Brent Crews had a stellar run that nearly netted him a first NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career victory in the Suburban Propane 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, April 11.
The 18-year-old Crews from Hickory, North Carolina, spent the early portions of the event struggling to gain ground from his 17th-place starting spot despite managing to settle in 14th place when the first stage period concluded on Lap 80. During the early stages of the second stage period, Crews managed to crack the top-10 mark for the first time, which he achieved on Lap 108 after he was locked in a tight three-wide battle with Jesse Love and Carson Kvapil for ninth place. Through a 64-lap green-flag stretch, Crews managed to carve his No. 19 Mobil 1 Toyota Supra entry up to fifth place and accumulate six crucial stage points when the second stage period concluded on Lap 170.
Restarting in 11th place for the event’s third and final stage period with 118 laps remaining, Crews navigated his way back into the top-10 mark during the next lap. He then spent the duration of this period inside the mark and ran as high as fourth place on the track. Then during a caution period with 27 laps remaining, Crews was one of three competitors along with Connor Zilisch and Corey Day who elected to remain on the track with the exact tires used since the start of the final stage period while the rest of the field led by Kyle Larson, who led a race-high 230 laps, elected to pit for fresh tires.
Crews’ late gamble to remain on the track payed off as he briefly challenged Zilisch for the lead. Two laps into challenging Zilisch for the lead, however, Crews got loose and slightly hit the outside wall through the first two turns. He then spent the next two laps fending off Larson and teammate Justin Allgaier to retain second place before another late-race caution with 18 laps remaining stacked up the field.
Like the previous restart, Crews got sideways at the restart’s launch, with the latest one occurring with 11 laps remaining. Nevertheless, he used the preferred outside lane that had the momentum from exiting the turns and navigating through the straightaways to draw alongside Zilisch while bidding for the lead. Crews then managed to maintain a slight advantage over both Zilisch and Larson over the next four laps before he slipped and hit the outside wall for a second time with seven laps remaining. With the momentum briefly stalled, Crews lost the lead to Zilisch and he was overtaken by Larson in a single lap. He was then unable to reel in both competitors as he settled in third place and ended up 1.291 seconds shy of winning the event.
Nevertheless, Crews racked up his career-best result of third place and his third career top-10 result in his fifth O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career start. Crews’ previous best result was sixth place, which he achieved during his debut race at Circuit of the Americas in late February. Crews’ result was also enough for him to secure one of four Dash 4 Cash qualifying berths for next weekend’s event at Kansas Speedway, where he will square off against Justin Allgaier, Carson Kvapil and Sheldon Creed for the $100,000 bonus.
Amid Crews’ stellar performance under the lights and in his first O’Reilly performance at Bristol, there were positives and negatives noted for the North Carolina rookie competitor that left him with mixed feelings.
“What I feel like I did right was going up there and running the top really, really hard and getting beside [Zilisch] there in [Turns] 3 and 4,” Crews said on the CW Network. “I had a really flawless 3 and 4 to be able to put [my car] right on the outside of [Zilisch] and kind of gain leverage there on the top. The parts that I’m going to not be able to go to sleep on is going up there and getting a little loose and running into the fence a couple times. It’s tough. I learned a lot. I can’t pick a better driver that would make me feel worse than losing to other than Connor [Zilisch].”
The 2026 season marks Crews’ first campaign in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series division after he spent the previous season campaigning in 10 Craftsman Truck Series events and winning nine events between the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA East and West divisions. He was unable to compete in four of the first nine-scheduled O’Reilly events this season between the months of February and March due to age restrictions (Daytona International Speedway, EchoPark Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway).
Despite the age restriction, Crews was able to compete in four events that allowed competitors as young as 17 years of age to compete on road courses and tracks that were 1.25 miles or shorter (Circuit of the Americas, Phoenix Raceway, Martinsville Speedway and Rockingham Speedway). Having turned 18 years of age on March 30, Crews now has the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota entry to himself to contend for race victories and accumulate the points needed to make the Chase and contend for the series’ championship.
Currently, Crews is ranked in 18th place in the 2026 driver’s standings. He is 75 points below the top-12 Chase cutline, but has 15 regular-season events remaining on the schedule to propel himself inside of the cutline prior to the postseason’s commencement.
“I’m happy with what this Mobil 1 Toyota Supra [Joe Gibbs Racing] No. 19 team has accomplished and what we will continue to accomplish,” Crews said. “It’s great that we finally executed a points day, but we’re hungry for more and I’m looking forward to my first mile and a half [track at Kansas Speedway] next week.”
Brent Crews’ 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season continues next weekend at Kansas Speedway for the Kansas Lottery 300. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, April 18, and air at 7 p.m. ET on the CW Network, MRN Radio and SiriusXM.
