Corey Day doubled down in his first NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ Chase and rallied from early adversity amid a strong start to capitalize on a late charge and win the rain-postponed Blue Cross NC 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, October 11.
The 20-year-old Day from Clovis, California, led three times for 55 of 200-scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row based on a qualifying metric formula and assumed the lead for the first time on the fourth lap. Amid an early competition caution and pitting with the field, Day proceeded to win the first stage period, but he was sent to the tail end of the field after being penalized for driving through too many pit stalls during the first stage’s break period. Day rallied to finish in seventh place at the second stage break’s conclusion and commenced the final stage period in fifth place.
As the event progressed, Day, who continued his march back to the front, was racing in third place with less than 20 laps remaining before he moved into the runner-up spot with 17 laps remaining as the leader Justin Allgaier scraped the outside wall. Following a late caution and a 10-lap dash to the finish, Day briefly dropped to third before he executed a bold three-wide move beneath Allgaier and Love to challenge for the lead through the backstretch. Day managed to motor ahead of both prior to the next lap and he proceeded to fend off Love’s late charge to notch his second consecutive O’Reilly Chase victory and be within striking distance of the points lead en route to his first O’Reilly championship.
The event’s starting lineup was determined by a qualifying metric formula due to inclement weather canceling on-track qualifying that was scheduled for Saturday, October 10, as the weather also postponed Saturday’s O’Reilly event at Charlotte to Sunday evening following the Cup Series’ Bank of America 400 event. As a result, Carson Kvapil was awarded the pole position and he shared the front row with Corey Day, the latter of whom won last weekend’s event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. JJ Yeley was the only competitor who dropped to the rear of the field due to missing driver introductions.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Carson Kvapil and Corey Day dueled for the lead for half a lap before Kvapil motored ahead from the inside lane through Turns 3 and 4. As the field jostled for spots early while navigating back through the frontstretch, Kvapil led the first lap over Jesse Love, Day, Sam Mayer and Austin Hill.
During the second lap, Day, who quickly navigated his way back into the runner-up spot over Love by the next lap, drew himself back alongside Kvapil in a side-by-side battle through the backstretch. With Love trying to ignite a three-wide move for the lead, Day got loose through Turns 3 and 4, but he managed to remain racing straight and duel with Kvapil as Kvapil led the third lap by 0.004 seconds before Day motored ahead. Day proceeded to lead the fifth lap mark by four-tenths of a second over Love while Mayer, Kvapil and Taylor Gray followed suit, respectively.
Through the first 10 laps, Day was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Love while Mayer, Kvapil, Gray, Austin Hill, Rajah Caruth, Jeremy Clements, Brent Crews and William Sawalich followed suit in the top-10 mark, respectively. With seven of 12 Chase contenders (Day, Love, Mayer, Kvapil, Gray, Hill and Caruth) racing in the top-10 mark on the track, the remaining Chasers that include Justin Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Sheldon Creed, Parker Retzlaff and Brandon Jones were mired in 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 23rd, respectively.
When a scheduled competition caution flew on Lap 20, Day was leading by a second over Love as Mayer, Kvapil, Gray, Hill, Clements, Crews, Allgaier and Caruth were racing in the top 10, respectively. Following the pit stops, Day exited pit road first while Love, Mayer, Kvapil, Gray, William Sawalich, Allgaier, Hill, Crews and Caruth followed suit, respectively. Amid the pit stops, Ryan Sieg was penalized for crew members jumping over the pit wall too soon. In addition, Creed, who hit the outside wall after getting hit in the left-front area with Sammy Smith amid a tight three-wide action that involved Jeb Burton earlier in the event, spent an extensive period on pit road to have his entry repaired. Even Patrick Staropoli had the hood of his entry lifted up due to smoke coming out of his entry.
The event’s next restart on Lap 26 featured Day and Love occupying the front row, where Day motored ahead of Love, Mayer and the field from the inside lane through the first two turns. As the field fanned out through the backstretch, Love and Mayer battled for the runner-up spot as Day led the next lap. Behind the top-three leaders, Kvapil and Gray fiercely battled for fourth place in front of Allgaier while Sawalich and Austin Hill battled for seventh place in front of Caruth. Amid the jostling and battles within the field, Day retained the lead by nearly half a second over Love on Lap 30 while Allgaier cracked the top-five mark by overtaking Gray for fifth place.
At the Lap 35 mark, Day maintained the lead by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Love while third-place Mayer trailed by nine-tenths of a second. Behind, Allgaier overtook teammate Kvapil for fourth place as Hill narrowed his deficit to Kvapil for fifth place. Meanwhile, Creed navigated his way into 22nd place while Gray slid back to ninth place. Amid Love’s charge, Day maintained the lead by six-tenths of a second by Lap 40 while third-place Mayer only trailed by a second.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Day claimed his fourth O’Reilly stage victory of the 2026 season. Love settled in second ahead of Mayer and Allgaier while Kvapil fended off Hill for fifth place. Crews, Jeremy Clements, Gray and Retzlaff settled in the top 10, respectively. With eight of 12 Chase contenders (Day, Love, Mayer, Allgaier, Kvapil, Hill, Gray and Retzlaff) racking up the event’s first round of stage points by finishing in the top 10, the remaining Chasers that include Caruth, Sammy Smith, Jones and Creed were mired in 12th, 13th, 14th and 21st, respectively.
Under the event’s first stage break period, nearly the entire field led by Day returned to pit road for service while select names that included JJ Yeley remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Love exited pit road ahead of Day while Allgaier, Kvapil, Hill, Mayer, Crews, Sawalich, Sammy Smith and Gray, respectively. Once Yeley pitted just past the Lap 50 mark, Love cycled as the leader. Meanwhile, Day was penalized and sent to the rear of the field for driving through multiple pit boxes that include Creed’s, Allgaier’s and Myatt Snider’s.
The second stage period started on Lap 53 as Love and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Love was pushed ahead of Allgaier by Kvapil from the inside lane. This allowed Love to motor ahead and lead a fanned-out field through the backstretch before he motored ahead and led the next lap. Behind, teammates Kvapil and Allgaier battled for the runner-up spot ahead of Mayer, Austin Hill and Crews before Mayer used the outside lane to generate strong runs through the turns and move into third place by Lap 55. Mayer then crossed over to the inside lane as he battled Allgaier for the runner-up spot during the next lap. Allgaier, however, would prevail and fend off Mayer for the spot by Lap 57 while Love stretched his lead by more than a second.
Through the Lap 60 mark and with most of the field settling in single-file racing, Love led Allgaier by more than a second as Mayer, Kvapil and Hill occupied the top-five spots over Crews, Sammy Smith, Gray, Dean Thompson and Sawalich, respectively. Meanwhile, Day motored his way up to 16th place before he overtook Anthony Alfredo for another spot on the track. By then, he had Retzlaff, Caruth, Creed and Jeb Burton racing in front of him while Crews overtook Hill for fifth place. Crews proceeded to overtake Kvapil for fourth place on Lap 65 as Love maintained his lead by more than one-and-a-half seconds over runner-up Allgaier and by two seconds over third-place Mayer.
At the Lap 70 mark, Allgaier reeled in on Love for the lead as the former trailed the latter by three-tenths of a second. A lap later, Allgaier tried to draw beneath Love for the lead through the first two turns, but he slightly got loose, which allowed Love to maintain the top spot for the next lap. Love retained the lead over the next two laps before Allgaier capitalized on Love getting loose through Turns 3 and 4 to overtake him through the frontstretch, with Allgaier leading for the first time on Lap 74. As Allgaier led by eight-tenths of a second during the next lap, Day carved his way up to 11th place while Mayer, Crews, Gray, Hill, Kvapil, Sammy Smith, Sawalich and Thompson were in the top 10, respectively. Allgaier extended his lead over Love up by more than a second by Lap 80 while Day was up to ninth place.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Allgaier, who stretched his lead by more than two seconds and barely scrubbed the outside wall entering the frontstretch earlier, cruised to his 11th O’Reilly stage victory of the 2026 season. Love and Gray charged to second and third, respectively, while Mayer, Crews, Hill, Day (who scraped the wall four laps earlier), Kvapil, Sammy Smith and Creed were scored in the top 10, respectively. With nine of 12 Chasers (Allgaier, Love, Gray, Mayer, Hill, Day, Kvapil, Smith and Creed) notching the event’s second round of stage points, the remaining Chasers that include Caruth, Jones and Retzlaff were mired in 14th, 15th and 21st, respectively.
During the event’s second stage break period, the field led by Allgaier pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Love edged Gray and Allgaier off of pit road first while Mayer, Crews, Day, Sammy Smith, Creed, Hill and Kvapil followed suit, respectively. Not long after, Hill made a second pit stop to have a battery in his entry swapped.
With 102 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Love and Gray occupied the front row. At the start, Love maintained a steady lead for a full cycle in front of the field that fanned out and jostled for late spots. As Love led, Gray maintained the runner-up spot in front of Mayer and a hard-charging Day while Allgaier was mired in fifth place in front of a tight battle for sixth place that involved Creed, Kvapil, Crews and Sawalich. Amid the battles, Allgaier led by six-tenths of a second at the event’s halfway mark with 100 laps remaining.
Down to the final 90 laps of the event, Love led by more than a second over a tight three-car battle for the runner-up spot that involve Gray, Mayer and Allgaier while Day, who nearly made contact with Allgaier when the latter slid in front of him entering the frontstretch a few laps earlier, trailed in fifth place by less than two seconds. Meanwhile, Kvapil, who made an unscheduled pit stop under green two laps earlier to have a flat right-rear tire addressed, was mired a lap down in 31st place, but he eventually returned to pit road to have another flat right-rear tire and internal damage to his entry addressed.
Two laps later, the caution flew when Ryan Sieg spun through Turns 3 and 4 after he got aero-loose in front of Rajah Caruth. During this caution period, nearly the entire field led by Allgaier returned to pit road for service while Brent Crews remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Love exited pit road first ahead of Gray, Allgaier, Mayer, Creed, Day, Sawalich, Sammy Smith, Alfredo and Thompson, respectively.
As the event restarted with 83 laps remaining, Love outdueled Crews from the inside lane to reassume the lead through the first two turns. While Crews lost six laps in a single lap, Love led the next lap as he was trailed by Mayer, Gray, Allgaier, Day and Creed, respectively. For the following lap, the caution returned when Caruth, who had a tire rub that eventually popped a tire flat, got loose through the first two turns, slid up the track and ran into the side of teammate Jake Finch through the outside wall. As both Caruth and Finch pitted for repairs, Kvapil, who experienced another flat right-rear tire, took his entry to the garage.
During the next restart with 75 laps remaining, Love fended off Mayer and Gray for the lead while Day, who restarted in fifth place, was pinned in the middle lane through the first two turns after he went high instead of defending his inside lane. As a result, Day, who nearly lost momentum by sliding up the track through the first two turns, slid back to seventh place while Love checked out by leading by four-tenths of a second over Mayer and Gray while Allgaier, Creed and Alfredo followed suit in the top six, respectively. As Mayer, Gray and Allgaier proceeded to fiercely battle for the runner-up spot, Love stretched his late lead by more than a second while Allgaier outdueled Mayer and Gray for the runner-up spot.
With 60 laps remaining, Love continued to lead by eight-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Allgaier, the latter of whom was also logging in faster lap times than Love. Behind, Day navigated his way into third place and he trailed the lead by three seconds while Gray, Alfredo, Mayer, Creed, Hill, Clements and Retzlaff trailed in the top 10, respectively. Meanwhile, Crews, who continued to race on older tires than the field, was mired in 26th place as Allgaier shrunk Love’s advantage down to four-tenths of a second with 55 laps remaining.
Then with 52 laps remaining, Allgaier dueled and overtook Love with a slide job through the first two turns for the lead. Love tried to crossover and reclaim the lead back through Turns 3 and 4, but the latter motored ahead. Allgaier’s pass for the lead occurred after he had reeled in Love before Love barely scraped the outside wall through Turns 3 and 4 with 53 laps remaining. Allgaier proceeded to lead by two-tenths of a second over Love with 50 laps remaining, though Love tried to keep pace with Allgaeir, while Day and Gray trailed in third and fourth, respectively, by three seconds.
Then with 46 laps remaining, Crews pitted under green. Three laps later, the caution flew due to Ryan Ellis wrecking through the first two turns after he blew a left-rear tire. During this caution, the filed led by Allgaier pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Allgaier capitalized on a late pit service by his pit crew to exit pit road first while Gray, Love, Day, Creed, Alfredo, Mayer, Hill, Retzlaff and Clements followed suit, respectively.
For the next restart with 37 laps remaining, Gray and Allgaier dueled for the lead entering the first two turns as Allgaier, who briefly stumbled at the launch, managed to slide in front of Gray to lead through the backstretch. As the field cycled back through the frontstretch, Allgaeir led the next lap over Gray before Love overtook Gray for the runner-up spot through the backstretch. Day then challenged Gray for third place from the inside lane, with the former prevailing with 35 laps remaining as Love reeled in on Allgaier for the lead. As Gray was being pressured by Hill for fourth place, Allgaier maintained a steady lead of two-tenths of a second over Love while Day only trailed by six-tenths of a second in third place with 30 laps remaining.
Down to the final 25 laps, Allgaier retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Love as the former utilized strong defensive driving to fend off the latter’s charges through the turns and straightaways. Meanwhile, Day trailed by nearly a second in third place while Hill occupied fourth place in front of Gray and Creed. Over the next five laps, Allgaier’s advantage decreased down to three-tenths of a second over Love as the latter started to reel in the former. Just being the two leaders, Day remained within striking distance, which placed him along with Allgaier and Love mired within a near-tight three-car battle for the lead.
Then with 18 laps remaining, Allgaier scrubbed the outside wall through Turns 3 and 4. This allowed Love to assume the lead for the next lap. Seconds later, Day fiercely dueled with Allgaier for the runner-up spot before the former used the outside lane to motor ahead of the latter entering the frontstretch with 16 laps remaining. As Love led by three-tenths of a second with 15 laps remaining, Day proceeded to track Love for the lead and Allgaier remained within striking distance just before the caution returned due to Crews blowing a right-front tire, driving dead straight into the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4, and limping his wrecked entry to his pit stall. During this caution period, some like Mayer, Ryan Sieg, Sawalich, Carson Brown, Brennan Poole, Sammy Smith, Dean Thompson, Matt DiBenedetto, Josh Bilicki and Joey Gase pitted while the rest led by Love remained on the track.
With 10 laps remaining, the event restarted as Love gained a steady launch over Allgaier, Day and the field through the frontstretch before Allgaier made a move beneath Love and challenged him for the lead. Then through the backstretch, Day, who reeled in with no drafting help, launched a bold three-wide move beneath the latter two. Through Turns 3 and 4, Love was overtaken by both Day and Allgaier before Allgaier started to slide up. This allowed Day to motor ahead and assume the lead for the next lap while Love battled Allgaier to reclaim the runner-up spot. With Mayer falling off the pace and pitting due to a tire rub, Love ignited his charge on Day for the lead and potential victory. Amid Love’s charge, Day maintained the lead by four-tenths of a second with five laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Day, who maintained the top spot over the previous four laps, remained in the lead by half a second over Love. With Love unable to mount a final-lap charge, Day cycled his No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro entry smoothly around Charlotte for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag and the victory by seven-tenths of a second over Love.
With the victory, Day notched his fourth NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career win in his 40th series’ start, his first time winning back-to-back events and his first victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Day’s Charlotte victory was the 24th of the 2026 O’Reilly season for Chevrolet and the fourth for Hendrick Motorsports, with the organization notching its seventh O’Reilly victory at Charlotte.
With back-to-back Chase victories under his belt, Day jumped from fifth to third in the 2026 Chase standings and he shaved his points deficit from 41 to seven as he has four races remaining to narrow the deficit and contend for his first O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship in his first full-time campaign.
“I think that [Love] got really loose from what I could see up there in front of [Allgaier],” Day said on the frontstretch on the CW Network. “I think I kind of messed them both up and that was just enough for me to get a good run off of them and take my run. That was crucial. I think if I don’t do that, then I don’t win the race. Man, what a job by my guys. I screw up and take too many [pit] boxes on entry and just have the car to do that, the execution on pit road. Just everything to finish one off like that is just so cool. I’d like to think [we’re a title favorite], but we still got to execute these next four or how many [races] are left. It’s a lot of fun right now.”
Love settled in the runner-up spot after he led a race-high 80 laps and was unable to capitalize on the 10-lap dash to secure his second victory in the Chase. Amid the disappointment of falling short of the Charlotte victory, Love jumped from third to second in the Chase standings and his points deficit decreased from 21 to two as he is within sights of defending his series’ title.
“I think I got through the gears good,” Love said. “I had a good launch and got to Turn 1 good, but just got caught off guard by lack of grip I had in [Turns] 1 and 2, slowed up a lot and have a big lift out of the gas on exit. On that [last restart], I had to lift a lot. I guess I just guessed wrong. I felt like I was gonna have to lift a little bit, but with how bad the launch was gonna be, I thought I was gonna be somewhat close to what I’d decided to try to do and ended up just pushing the track a lot. [I] Wished I could’ve had that one back, but still proud of myself for ripping the fence and driving really hard and doing a lot of things right tonight. Just made a mistake at the wrong time.”
Sheldon Creed finished in third place, which enabled him to retain the points lead by two points, while Justin Allgaier, who led 54 laps, settled in fourth place and is 15 points behind the points lead. Carson Brown notched an impressive fifth-place result in his second O’Reilly career start while Brandon Jones, Austin Hill, Anthony Alfredo, Taylor Gray and Brennan Poole completed the top 10 in the final running order on the track.
With Chasers Day, Love, Creed, Allgaier, Jones, Hill and Gray finishing in the top 10, the remaining Chasers that include Parker Retzlaff, Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer, Brent Crews, Carson Kvapil and Rajah Caruth settled in 12th, 16th, 24th, 30th, 32nd and 36th, respectively.
The fifth O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ Chase event of the 2026 season at Charlotte generated 16 lead changes for seven different leaders, and seven cautions for 38 laps. In addition, 22 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Race Results:
- Corey Day, 55 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Jesse Love, 80 laps led
- Sheldon Creed
- Justin Allgaier, 54 laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Carson Brown
- Brandon Jones
- Austin Hill
- Anthony Alfredo
- Taylor Gray, two laps led
- Brennan Poole
- William Sawalich
- Parker Retzlaff
- Harrison Burton
- Dean Thompson
- Joey Gase
- Sammy Smith
- Ryan Sieg
- Josh Bilicki
- Blaine Perkins
- Jeremy Clements
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Jeb Burton
- Austin Green, one lap down
- Sam Mayer, one lap down
- Myatt Snider, two laps down
- Mason Maggio, three laps down
- Lavar Scott, four laps down
- Derek Lemke, four laps down
- Garrett Smithley, four laps down
- Brent Crews – OUT, Accident, four laps led
- Jake Finch – OUT, Suspension
- Carson Kvapil, 29 laps down, three laps led
- Patrick Staropoli – OUT
- Ryan Ellis – OUT, Accident
- Kyle Sieg – OUT, Engine
- Rajah Caruth – OUT, Accident
- Dawson Cram – OUT, Brakes
- JJ Yeley – OUT, Water Pump, two laps led
*Bold indicates Chase Drivers
Following the fifth Chase event of the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season, Sheldon Creed leads the Chase standings by two poitns over Jesse Love, seven over Corey Day and 15 over Justin Allgaier. The rest of the 12-car Chase field is displayed below.
Chase Standings:
- Sheldon Creed
- Jesse Love -2
- Corey Day -7
- Justin Allgaier -15
- Carson Kvapil -40
- Sam Mayer -59
- Taylor Gray -87
- Austin Hill -94
- Sammy Smith -106
- Parker Retzlaff -126
- Brandon Jones -141
- Rajah Caruth -180
Next on the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ Chase schedule is Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, for the Timberland PRO 200. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, October 17, and air at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network, PRN Radio and SiriusXM.
