Unfiltered: Live with Justin Allgaier

We had FilterTime owner, Blake Koch, interview NASCAR driver, friend and FilterTime customer Justin Allgaier. Justin answered many questions that you all had submitted on racing, personal life and on FilterTime. Read below to find out more about Justin both professionally and personally.

Blake Koch: So hold on a minute. Let's see if I can get him on here.

If you guys want to ask some questions on here as well, maybe I can grab a few that I see.

Blake Koch: This is really cool. Pretty excited. What's up, gator?

Justin Allgaier: What's going on, buddy?

Blake Koch: How are you, man?

Justin Allgaier: I am fantastic. How are you? I'm moving here a little bit.

Blake Koch: I like your shirt.

Justin Allgaier: Looks good, right.

Blake Koch: Yeah. Representing!

Justin Allgaier: This is pretty much my daily wardrobe considering that you have hooked me up with every color shirt that the company makes. I have a FilterTime shirt in every color. My wife says that she thinks that's all I wear. So, you know, it's good times.

Blake Koch: Awesome, man. Again, I appreciate you hopping on here. It is my first time doing it. I think it's pretty cool. Fans get to ask you questions and see ya.

Blake Koch: Awesome. All right. Well, I don't know if you'd read them before, but FilterTime has done some Unfiltered blog posts. Did one with myself and did one with Dale. And this is kind of Unfiltered with Justin Allgaier. This is your blog post about you, but we're doing it on video. I just think video is cool.

Justin Allgaier: Easier that way, right?

Blake Koch: Yeah, people can watch it and we let people submit questions. But the first round of questions came from the marketing team at FilterTime. So the first thing is, is how did you get started in racing?

Justin Allgaier: My start in racing is kind of unique. Most of the time, dads, the ones that kind of push their kids into racing. Typically moms are the ones that are the challenge to get kids into racing. You know, my dad worked in racing. He sold racing tires growing up, and so my dad was going to the race track. And he was constantly traveling, basically like we do on the NASCAR schedule. And so I didn't get to see him much during the week. And when he was home, he was running back and forth to Hoosier Racing Tire in Indiana. He was running the shop day today. My mom was always trying to find things to do to keep me from wanting to go to the race track with my dad, so she took me to watch a buddy of mine. His name is Joey Moughan, he was seven and I was five at the time, and for me to go watch these kids I had grown up around, I fell in love with it. Joey's dad offered my mom to bring me up to the race track the next week and practice in their car. Joey and I ended up splitting a car for the rest of the summer. So I would drive his car in the junior class and he would drive his car and senior class. They had to make a bunch of changes in the middle of the runs in between the two of us, and I even borrowed his helmet to begin with. Ultimately, his dad pretty much took him out and put me in. My parents bought that car, and I end up getting that car for Christmas later on that year. And the rest is history, man.

Blake Koch: That's awesome. That kind of leads to the next question for you. What lessons did you learn from quarter midget racing that impact your career today? Do you have anything you learned from back in quarter midgets that you still use today?

Justin Allgaier: You know, one of the things that's really interesting about quarter midget racing is it's very precise. So when you go quarter midget racing, it is insane how precise they are and how accurate they are, and how much the focus is on details. If you're not you're not hitting your line, if you're not hitting your marks, the technology has come so far, that you're not gonna win the race, and there are so many good competitors. When I was racing, it was the same way. If you didn't hit your marks, if you weren't doing the right things, you were just out. You weren't going to be able to compete. For me, hitting your marks and running the optimum line, that's number one. Then number two, it's funny, my dad, whenever I was younger, every time I would go on the race track, he had one thing to tell me and that was have fun and give me 100 percent. Whatever one hundred percent is, don't give me any more than that. And, if you're not having fun, there's no reason for us to spend our time, our money, and our effort to be at the race track. I've carried that on to today. I still to this day, like when I go to the racetrack, I get it’s a job and I want to win races but it's important to do the right things. But on the other side of it, it's all about having fun. And you and I are a lot the same. We're people that enjoy having fun, if we're not having fun, you can read it all over our face, we're miserable. Racing has to be fun. If it's not fun, it's not worth it. For me, that's kind of what's always been about.

Blake Koch: Awesome, man. Yeah. If you're not having fun, and you're not passionate about it, you're probably not going to be very good at it. What are some daily habits that have helped you succeed?

Justin Allgaier: I mean, number one, first and foremost, I think waking up and prayer and going to bed in prayer. I mean, for me, that's been something that's been super important. My career has been up and down and inside out. There's a lot of things that have gone on in my racing career. And every time I look back on it, they say that when you ask for patience, God gives you the moments to work on patience? And then when you ask for wisdom, God gives you the moments that allow you to gain wisdom. A lot of times, though, it's at a cost. It's not a bad thing. But you go through trials that really kind of change who you are, for me, that's kind of what it's been all about. I think the other thing that's interesting about my racing career is I don't feel like I'm naturally talented. Like some people just have like a God-given gift that they're really good at certain things. I feel like for me, it's been about kind of putting in the effort, going to the gym, watching race film, being on iRacing and running laps, all the details that bring you back to what we do on a daily basis. If I'm not practicing, I'm going to get beat. For me, it's all about pushing myself forward. I think that's a daily routine for me that is so important. I've been traveling a lot lately. I've barely been home. Once you get out of a routine, it's hard to get back into it. So the more I do things, the better it is.

Blake Koch: Love it. Yeah, you do work hard. Put in a lot of effort for your sponsors. Through Brandt, you've done a great job for them for many years longer than anybody I can think of right now. You know, have that relationship with your sponsor that's from your heart. I always saw a lot of value in that from you. Next Question: Do you have a favorite track to race at?

Justin Allgaier: Oh, Bristol. Bristol is my place. I love road course racing. I love all types of race tracks, dirt tracks, doesn't matter. But Bristol's just that one that I walk across the racetrack, I walk to that tunnel and it still stands the hair up on the back of my neck. It's still that place that gets my adrenaline immediately pumping. There's no place like it. We’ve been so close to winning so many times, I mean I can’t count how many times I've been leading and had something crazy happen that kept us from winning it. It's been disappointing.

Blake Koch: You had your first win at Bristol, right?

Justin Allgaier: I did, yeah. And I haven't been able to win since. So it's kind of like. What the heck?

Blake Koch: A couple of personal questions out now. When did you and I meet? How did we meet? Do you remember?

Justin Allgaier: You came into the Xfinity Series and you had a Christian based company on your car. And I believe you joined our small group right away, didn't you?

Blake Koch: Yeah it was one or two different ways we met. We met when I got invited to a small group that was at the race track. Or, when we went and filmed the I Am Second video in Texas.

Justin Allgaier: The I Am Second video was when we started getting close. Which that video, still to this day is one of the coolest things. It is very humbling because we both look like we're about eight years old in that video and things have changed a lot since then.

Blake Koch: That's awesome.

Blake Koch: All right. FilterTime Question. How many filters do you have in your home?

Justin Allgaier: Let's see, there's one, two, three, four. I've got one in our master bedroom, one in our main hallway upstairs and then one in our foyer in the downstairs, and then one in the kitchen/ living room area. I think I have a 14 x 28, a 14 x 14, 14 x 20 and then a 16 x 20, as well.

Blake Koch: Yeah, you were one of the first FilterTime customers.

Justin Allgaier: Well, it's funny because I had a heads up that things were getting rolling, right? Somehow, even though I knew you were launching, I still wasn't the first customer. Even though we went to sign in right away and become a customer, we still were not customers. I was pretty bummed at that, but I tried to be the first customer.

Blake Koch: Yeah the Koch Crew beat you to it but I do think you were the second FilterTime customer. That leads me to your next question, what's your favorite thing about being a FilterTime customer?

Justin Allgaier: Easy. You know, for us, especially where we are constantly on the go. When you're at home like Harper had gymnastics earlier tonight. And, you know, we've got things throughout the course of the week where we're busy all the time. I know that it's not just us. I was lucky enough tonight to be able to take Harper to gymnastics tonight and I heard them all talking about gymnastics or dance or music or all these things and life's just busy and you get caught up in doing all these little small details. Harper, as you know, Blake, has had a lot of breathing issues over her life. She's had some major battles, a croup that we're still to this day trying to get figured out. So for us, air quality is a big deal and having clean air in the house. So for me, it's the ease. I know when the box shows up to the house, I have to actually change them. My wife always gets on me because sometimes they might sit there for a week or two. And I don't get them changed. But hey, at least, at least they are getting changed on a regular basis.

Blake Koch: That's right. I love it, man. There were like five people I talked to when I was starting FilterTime and bouncing ideas off, and you were one of those five. I was calling you and asking you what you think and if this service was out there, would you use it? And you're always like, dude "yeah! It's amazing!"

Justin Allgaier: When I first heard about it and you first told me the idea I was like, why not? This would be great. We'd be crazy not to use this. So to see where it's grown to today is pretty incredible. I'm pumped, though. What you've grown, man. It's been really cool.

Blake Koch: Thank you. I appreciate it, buddy, and it was a dream come true of mine to be on your race car in Kentucky last year. That was one of the coolest moments I've ever felt, even beyond driving a race car. My business. The logo. It's still surreal to me to this day. Your hauler with all the time on it. It's just so cool, man. So thank you. And we'll move into a couple more questions. We'll start firing through these. I know you have Harper, and you're headed to Vegas tomorrow. So what's your dream car?

No limits on budget or type.

Justin Allgaier: Honestly, I don't really know that I have a dream car. I partially helped build a '72 Chevy pickup truck. That was my all-time favorite vehicle. The red and white pickup truck that I have now. So I built a '72 Chevy pickup truck, that was my dream car. But if I had no budget, I would really like to have a ‘65 Lincoln Continental. It'll be convertible. If you ever watched the show Entourage, they had one on there. I'd love to own one of those. And maybe one exotic car like the new C8 Corvette, the race version. If they would let me buy like that version for the street. I'd be all over it.

Blake Koch: Yeah. Those new Corvettes are sweet. Alright, what's your favorite hobby besides racing? I know you got a lot of them but pick on that's your favorite.

Justin Allgaier: I'm a habitual hobbyist. That's what my wife called me. So I pretty much have a new hobby every week and I'm always trying something different or something new. I would say right now I'm really loving training stuff, so cycling has been really fun lately. I'm a tech geek, so I love building my own computers and doing that and cameras.

Blake Koch: All right. How do you spend your time off the track? You don't have much of it. But how do you spend it?

Justin Allgaier: No, pretty much don't have any of it. But, I'm really lucky that, my wife, my daughter and I are really close. Family time is super important for me. And we were able to spend a lot of time together. Family time outside the race track. My parents come to every race. My in-laws come to at least half. So, I'd say that's that's first and foremost, that’s what I do outside of racing. But, I go to a lot of 50 CC motorcycle races whenever I can. That's another thing I like to do outside the racetrack.

Blake Koch: All right. Who is your personal hero?

Justin Allgaier: My personal hero, my dad. I wouldn't be half the person I am today without my dad. He's been a huge influence on me and who I am and who I've become. I've seen him do things and be a part of things that just shouldn't ever be able to have been done. And he's done so. I'm pretty blessed.

Blake Koch: Awesome. Do you have a personal motto that you live by? Like, for example, my motto is "Never be afraid to ask." If your intentions are right, if I have good intentions, I should never be afraid to ask for something or ask somebody for something.

Justin Allgaier: Matthew 6:34 says: Do not worry about tomorrow because today has enough problems of its own. A lot of times in life we think about what's going to happen next week, next month, next year and that's how we're built as humans. I've tried to live a model like finish today because tomorrow's not really ever promised to be there. I think it got even more real after Monday night with Ryan Newman. Nobody in their wildest dreams thought that a situation like that would happen. Now, then again, nobody thought 42 hours later he'd be walking out of the hospital without an injury.

Blake Koch: Yeah, I love that man. All right. We have about 10 questions that fans submitted. A lot of them just like to wish Justin Allgaier good luck. We know he'll run a smart race. You have a lot of fans out there that already know a lot about you. You have such a great fan following. And clearly you won the NASCAR Xfinity Series Most Popular Driver last year.

Justin Allgaier: Well, I do have great fans. And I'd say there's nothing cooler to me than the fans that we do have in the sport, whether they're fans of mine or not. I think sometimes our fans don't get the credit they deserve for how hard they push drivers and teams to be better. I read every post post-race. Like social media-wise, I think it's interesting.

Blake Koch: Awesome. All right. Here's a good question. Do you like running up in the front at the superspeedway race at Daytona or would you lay back to the end to avoid the wrecks?

Justin Allgaier: I would rather lead every lap of every race. I don't care if it's superspeedway, short track, mile and a half. It doesn't matter. I'd rather lead every lap of every length of every race. But, you know, we saw a lot of guys at Daytona for the 500 that laid way back in it and it paid dividends. And sometimes it creates a boring race. I'm always a big believer that our fans deserve the best races possible. If that means me crashing to put on a good race for them, then I would rather our fans walk out of the gate and be like that was the best race I've ever watched. I'm glad I spent my money to come to the racetrack today than ride around in the back and ultimately win because I rode around the back all day.

Blake Koch: Yeah. Love it. Did you notice a difference in drafting with different manufacturers last weekend?

Justin Allgaier: It's interesting. I thought the Xfinity cars drove differently than normal. There was way more accordion filing, cars were getting strung out and backed up to each other, but then the green flag pit stops is where everything kind of went haywire for all of us. I thought the race was weird. I don’t know that it was bad by any means, it was just weirder than normal. But the Chevy’s raced really well together. I thought that was the best race we’ve had as Chevy’s.

Blake Koch: You guys put on a great show the whole time. It was very entertaining. What’s the most challenging race track for you that we go to?

Justin Allgaier: Most challenging for me would either be Auto Club, which is coming up in a few weeks, or Mid Ohio, for whatever reason. I’ve run well at Mid- Ohio. I’ve even won there. I just feel like every time we show up it’s just a constant struggle. The other road courses we’ve been to I feel comfortable and everything’s good. I just feel like every time we go to Mid-Ohio, man, I feel like I’ve never been here before. Mid-Ohio is super narrow, so if you’re behind. You’re behind. California is interesting because I feel like every time we go there it changes. Even though you run the fence the grip level changes every time you go there and the things that worked a year ago don’t work the next year and it’s just always very different.

Blake Koch: Yup. Who’s your favorite driver past or present?

Justin Allgaier: Probably the person that I like the most is Kenny Schrader. I’ve known Kenny for a long time and he’s just a really good dude, down to Earth. I just love being around him. He’s a fun guy to be around and he’s someone that is always taking time with his fans. He’s been a big proponent of that and I think he’s really good in that regard. 

Blake Koch: Well guess what, the championship race is at statistically, your best race track.

Justin Allgaier: Well, I like statistics.

Blake Koch: Yeah, statistically, it’s your best race track. All right. Final question, how do you prepare for a race both mentally and physically?

Justin Allgaier: Well, I think the physical part, you gotta go and do all that part before you get to the race track. With that being said, I think mentally, I don’t feel like I’m a different person when I climb in the race car. It doesn’t matter what time it is on race day, I’m hanging out, laughing with fans, laughing with guests we have at the race track, whether it be sponsors or whatever. I feel like that’s my job. It’s to be me all the way until I climb in. Then I climb in and put the helmet on and it’s like ok, now, I’m race car driver Justin. Now I have to get focused and do my job and see where things are at. This past weekend being the first race at Daytona was a challenge. You get in the car and you're like alright ‘how do I do what I have to do, and be focused, and do all the right things.’ I get in the car, put all my gear on, get in the car, and I’ll say a prayer to myself, just one-on-one, and then when we’re rolling around under caution, usually I’m talking to the guys, telling them all how much I appreciate them being there. I’ll say a prayer with all my guys on the lap before we go green.

Blake Koch: That’s awesome. I didn’t know that.

Justin Allgaier: Yeah, whether they listen or not, doesn’t matter, for me it’s at least saying it and putting a hand of protection over all of them. Then once the green flag drops man, I get so funny, because I am ADD 100%, but when it comes time to get in the car it’s the only time in life that I feel normal. It’s the only time in life that I feel like I’m not bouncing off the walls and my mind isn’t going ten thousand miles per hour. I actually feel like I should be there. That’s kind of my pre-race. Also, I don’t eat on race day at all or a lot, I tend to forget to eat, I’m bouncing around all over the place, but… You know, the worst part is, I tend to like caffeine, um a lot, and so it never fails that I’ll drink caffeine right before I get in the car, so that probably doesn’t help my ADD situation anyways either, but it’s all good.

Blake Koch: Caffeine is a natural source for concentration.

Justin Allgaier: Maybe that’s why I like caffeine. I’m not sure.

Blake Koch: Hey, so a lot of people want this car [diecast FilterTime car raced at Kentucky], but they can’t buy it because you had this made for me as a gift. So I just want everyone to know that that’s… there’s only two out there and I have one and Carter has one, right?

Justin Allgaier: Actually, my dad has one, so there’s three.

Blake Koch: Your dad has one too, so thank you for that. And man, thank you for taking the time out of your family time, I appreciate it. Good luck this weekend, buddy. It was great chatting with you and have fun.

Justin Allgaier: I appreciate it and I know we have had a lot of people on through the course, and I’ve seen a lot of comments scrolling through, and it’s cool. From a FilterTime account, it is really cool that you’ve kept the passion you have for racing, you know, you’re a racer at heart. I know that, but this business was built around you having a great idea, but it’s cool to see the racing community support FilterTime. We appreciate our fans. We appreciate the FilterTime fans that are a part of this and we’re going to keep growing both.

Blake Koch: Yeah!

Justin Allgaier: We’re going to keep pushing that momentum. There is nothing cooler than going to Victory Lane and taking that FilterTime hat with me to Victory Lane and being able to take a picture with it so it’s been pretty awesome.

Blake Koch: Dude, I love it. I appreciate it, man. Tell Ashley ‘thanks for lending you to me for a half-hour tonight.’ Tell Harper I said ‘hi’ and have a safe flight tomorrow.

Justin Allgaier: Sounds good, guys. Thank you very much.

Blake Koch: All right, see ya, buddy.

Blake Koch: All right guys, that’s it. I hope you enjoyed some of the questions with Justin, one of my greatest friends, good guy, good racer, and a long time FilterTime customer. So thanks for tuning in, hope you enjoyed it.