Corey Day reigned supreme when it mattered most as he outdueled the competition on the final lap to score his first NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career victory in the Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, April 25.
The 20-year-old Day from Clovis, California, led the final lap of a 113-lap thriller in an event where he qualified in third place and spent the majority of the event battling towards the front amid the draft with his fellow competitors. Despite securing no stage points by not finishing in the top-10 mark through the event’s first two stages, Day positioned himself for victory by navigating his way into the runner-up spot with four laps remaining.
Then on the final lap, Day, who was in the middle of a three-wide battle for the lead that involved Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed, muscled ahead of both to lead through the first two turns. Day’s first O’Reilly victory was sealed as two separate carnages from the backstretch and through Turns 3 and 4 ignited. This drew a race-winning caution and allowed Day to cap off a strong start to his rookie O’Reilly campaign with a first-ever trip to Victory Lane in the O’Reilly division.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, April 24, Jesse Love claimed the pole position with a pole-winning lap at 182.313 mph in 52.525 seconds. Sam Mayer started alongside Love on the front row with a qualifying lap at 182.168 mph in 52.567 seconds.
Before the event, Ryan Ellis was the only competitor who dropped to the rear of the field. This was due to unapproved adjustments on his No. 02 Young’s Motorsports Chevrolet entry.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, pole-sitter Jesse Love signaled and received a push from Corey Day from the inside lane to jump ahead of Sam Mayer and the field entering the first two turns. As the field navigated through the early portions of the backstretch, the event’s first caution flew. Patrick Staropoli, racing towards the top-15 mark, was bumped by William Sawalich and turned head-on into the outside wall. Staropoli’s damaged entry then veered back across the track and through oncoming traffic, with David Starr sustaining damage after hitting Staropoli. At the same time, newcomer Tyler Ankrum ran into the rear of Starr.
The start of the next restart on the fourth lap featured Love receiving another strong push from the inside lane, this time by Mayer through the first two turns. As Love started to gap the field, he veered to the right to block a run by Day from the outside lane through the backstretch. With the field fanning out to three lanes entering Turns 3 and 4, Love led the next lap over a hard-charging Mayer as Mayer darted to the outside lane with lots of momentum.
Just past the fifth lap mark, the field had fanned out three lanes deep as Carson Kvapil stormed to the lead ahead of a three-wide action that involved teammate Sammy Smith, Mayer, and Love. Love then spent the sixth lap mark battling alongside Kvapil and in front of the field that had stacked up three lanes deep before he muscled ahead to lead the seventh lap. Despite having to race defensively while veering right and left to both gain and stall any momentum from his competition. Love continued to lead at the Lap 10 mark over Kvapil, Day, Mayer, and Sheldon Creed, respectively.
Through the Lap 15 mark, Mayer, who has led since Lap 12 and was holding strong while leading the inside lane, was also leading the event ahead of Sammy Smith, Love, Kvapil, and Rajah Caruth while Creed, Day, Austin Hill, Jeremy Clements, and Justin Allgaier were racing in the top 10, respectively. Kvapil, Love and Mayer each took turns swapping and leading at least a lap from Laps 16 through 24.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 25, Kvapil, who had led since Lap 23, edged teammate Sammy Smith by 0.005 seconds to record his first stage victory of the 2026 season. Creed, Caruth, Thompson, Blaine Perkins, Mayer, Harrison Burton, Love, and Clements were in the top 10, respectively. Austin Hill, Gray, Day and Allgaier were mired within the top-15 mark. By then, the event featured eight lead changes for three different leaders
Under the event’s first stage break period, the field led by Kvapil pitted for the first time while JJ Yeley, Lavar Scott, Joey Gase, Ryan Ellis, Dawson Cram, and Natalie Decker remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Kvapil exited pit road first. Love, Jones, Harrison Burton, Hill, Sammy Smith, Gray, Thompson, Day, and Crews followed in the top-10. Not long after, Yeley, Scott, Gase, Ellis, Cram, and Decker all pitted under caution, and it cycled Kvapil back to the overall lead of the event.
The second stage period started on Lap 31 as Kvapil and Harrison Burton occupied the front row in front of Love, Hill, Jones and Sammy Smith. At the start, Kvapil and Burton dueled for the top spot entering the first two turns until Hill pushed Burton ahead of Kvapil and to the lead from the outside lane. The rest of the field, led by the drafting duo of Kvapil and Smith, caught back up to Hill and Burton through the backstretch. As the field fanned out through the tri-oval, Kvapil managed to lead the next lap. With the field fanning out to three-wide formation over the next three laps, Love cycled back to the lead on Laps 33 and 34 until Hill assumed command for the next three laps.
At the Lap 40 mark, Justin Allgaier, who trailed his teammate and the leader, Sammy Smith, during the previous two laps, led his first lap of the event while mired in a three-wide battle with his teammates Smith and Kvapil. Kvapil would then lead the next nine laps as he received a strong run from the outside lane to motor ahead of Allgaier and the field by Lap 41.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 50, Allgaier made a move to teammate Kvapil’s left side entering Turns 3 and 4 to assume the lead and capture his fourth stage victory of the 2026 season. Ryan Sieg, Creed, Thompson, Retzlaff, Kvapil, Harrison Burton, Clements, Austin Green and Hill settled in the top 10, respectively. Jeb Burton, Caruth, Gray, Day, Love, Mayer and Sammy Smith were mired in 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 21st and 23rd, respectively. By then, the event had featured 18 lead changes with seven different leaders. Thirty-six of 38 starters were on the lead lap.
During the event’s second stage break period, nearly the entire field led by Allgiaer pitted while Yeley, Lavar Scott, Decker, Emerling and Cram remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Sawalich jumped 12 spots to exit pit road first ahead of Ryan Sieg, Creed, Gray, Jeb Burton and Thompson. Once Yeley, Scott, Decker, Emerling and Cram pitted, Sawalich cycled to the lead.
With 56 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Gray and Jeb Burton occupied the front row in front of Austin Hill, Parker Retzlaff, Crews and Mayer. At the start, Burton capitalized on a push by Hill from the outside lane to storm ahead through the first two turns. The rest of the field caught back up to Hill and Burton amid the draft. Gray, who was hit on the right side by teammate Crews entering Turn 3, drew alongside Burton from the inside lane. Burto, however, managed to lead the next lap by 0.003 seconds. As the field raced in three-wide formation, Burton, Gray and Austin Green each took turns leading at least a lap over the next five laps before Creed led with 50 laps remaining.
Then, with 44 laps remaining, a wave of green flag pit stops commenced as Love, Hill, Jeb Burton, Austin Green, Parker Retzlaff and Anthony Alfredo pitted their respective Chevrolet entries. As Rajah Caruth cycled to a brief lead, Toyota competitors Gray, Brandon Jones, Dean Thompson and Crews pitted. Sawalich received a penalty for speeding while entering pit road. During Sawalich’s speeding penalty, he locked up his front tires and barely hit the right front of Crews while threading his way through a tight opening in between Crews and Jones.
With 40 laps remaining, Caruth led 14 competitors down to pit road for service under green. Unfortunately, Caruth received a penalty for speeding on pit road. With a majority of the field having made a pit stop, six competitors led by Brennan Poole and including Garrett Smithley, Lavar Scott, Josh Bilicki and Mason Maggio have yet to pit. This was despite all of them cycling to the front and being more than 30 seconds ahead of sixth-place Creed. Once Poole, Smithley, Scott, Bilicki and Maggio pitted with 37 laps remaining, Creed and the rest of the field that had pitted earlier than the latter five zipped by all, with Creed cycling to the lead over Love, Alfredo, Mayer, Jeb Burton and Kvapil with 35 laps remaining.
A lap prior to Creed cycling back to the lead, teammates Kvapil and Allgaier received a penalty for violating NASCAR’s blend line rules. that involved moving up in front of the field through the backstretch following a pit service, which caused the field, including Love, to split and avoid contact. As a result, they both dropped out of the top-30 mark and trailed the lead by 20-plus seconds. Meanwhile, Love, who returned atop the leaderboard with 34 laps remaining, was leading over Clements, Sammy Smith, Perkins, Ryan Sieg and Jeb Burton with 30 laps remaining.
Through the next 14 laps and with the competition at the front becoming dicey, Sammy Smith and Love primarily led, with Love taking command with 29 laps remaining and driving defensively amid the draft. With 16 laps remaining, Mayer was battling Creed for the runner-up spot and trying to reel in Love. However, he got turned sideways off the front nose of Retzlaff through the first two turns. But he managed to straighten his entry below the apron and proceed without drawing a caution.
Then after the front-running field spent the next handful of laps racing in single-line formation, the field started to fan out with less than 10 laps remaining as Love led Creed, Ryan Sieg, Perkins, Thompson and Jeb Burton. Creed then executed a bold move to Love’s outside with six laps remaining through the first two turns. As a result, Love was pinned in the middle and dropped back with no drafting help, as Jeb Burton tried to draw alongside Creed for the lead. With Creed leading the next two laps, Corey Day came storming to the front as he battled and overtook Burton for the runner-up spot, while Mayer and Sammy Smith also reeled in.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Creed, who was stacked up in a tight three-wide battle for the lead with Day and teammate Mayer a lap prior, was barely ahead over Mayer and Day in three-wide formation through the frontstretch and through the first two turns. Then as Day muscled and moved in front of Creed while trying to fend off Mayer from the inside lane entering the first half of the backstretch, Mayer was sent for a spin by Sawalich towards the backstretch’s infield. Shortly after, Jeb Burton, who scraped the outside wall entering Turn 3 while trying to surge to the front, was involved in a vicious multi-car wreck that involved Ryan Sieg, Harrison Burton and Blaine Perkins.
The caution then flew as Day led the field and approached the frontstretch’s ti-oval. The event officially concluded under caution and Day was awarded the win. He cycled back to the finish line to claim his first checkered flag in the series.
With the victory, Day became the 184th competitor overall to win in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series division, the third first-time winner of the 2026 season and the eighth to record a first O’Reilly career victory at Talladega.
Day also recorded the 28th O’Reilly career victory for Hendrick Motorsports, the organization’s first in the series at Talladega, the fifth for the No. 17 HendrickCars Chevrolet entry and the third for crew chief Adam Wall. The victory was a notable one as Jason Kelce, a former NFL center and Super Bowl champion, served as Day’s crew member for the event.
“I sure as hell didn’t think [my first win] would be at a superspeedway,” Day said in Victory Lane on the CW Network. “It’s awesome. The Hendrick Legacy is so strong at superspeedways. My No. 17 guys just build me a rocket ship. Hats off to [crew chief] Adam [Wall]…everyone back at the shop that builds these things every week for me. I feel like we’ve been close. [I] Had a good day at Rockingham and had a couple of other good days, and just didn’t finish it off. It’s super cool.”
“I thought when I got shucked to the middle there with five to go or whatever it was, that was it and I was gonna drop,” Day added. He continued, saying, “I had help. I don’t know who it was, but thank you, whoever it was. Just so cool. Thank you, Mr. Hendrick, so much for believing in a sprint car kid from California that never ran a pavement car in his life before two years ago. It’s so much fun.”
While Day celebrated a first victory on the track, Sheldon Creed was also victorious. He notched his second $100,000 bonus from the Dash 4 Cash program by being the highest-finishing contender during Saturday’s Talladega event over Jesse Love, Justin Allgaier and Taylor Gray.
“A really good day,” Creed said. “Obviously, [I] was leading there at the end and maybe just got too far out a couple of times. I thought I missed a good block down the backstretch to [Jeb Burton] to maybe propel me next to [Day]. Obviously, you’re not expecting them all to crash and then, I’m looking at my mirror as they are. It didn’t look like I was gonna build a run to him, but just thankful for O’Reilly’s for doing this Dash 4 Cash. To win two of them back-to-back is awesome for our team. Shoutout to everyone back at the shop for building really good race cars. Just try to keep the ball rolling here.”
Creed will square off against Day, Brent Crews and Sammy Smith for the fourth and final Dash 4 Cash bonus of the 2026 season next Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway.
Brent Crews notched a career-best runner-up result behind Day and over Creed at Talladega. Sammy Smith and Jeremy Clements finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Dean Thompson, Jesse Love, Brandon Jones, Parker Retzlaff and Austin Green completed the top 10 in the final running order, respectively.
There were 38 lead changes for 16 different leaders. The event featured four cautions for 15 laps. In addition, 24 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 11th event of the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season, Justin Allgaier, who finished 23rd at Talladega following his blend line violation, continues to lead the standings by 105 points over Sheldon Creed, 141 points over Jesse Love, 145 points over Corey Day, and 191 points over Brandon Jones.
Results:
- Corey Day, one lap led
- Brent Crews
- Sheldon Creed led seven laps
- Sammy Smith led six laps
- Jeremy Clements
- Dean Thompson
- Jesse Love, 37 laps led
- Brandon Jones
- Parker Retzlaff
- Austin Green led for five laps
- JJ Yeley led for two laps
- Blaine Perkins
- Austin Hill led for three laps
- Josh Bilicki
- Brennan Poole led for three laps
- Patrick Emerling
- Mason Maggio
- Kyle Sieg
- Joey Gase
- Garrett Smithley
- Ryan Sieg
- Carson Kvapil, 22 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Justin Allgaier, four laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Lavar Scott, one lap led
- Sam Mayer – OUT, Accident, eight laps led
- Jeb Burton- OUT, Accident, two laps led
- Harrison Burton – OUT, Accident, one lap led
- William Sawalich, one lap down
- Taylor Gray, one lap down, six laps led
- Rajah Caruth, one lap down, five laps led
- Anthony Alfredo, one lap down
- Tyler Ankrum, one lap down
- Natalie Decker, one lap down
- Dawson Cram, one lap down
- Josh Williams, one lap down
- Ryan Ellis, two laps down
- Patrick Staropoli, eight laps down
- David Starr – OUT, Overheating
Next on the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule is the Andy’s Frozen Custard 340 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. The event is scheduled for Saturday, May 2, and will be broadcast at 3:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network, PRN, and SiriusXM.
