While Katherine Legge has faced significant criticism from both drivers and fans for her involvement in several incidents this season in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, another driver’s reputation is also under fire.
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Xfinity Series driver Kris Wright is trying to make his mark in the series at 30 years old. He’s back in the Xfinity ranks after driving a two-year limited schedule in the Truck series in 2023 and 2024.
In his first full-time season in any NASCAR series, replacing Anthony Alfredo in the No. 5 OUR Motorsports car for 2025, Wright has turned into a one-man wrecking crew.
First, he was involved in three early-season incidents with Josh Bilicki — at Daytona, Atlanta, and COTA. And then there was Saturday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway. This time, Bilicki, who finished 28th, was spared – that, or he’s figured out how to stay out of Wright’s way.
Instead, Saturday’s victim was Xfinity veteran Justin Allgaier, who was trying to catch up with eventual race winner Kyle Larson when Allgaier closed quickly upon Wright’s car.
Allgaier essentially expected the slower-moving Wright to zig, but instead Wright zagged, and the two cars made contact, ending Allgaier’s day and relegating Wright – who had made contact with another car earlier in the race – to a 33rd-place finish (ironically, right behind Legge). Justin Allgaier, meanwhile, finished 35th.
While other drivers might not have been so diplomatic, Allgaier was after Saturday’s incident. Having made his own mistakes early in his Xfinity career, Allgaier was willing to cut Wright a break.
So while Kris Wright was in the wrong place at the wrong time, leading to contact with Allgaier, the latter was somewhat understanding.
“Ultimately, it falls on my shoulders, right?” Allgaier told Frontstretch.com. “We’d about got crashed kind of a couple laps before the green flag stopped there and I think they had some damage and he was having a little bit of a tough time with this race car.
“I’m trying to catch back to the 88 and trying to push and ultimately put myself in a bad position. I hate for everybody on our Chevrolet, they did a great job.
“Obviously, to start the day with no practice and to be as good as we were, it’s hard to be sitting here and not still out on the racetrack but hopefully we can go back to the drawing board, figure out what we need to do different and show up in a couple of weeks and be better.”
Allgaier takes some of the blame even when he doesn’t have to
Justin Allgaier has long been one of the most diplomatic and understanding drivers in the Xfinity Series. He rarely loses his cool and, even when he’s not at fault for an incident, takes some of the blame onto his shoulders even if it’s not warranted.
“First and foremost, I hate it for his guys, too,” Allgaier said of Wright’s team. “A wrecked race car is a wrecked race car. It doesn’t matter who’s involved, it doesn’t matter how it happens. He and I can have a conversation about it but ultimately as a veteran and somebody in this sport, I’ve got to do a better job. I’ve got to try to know the circumstance and the situation better.
“I’m a little frustrated because I wanted to be able to try to catch the 88, you’re pushing with everything you’ve got, but at the same time you still have a duty to make sure that you keep control of your own car. So I’m disappointed, it’s how it goes, it’s how this sport we’re in, you’ve got to learn from it and just a bad day for myself.”
Kris Wright remains 29th in the Xfinity Series standings.
