Flexibility in the face of change has helped this long-lived Midwestern institution grow from a literal mom-and-pop shop to a regional power with national reach, trading in tires, performance parts, shock absorbers, fabrication, and more.

When Mike Allgaier first approached Hoosier Racing Tire founder Bob Newton about becoming a dealer, Newton answered that he already had three dealers serving the same territory. “What can you do for me?” he asked Allgaier.
“I can outsell those guys,” Allgaier replied.
So Newton gave Allgaier a chance to prove it.
Nearly 50 years later, Allgaier’s Hoosier Tire Midwest claims to be the world’s largest racing tire distributor, with a network of 150 dealers supplied through warehouses in Springfield, Illinois; Brownsburg, Indiana; and Plymouth, Indiana. It serves oval track racers in eight states and racers in other categories in the entire lower 48.
That’s just one of the racing businesses under the Allgaier Performance banner. Springfield is also home to Allgaier Racing Shocks and Allgaier Body & Fabrication, while Allgaier Performance Parts, with stores in Springfield and Brownsburg, boasts an expanding inventory of 10,000-plus items.
“Mike started out as a tool truck guy,” said Wayne Taylor, who is “semi-retired” (said corporate General Manager Terry Young) from managing the parts store in Springfield. “He had a lot of interaction with racers, and he helped a few of them out. Then he tried his hand at driving—sportsman and Late Models—until after a bad crash he decided he didn’t need to drive anymore.”
With wife Dorothy, Allgaier launched the D&M Speed Shop in a Springfield strip mall. Their initial products were wheels and wheel widening, which led to his conversation with Newton about tires.

Selling tires for Hoosier would test the Allgaiers’ flexibility. “Hoosier expressed a desire to feature their name better,” said Taylor, “so that’s when D&M became Hoosier Tire Midwest. Then Hoosier indicated that they would really rather their dealers sold just tires, and Mike made the correct decision to drop his parts line.” Because of that decision, the Allgaiers’ business grew with Hoosier, through its involvement in ARCA and, by the late 1980s, NASCAR’s Winston Cup.
A few years later, five-year-old Justin Allgaier drove his first quarter-midget race; by 2002 he was running an ARCA stock car. “That’s where Mike’s relationship with Hoosier and ARCA evolved,” explained Taylor. “We were the Hoosier supplier to ARCA for several years, but that resulted in blowback from some other Hoosier dealers. So as a business decision, Hoosier ended that arrangement.”
Change would come again in 2016, when Hoosier was acquired by Continental AG, the German parent of General Tire. “They gave their blessing for the tire stores to get back into the speed shop business. So we did a real nice remodel of a building that Mike and Dorothy owned in Brownsburg, and now that’s our marquee store,” said Taylor. “And we enlarged and rearranged our showroom in Springfield, so we have a good selection there as well.”

FABRICATING FOR SAFETY

A second building at the Springfield location, built to support Justin’s racing efforts, became Allgaier Body & Fabrication. “Having the race shop, it was natural to move into fabrication,” explained Taylor. Then as Justin moved up to the Xfinity Series in 2008–2009, “we started concentrating on the local racers,” who often need help building a roll cage or repairing damage after a crash.

“It just made sense, first and foremost to keep people safe,” said Taylor. “There’s a race here in Springfield every year at the state fair called the Sportsman Nationals, where local sportsman racers put a front clip on a Late Model chassis, hang a street-car-looking body on it, and they run Macon and Lincoln and Jacksonville, and they get a chance to race on the Springfield Mile. We’ve put what’s almost a Funny Car cage in these cars, because they are going way faster out there, and it’s no place to be with a 25-year-old Late Model chassis.”
The fabrication shop offers TIG and MIG welding, CNC machining, and CNC plasma cutting, among other services. It also assembles rolling chassis for Nick Hoffman’s Elite Chassis in Mooresville, North Carolina. “We purchased two Elite modifieds a couple years ago, one that our General Manager Kelly Kovski runs, and one with the intention of Justin running it. Then at the [DIRTcar] Summer Nationals, Nick needed a ride, and Kelly put him in Justin’s car. He was happy with the quality of our work and our maintenance, so now whenever he sells a car north of the Mason-Dixon line, we pick up a chassis and a component kit from Nick, and we build a roller ready for a motor, transmission, and seat. That’s been very good for our business. Nick runs well in whatever he drives, and most of his customers do, also.”

BEYOND FRICTION AND DAMPENING

“Looking to become a more full-service business,” said Taylor, the Allgaiers built another shop in Springfield and opened Allgaier Racing Shocks in 2015. “Shocks have become a big component of what we do. Especially in Late Models and dirt modifieds, it’s all about controlling chassis movement, and shocks win races or not. We have a pull-down rig so we can look for the things that make a race car not fast. It’s been an awesome tool. Kelly did a bit of crew chiefing in ARCA, where every truck at a race has a spring smasher and a shock dyno. In IndyCar it’s the shock builder who makes it all happen. So we help the local racers with an opportunity to have a ‘shock guy’ without having to drive to Indianapolis or Chicago.”
For Late Model racer Brian Shirley of Chatham, Illinois, the trip was to North Carolina to test on Penske’s pull-down rig. “Now I don’t have to drive 12 hours to use that type of instrument,” he said. “It’s a huge asset for smaller teams in the area” to be able to “diagnose what’s going on with the race car, to see what you couldn’t see otherwise.” Thanks to all the services offered by Allgaier, “smaller racers can help themselves get better performance.”

In addition to those services, Allgaier offers “production items that have really taken off and done well for us,” said Taylor. “We have our own bump stop, which is way different from anything else on the market and has become a staple for a lot of Late Model and modified racers across the country. We believe it is the first and only bump stop with an adjustable rate. It comes with carbon fiber packers that snap into the bellows. Packers have been used for quite a while to change ride height,” but with the Allgaier unit, “each one you insert adds 50–60 pounds to the rate. In this age of high-tech shocks, to change a bump stop package can get pretty involved, because the rod end that has the adjuster in it has to come apart. With ours, if you get to the track and realize that you missed the bump setup, you can just remove or insert a packer.” The material used is proprietary and engineered for longevity. “Some racers have 100-plus nights and multiple seasons on them.”

SOFTWARE, PARTS & PEOPLE

Keeping Allgaier’s vast inventory organized has been “one of our worst nightmares,” said Taylor, “but we feel we do pretty well. We spot-check inventory and inventory product lines throughout the week. It’s important to be able to look at a computer screen and have faith that what we see is correct, so we can tell somebody that we have something without stopping and looking for it.”
Having the right software certainly helps, with inventory and other issues. “We’re able to enter a customer’s name and see the correct pricing for the product lines that customer buys,” he continued. “We have customers who are race track dealers, and customers who are tire dealers only, and of course some who are just retail. A particular customer may get a track dealer price on tires, but not on parts.”
Another application tracks customer credit, displaying a warning at check-out if the would-be buyer’s payments are more than 21 days behind. “Friday afternoon we get a preview of the coming week. We really don’t want one of our best parts customers not to be able to buy parts because they are 22 days past due. So if we know on Friday that one day in the next seven a customer is going to be past due, we can be proactive and communicate with them, to try to get them paid up and ahead of the game.”
Recruiting new workers has been another challenge, as it has been for other racing businesses, but Allgaier’s longtime employees are experienced and committed. “We have a dedicated team that works for us,” said Taylor, “just like we have a dedicated customer base. We have several guys in the parts department and in tire sales who have been with our business 25–35 years.” Taylor himself grew up in his father’s speed shop and managed a store in Springfield for one of the Mullins brothers, of Mullins Race Engines, for 15 years before joining Allgaier in 2017, not long after General Tire green-flagged a return to parts sales. “It’s been a good fit for me,” he said, “to come on board and help Mike develop the stores.”
Versatility is expected—“The same guy who sold tires at the track on Saturday, and worked the parts counter Monday and Tuesday might unload a tire truck on Wednesday”—but the dedication runs both ways. “Working for Mike and Dorothy is like being in a family. If an employee has a medical issue, Mike and Dorothy go well past the norm to take care of them. Our benefits package is second-to-none.”

The Allgaiers’ caring has extended to dealers as well. “My grandpa and my dad and Mike all started about the same time, and became friends,” recalled Craig Allen, whose Allen Automotive sells tires and performance parts in Peoria, Illinois. “I remember going to Mike’s place when I was little. He had a garage in his backyard, and it was jam-packed with tires.
“When I lost my father, I was being prepped to take over the business, but I didn’t know a lot.” Not yet 24, Allen told the Allgaiers that he “wanted a shot,” knowing that “if they wanted to drop me, dealerships can be non-transferable. But they said, ‘No problem, we’ll stick with you. We can get you going in the right direction and see how it goes from there.’”
Today Allen supplies mostly Late Models, modifieds, and street stocks at the Peoria and Fairbury speedways. “There are so many things” he appreciates about the Allgaier staff, but he specifically cited how generously they share their expertise in so many racing classes. “For someone like me, who sells to different classes, I can take care of it all in one place.”
“Most Mondays or Tuesdays I text Wayne what I need for the week,” added Shirley, “and by the time I arrive everything is ready to go.” Allgaier has even sent technicians to Shirley’s shop to assist, for example, with changing valve springs.

THE IN-STORE EXPERIENCE

Altogether Allgaier employs more than 40 people, distributed over its three locations, all of whom work hard to maintain the customer dedication Taylor mentioned. “When it’s so easy to order things and do business from a computer,” Taylor said, “it’s good to offer a service where people can come and talk to someone with knowledge and get the right stuff the first time. We work really hard to know people and remember their needs, and we try to help when we can. Even if we don’t sell or service what they need, sometimes you can win a customer by helping them spend money elsewhere—like ‘Miracle on 34th Street.’ We do that, and it’s those things that set us apart.”
That commitment to customer service extends to the track. Allgaier maintains a half-dozen semi-trailer rigs, each equipped for a particular racing market. “We have one designated for World of Outlaws sprint cars; and another that covers Lucas Oil, MARS, and World of Outlaws Late Models. We have a drag race truck that goes to the national NHRA events in our territory, and to a lot of PDRA and larger local shows. Another truck covers road racing out of our Plymouth store, and we always participate in the SCCA Runoffs when they are in our territory.”
If Allgaier isn’t at a race, they likely have a dealer who is. “We get calls on a regular basis: ‘Hey, I’m racing at Lincoln tonight, you got anybody going that way who can bring me a starter?’
Taylor responded, “‘We certainly do. When you get there, go see Damery Brothers, and they will have it for you in their truck.’ That also keeps our dealers coming back.”
As much as Taylor values the in-person retail experience, however, he also understands the need for an online presence in the digital age. “We’ve become really aggressive with Facebook and Instagram promotions. We highlight the racers who run our stuff when they win. Some things we’ve just started are a sale item every Monday, and Tech Tip Tuesdays with short videos. On Fridays, we post a list of who within our Hoosier territory is racing, where they are racing, and who to see for parts or Hoosier tires at that location. Our thinking is to create a habit among customers and race fans: ‘Who’s racing this weekend? Let’s go to Allgaier’s page.’” Coming soon is a weekly spotlight on individual tire dealers.
“It’s been a long, strange trip,” Taylor added, channeling Jerry Garcia while summing up Allgaier’s first half-century, “and it’s been really crazy how we’ve grown. When some of the icons of the industry call out of the blue and say, ‘I hear you have this,’ or ‘I hear you make that,’ it makes us feel really good about our reputation. We hope we’ve made a footprint in the marketplace.”
We think it’s safe to say they have.