The United Rentals 200 at Daytona International Speedway marked the season opener for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in a new era with a new sponsor.
However, it also saw a familiar face in the O’Reilly Auto Parts series. Austin Hill and the No. 21 RCR Racing Chevrolet took home the checkered flag for the 15th time in his career.
The win is also his fourth in the series at Daytona after leading a dominating six times for 78 laps. While Hill and company continued to enjoy their superspeedway success, we’ll take a look at what else happened during the first event of the season.
Jesse Love Left Frustrated With A Top 10 Finish
Jesse Love and the No. 2 team, who is a teammate to Hill was seeking back-to-back track victories following his season opener victory last season. Love started on the front row, right beside Hill, and was up front for the majority of the race. He led four times for 27 laps and found himself in contention to win late. He made a risky move to go from the top to the bottom in the tri-oval to challenge Hill for the lead.
Love was able to make it work for a short while before Hill regained the lead. The 2025 champion had one more chance on a late race restart, but couldn’t get any help and was relegated to a frustrating ninth-place finish at the end of the night. He’ll seek for redemption next weekend at Atlanta, where he has also had strong outings in recent finishes.
Corey Day Makes Miraculous Saves Until Night Ended With Late Crash
Corey Day is making his full-time season debut this year, piloting the No. 17 Hendrick Automotive Group Chevrolet this season for Hendrick Motorsports in NASCAR after he previously competed on a part-time basis last year. Obviously, there is a lot of high expectations for the standout Sprint Car star coming into the season.
Early on in the race, he made some great saves, including one that almost saw him slap the wall with just three laps to go in Stage 1 off Turn 4. While saving the vehicle from crashing, Day received a flat tire and limped around the track to finish the stage. Day again showed his Sprint Car moves by saving the car once more at the end of Stage 2 and still kept the car off the wall. Unfortunately, as he was making his way back up through the pack, before getting collected in a wreck and saw him finish in the 27th position out of the race.
Gio Ruggiero Debut Ends In Smoke
Ruggiero, the Truck Series regular, was coming in on a race-winning high by claiming the ARCA Menards Series season opener early Saturday afternoon, just hours before the first O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race of the season. Sadly, his debut ended early with a Stage 1 crash and wound up in the 37th position.
The Massachusetts native entered the year with great momentum. He recently signed a two-race deal with Joe Gibbs Racing to pilot the No. 19 machine in the first two races of the season. He will also be contesting in the ARCA Series for the same team on superspeedways and intermediates.
William Sawalich Has Strong Showing
Sawalich was making his return in the series, his first since his scary accident in the fall Talladega race. The accident forced him to sit out the final two races of the year due to concussion-like symptoms. He made his return today and showed some prowess during the qualifying session.
During the morning hours when qualifying took place. Sawalich made it to the final round and finished in fourth place, giving him a great start. As the race went green, the Minnesota native was up front often. Sawalich challenged for the lead at times and earned stage points. He finished seventh in Stage 1 and fourth in Stage 2. His night was cut short after his car got loose in Turns 3 and 4, finishing in the 26th position.
The next event for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series is set for Saturday, March 5th, at EchoPark Speedway. It will be a doubleheader with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The race will be broadcast live at 5 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
