Kansas City, KS – Taylor Gray and the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team utilized pit strategy and stayed out while the race leaders pitted inside 60 laps to go. Once Gray resumed the race, he led the rest of the way, holding off a late surge by Atlanta winner, Sheldon Creed, by 0.718 seconds. The win was the second of his NASCAR O’Reilly Series career and his first since Martinsville last fall.
“How about Jason Ratcliff?” Gray said. “Jason made a really good adjustment on the car and a really good pit call and got us in clean air. It’s been a long start to the year, man—not that we’re not bringing speed to the race track. It’s just that things haven’t really gone our way. So it’s nice to finally be able to close one out.”
This was the 10th race of the 2026 season for the NASCAR O’Reilly Series. Practice and qualifying were canceled on Friday afternoon due to severe weather and heavy rainfall. Carson Kvapil was awarded the pole position for the first time in his career. Stages 45-45-110 made up the 200-lap race. There was also a competition caution on Lap 20.
Action started early in the race on Lap 2, when Kvapil made slight contact with his JR Motorsports teammate, William Byron, on the backstretch. As a result, he spun up the track and got clipped by the No. 99 of Parker Retzlaff. Afterward, Kvapil wound up flipping multiple times, destroying his car in the process.
Following the wreck, the AMR Safety Team came to the rescue and slowly got the car back on its side. Afterward, Kvapil was checked and released from the infield care center.
The race restarted on Lap 5 and went green until the competition yellow at Lap 20. Brandon Jones, who won the fall race here in September, took the lead at Lap 13 and led up to Lap 20. As the race went back green on Lap 27, there were at least 11 laps of green flag running before the third caution flag flew.
This time, the caution was for RCR Racing teammates, Austin Hill and Jesse Love. Hill was battling with Love and ended up spinning off Turn 4. Eventually, the No. 18 of William Sawalich made contact with him as well, receiving heavy front-end damage to his car.
The restart came with just three laps to go. Jones held on to win the stage over Corey Day. Justin Allgaier, Love, Anthony Alfredo, Gray, Creed, Brent Crews, Jeb Burton, and William Byron completed the Top 10.
During the pit stop cycle, at least seven cars stayed out to change up the pit cycle. This meant Alfredo would assume the lead with Jeb Burton to start Stage 2.
Stage 2 took place between Lap 54 and Lap 90. Early in the stage, Byron led the way with Jones following closely behind him. However, it didn’t take long for Jones to retake the lead on Lap 57. Just a few laps later, the only incident of the stage happened as Alfredo hit the wall on the frontstretch. This was due to a flat right-front tire following brake rotor problems.
The race resumed at Lap 70 as Jones took off like a rocket, taking the lead from Byron, as he had fresher tires than Byron. During the green-flag run, Byron brushed the wall and allowed numerous drivers to drive right on by. Despite that, Jones maintained the lead and swept the stages at Lap 90. Jones, Creed, Allgaier, Love, Day, Sammy Smith, Gray, Burton, Sam Mayer, and Alfredo were the Top 10.
The final stage went green on Lap 98, just two laps before halfway. Creed got a better start than Jones, going three-wide with Gray. This would be the start of a long green-flag run that saw no yellows in the final stage. But various pit strategies played out late in the going. Pit stops began with 57 to go, and Gray was the first to pit from the third position.
At 53 to go, both Creed and Jones pitted from the race lead. With 44 laps to go, Gray was able to take the lead. Hoping for no yellows, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver began to check out with a sizeable gap. However, with 10 laps to go, Creed, who was in the second position, began running Gray down and started to close the gap. Despite Creed having a somewhat faster car, he couldn’t catch Gray, and Gray went on to win the race.
Gray led one time for 48 laps en route to victory.
With the second-place finish, Sheldon Creed collected the $100,000 in the Dash 4 Cash event.
Justin Allgaier finished third, Jesse Love fourth, and Brent Crews rounded out the top 5.
After Kansas, Justin Allgaier leads the series standings by 131 over Sheldon Creed, 149 over Jesse Love, 176 over Corey Day, and 196 over Brandon Jones.
The race featured seven caution flags for 37 laps and 11 lead changes among eight different drivers.
Complete Results – Kansas O’Reilly Auto Parts race:
- Taylor Gray
- Sheldon Creed
- Justin Allagier
- Jesse Love
- Brent Crews
- William Byron
- Cole Custer
- Brandon Jones
- Sam Mayer
- Ryan Sieg
- Dean Thompson
- Corey Day
- Jeb Burton
- Patrick Staropoli
- Jeremy Clements
- Sammy Smith
- Josh Williams
- Lavar Scott
- Brennan Poole
- William Sawalich
- Rajah Caruth
- Ryan Ellis
- Blaine Perkins
- Nathan Byrd
- Kyle Sieg
- Josh Bilicki
- Joey Gase
- Harrison Burton
- Dawson Cram
- Anthony Alfredo
- Blake Lothian
- Austin Green
- Mason Maggio
- Austin Hill
- Luke Baldwin
- Parker Retzlaff
- Carson Kvapil
Up Next – The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series visits Talladega Superspeedway, Saturday, April 25, live on the CW Network at 4 p.m. CT.
