LAS VEGAS — In one of the most thrilling finishes of the season, 20-year-old Hendrick Motorsports rookie driver Corey Day prevailed in a final laps back-and-forth with 23-year-old JR Motorsports racer Carson Kvapil to claim his third career NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series victory in Saturday‘s Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Day and Kvapil exchanged the lead four times in the last 12 laps before Day made a daring pass — after brushing the wall multiple times — with two laps remaining to solidify a trophy hoist ultimately decided by a slight 0.287 seconds.
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“Oh man, I just was so tight there and so scared I was going to go down and plow on the bottom and let him get by me,” said a grinning Day, who started his No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from pole position, won the opening stage and led a career-high 136 of the 201 laps. “Just a great car. We struggled over the summer, to tell you the truth. Won Talladega (in April) and then Dover pretty close and then just went dry. This feels really good. A dominant day for us for sure, great car.
“I knew we‘d be a title contender from the start of the year,” added Day, whose win puts him fifth in the 12-driver championship rankings with five races remaining on the season. “Just had a dry summer there but we‘re getting things rolling back in the right direction. We‘ll just keep working.”
Kvapil, who like Day, also earned his first career series wins this season (at Indianapolis and Iowa), was understandably disappointed to lose out on Saturday‘s victory, but also encouraged with the showing. It moved him into second place in the championship standings, now 19 points behind Haas Factory Team‘s Sheldon Creed, who finished 13th.
“I feel like our stuff was really good around the bottom,” Kvapil said. “Had a really good car today. Props to those guys for making us a top-three car. There at the end, I thought the 17 [Day] was pretty stout. Some lapped traffic held him up there and I was able to find some speed at the bottom of [turns] one and two. Just never really tried the fence. I knew once I got in front of him what would be best for me was to run the bottom. He ran the top and just hit a perfect corner.”
Richard Childress Racing‘s Jesse Love, the reigning series champion, finished just behind the duel up front in third place, followed by JGR teammates William Sawalich — one of four drivers among the top 10 not Chase eligible — and Taylor Gray.
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Haas Factory Team‘s Sam Mayer — another eligible driver in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 — finished sixth, having turned in an impressive comeback. He won Stage 2 and led 40 laps (second to Day) but had to rally from the rear of the field after a pit-stop penalty for an uncontrolled tire during the Stage 2 break.
Non-Chase eligible drivers Jeremy Clements, William Sawalich, and Anthony Alfredo finished seventh, eighth and 10th respectively with Chase driver Austin Hill taking ninth place.
It was an especially impactful race for former series champion and the season‘s most productive team, JR Motorsports‘ Justin Allgaier. He was collected in a melee on Lap 55 with a fellow Chase competitor, Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Brandon Jones.
Just after winning the race off pit road for the restart from the first stage break, Jones‘ No. 20 Toyota had a problem and drifted up into Allgaier‘s No. 7 Chevrolet in Turn 2, cramming both into the wall. Both cars were towed back to the garage. Allgaier was able to return to the track with 84 laps remaining and made a handful of laps to move up a position in the race’s finishing order. Still, his 34th-place result dropped The Chase’s top seed from second to fourth in the standings — 31 points off the leader Creed.
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It was only the second DNF of the season for six-race winner Allgaier, who held an enormous 229-point advantage atop the regular-season standings before the points reset for the Chase run.
“I checked up and tried to be able to sneak by him [Jones] on the outside, but it just didn‘t work out,” said Allgaier. “I hate it for everybody on the 7 team. Obviously, we‘ve had lots of speed everywhere we‘ve gone all year, but to start The Chase off like this has been pretty frustrating. But we‘ll go next week and try to win another race. Disappointing end to a day I thought we were making some headway.”
The NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action next Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the Blue Cross NC 300 (4 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). This marks the first fall race on the 1.5-mile Charlotte oval since 2017, when Alex Bowman hoisted the series’ trophy driving for Chip Ganassi Racing.
NOTE: Post-race inspection is complete in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage. Corey Day’s win is confirmed. The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was disqualified for four or more lug nuts not safe and secure and will be credited with a last-place finish (originally 35th). The Nos. 88 (one lug nut not safe and secure) and 92 (inspection failures) will lose pit stall selection for next week’s race at Charlotte.