DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. stood at the JR Motorsports hauler shortly after 6 a.m. to watch his crew unload the first NASCAR Cup Series car in the team's history.
He watched and tried to soak in the moment — a historic moment at Daytona International Speedway — as the long-time championship Xfinity Series team has ventured into Cup for at least one weekend.
Earnhardt, a two-time Daytona 500 winner, joked with the crew members and beamed with pride.
"It’s awesome," Earnhardt said on the FOX practice telecast. "It’s been a dream of mine to be in the Cup garage as an owner, so it’s pretty special to have that opportunity, especially at the biggest race of the year."
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Now it’s time to get nervous.
Justin Allgaier posted the third-fastest speed in single-car qualifying, one spot short of locking himself into the field. Most likely, he needs to finish as the top open car in his qualifying race Thursday night. He will battle Martin Truex Jr., Helio Castroneves, Chandler Smith and JJ Yeley for that spot.
Allgaier could fall back on his qualifying speed to get in if Truex or Jimmie Johnson are the top-finishing open driver in their duels, and with both of them already locked into the field, they probably won’t put themselves in dicey positions to earn that spot.
"I have seen a lot of social media that I'm pretty confident that I need not to show my face ever again if we don't make the field," Allgaier said. "I will do my best job that I possibly can."
Allgaier is no stranger to pressure. He won the Xfinity Series title last year after staging a comeback from a lap down in the championship race at Phoenix.
"We don’t do anything easy around here, I guess, at JR Motorsports," Allgaier said. "I hate it for the guys and gals that have been a part of this."
Throughout the day Wednesday, Allgaier could see how much Earnhardt wanted to experience this moment.
"To see Dale's excitement for this, I think it makes me excited for it," Allgaier said. "Whether I'm involved in it or not, it makes me excited for it seeing his excitement. I think that's bled through into all of our employees. It's really bled into the garage.
"There's a lot of employees from other race teams that have come over, drivers that have texted myself or Dale personally, that have been super pumped on this. That says a lot in my mind about what that truly means, how special this really is. "
So no pressure?
"Five years ago, I would have said that this day would never come," Allgaier said. "It finally came. It's everything that I thought it would be and then some. ... I'm proud of the effort just to get to this point.
"We're going to do everything we can to make it into the 500."
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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