hit Gragson’s rear bumper, and the two exchanged a few words before walking away, clearly upset, as fellow JRM driver Josh Berry had done burnouts after his win. However, after Gragson advanced to the Cup series, Allgaier remained in the Xfinity series, so there has been nothing to report on since then. Thanks a bunch for reading!