Carson Kvapil achieved his long-awaited victory in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for the first time ever after outdueling teammate Justin Allgaier in the closing laps to win the Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 25.
Kvapil, the 2021 CARS Super Late Model Tour champion and two-time CARS Late Model Stock Tour champion from Mooresville, North Carolina, led twice for 23 of 100-scheduled laps, including the final 22, in an event where he started on the front row alongside Sheldon Creed. Despite slipping out of the top-five mark in the opening laps, he battled back to settle in third place when the first stage period concluded on Lap 30. Kvapil continued to muscle his way to the front and settled in fifth place when the second stage concluded on Lap 60.
Then during the final restart with 34 laps remaining, Kvapil, who restarted fourth but dropped to fifth through the first turn, quickly rallied by moving up to third two turns later. After outdueling teammate Justin Allgaier and Sam Mayer to move into the runner-up spot during the following lap, Kvapil spent the next 11 laps reeling in teammate Ross Chastain for the lead. After getting beneath Chastain to assume the lead through the backstretch for the first time with 22 laps remaining, Kvapil spent the event’s remainder fending off a hard-charging Allgaier to achieve his first elusive victory in his 64th career start.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Sheldon Creed secured the pole position with a pole-winning lap at 169.591 mph in 53.069 seconds. Carson Kvapil qualified in second place and started on the front row with Creed, with a lap at 169.498 mph in 53.098 seconds. Prior to the event, Chase Elliott dropped to the rear of the field due to an unapproved adjustment that involved changing a left-rear tire after qualifying to his No. 88 HendrickCars.com/JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro entry.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, pole-sitter Sheldon Creed and Carson Kvapil dueled for the lead through the first turn until the former used the inside lane to motor the No. 00 Road Ranger Chevrolet Camaro entry ahead and clear the competition through the second turn. As both Sam Mayer and Jeremy Clements overtook Kvapil to move into second and third in the leaderboard through the backstretch, Kvapil battled Brandon Jones to retain fourth place while Creed led the first lap.
During the second lap, Kvapil, who was pinned on the outside lane and lost a handful of spots towards the front, managed to settle in sixth place as he got in line with the field that was scrambling early for spots. Amid a series of early jostling for spots within the field, Creed maintained the lead by seven-tenths of a second over teammate Sam Mayer by the fifth lap mark while Clements, Jones and Taylor Gray were scored in the top five, respectively.
Through the Lap 10 mark. Creed stretched his early advantage to one-and-a-half seconds over Mayer while Clements, Jones and Kvapil occupied the top-five spots ahead of Sammy Smith, Ross Chastain, William Sawalich, Justin Allgaier and Taylor Gray, respectively. Behind, Jeb Burton occupied 11th place in front of Corey Day, Rajah Caruth, Ryan Sieg and Austin Hill while Brent Crews, Anthony Alfredo, Jesse Love, Parker Retzlaff and Kyle Sieg were racing in the top-20 mark ahead of Dean Thompson, Chase Elliott, Nick Sanchez, Harrison Burton and Patrick Staropoli, respectively.
At the Lap 15 mark, Creed continued to extend his advantage as he added another second to his lead (2.610 seconds) over Clements as Mayer, Kvapil and Chastain pursued the latter while also trailing the lead by three seconds. Meanwhile, Sammy Smith, who occupied sixth place, trailed the lead by five seconds as he raced in front of teammate Allgaier, Sawalich and Gray while Jones occupied 10th place in front of Day, Caruth, Crews, Jeb Burton and Ryan Sieg, respectively, as Elliott cracked the top-20 mark in 20th place.
Then on Lap 20, Creed had his advantage shrink to two-tenths of a second as Clements, Mayer, Kvapil and Chastain all used the draft to reel in the leader. During the following lap, the top-five competitors were racing within eight-tenths of one another while sixth-place Allgaier trailed the lead by two seconds. Two laps later, Clements, who closely reeled in Creed, managed to get underneath Creed through the second turn to assume the lead in the No. 51 Sky Fund Aviation Chevrolet Camaro entry. Mayer and Chastain followed suit through the backstretch to move into second and third while Creed dropped to fourth place in front of Kvapil. While Kvapil was being pressured by Allgaier and Sawalich for fourth place, Clements led by nine-tenths of a second at the Lap 25 mark.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 30, Clements, who stretched his lead to two-and-a-half seconds, cruised to his first O’Reilly stage victory of the 2026 season. Chastain settled in second ahead of Kvapil, Sawalich and Mayer while Allgaier, Creed, Gray, Crews and Sammy Smith were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, Elliott moved up to 14th behind Day, Jones and Caruth while 34 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Under the event’s first stage break period, the field led by Clements pitted for the first time. Following the pit stops, Chastain exited pit road first, and he was followed by Sawalich, Kvapil, Allgaier, Creed, Mayer, Jones, Clements, Sammy Smith and Brent Crews, respectively. During the pit stops, Taylor Gray and Nick Sanchez were sent to the rear of the field due to an uncontrolled tire penalty.
The second stage period started on Lap 36 as Chastain and Sawalich occupied the front row. At the start, the field briefly fanned out as Sawalich used the outside lane to nearly clear Chastain for the lead through the first two turns. After dueling with Chastain through the backstretch, Sawalich, who remained on the outside lane, used a push from Creed to motor his No. 18 SoundGear Toyota Supra entry ahead and clear Chastain entering Turn 3. Sawalich proceeded to lead the next lap as the top-seven competitors started to slightly pull away from the field in single-line formation. Behind, Jones occupied eighth place in front of a tight battle between Sammy Smith, Austin Hill, Jones, Crews, Day, Love, Ryan Sieg and Parker Retzlaff for more.
On Lap 38, Chastain got underneath Sawalich as both battled for the lead. Amid Sawalich’s attempt to retain the top spot from the outside lane through the backstretch, Chastain capitalized from the inside lane entering Turn 3 to reassume the top spot. As Chastain led the next lap, Sawalich dropped to sixth place as he was pinned on the outside lane while Creed, Allgaier, Kvapil and Mayer all overtook Sawalich. Despite having Creed, Allgaier and Kvapil reel in from behind, Chastain led the Lap 40 mark.
By Lap 45, the top-four competitors were separated by seven-tenths of a second of one another while racing in single-line close formation. Within the group, Chastain maintained the lead over Creed, Allgaier and Kvapil, respectively. Chastain continued to lead Creed, Allgaier and Kvapil in close-quarters racing when the event reached its halfway mark on Lap 50. By then, fifth-place Mayer trailed by two seconds, sixth-place Sawalich trailed by two-and-a-half seconds, and both Crews and Jones trailed by four seconds. While Hill and Clements rounded out the top 10, Elliott was mired in 14th place behind Sammy Smith, Day and Love while Gray was racing in 23rd place behind Caruth.
Then on Lap 53, the caution flew when Garrett Smithley, who was trailing Blaine Perkins, got loose and spun in the second turn. During this caution period, nearly the entire field, except for Dean Thompson and Rajah Caruth, returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Chastain exited pit road first ahead of Creed, Allgaier, Kvapil and Sawalich while Jones, Mayer, Austin Hill, Love and Elliott followed suit, respectively.
During the start of a three-lap dash to the finish, Caruth muscled his No. 32 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro entry to the lead from the outside lane while Thompson got loose from the inside lane entering the first turn. As the field fanned out through the second turn and the backstretch, Caruth maintained the lead ahead of Allgaier, and the field that had fanned out to three-tight lanes cycled through the frontstretch to complete another lap under green. Soon after, Chastain quickly muscled his way into fourth place behind Thompson and Allgaier while Caruth led another lap on Lap 59.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 60, Caruth fended off Allgaier and a hard-charging Chastain to capture his second O’Reilly stage victory of the 2026 season. Allgaier, Chastain, Creed and Kvapil settled in the top five while Thompson, Mayer, Sawalich, Austin Hill and Elliott were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 36 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
During the event’s second stage break period, Caruth surrendered the lead to pit along with Thompson, Brennan Poole, Preston Pardus, Ryan Ellis, Nathan Byrd, Joey Gase and Garrett Smithley while the rest of the field led by Allgaier remained on the track.
With 34 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as teammates Allgaier and Chastain occupied the front row in front of Creed, Kvapil, Sawalich, Mayer and the field. At the start, Mayer made a bold three-wide move beneath both Kvapil and Sawalich in a bid for fourth place. Mayer’s move prevailed as Sawalich got mired in the outside lane and lost a handful of spots. At the front, Allgaier challenged Chastain in a heated side-by-side battle for nearly a full lap. With Allgaier nearly prevailing from the outside lane, Chastain managed to motor ahead from the inside lane through the third turn, and he led the next lap while Kvapil and Mayer pinned Allgaier in a three-wide battle for the runner-up spot.
Seconds later, Kvapil used the outside lane to fend off Mayer through the second turn as Mayer was being pressured by Allgaier, Creed, Hill and more for third place. Mayer would settle in sixth place with 30 laps remaining while Creed, Allgaier and Hill were scored in the top five. Meanwhile, Elliott carved his way up to seventh place, and Kvapil trailed Chastain for the lead by eight-tenths of a second. In addition, Caruth was mired in 27th place following his pit stop while Gray was up in 12th place in between teammates Brandon Jones and Brent Crews.
Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Chastain was leading in his No. 9 Roto-Rooter Chevrolet Camaro entry by a tenth of a second over teammate Kvapil while Creed, Allgaier and Austin Hill were in the top five ahead of Mayer, Elliott, Day, Sawalich and Jones, respectively. Then three laps later, Kvapil got underneath Chastain entering the backstretch and overtook the latter to assume the lead. After leading by nearly four-tenths of a second during the next lap, Kvapil slightly stretched his lead to half a second over Chastain with 20 laps remaining while Allgaier and Creed both trailed by more than two seconds.
With 15 laps remaining and with the field scattered, Kvapil continued to lead in his No. 1 Wilde Chevrolet Camaro entry by four-tenths of a second over Chastain while Allgaier trailed by two seconds. Meanwhile, Creed occupied fourth place while trailing the lead by four seconds, while Elliott was up into fifth place. As the laps continued to dwindle, Kvapil maintained the lead by six-tenths of a second with 10 laps remaining. Kvapil’s lead stood with five laps remaining as Allgaier, who overtook Chastain for the runner-up spot two laps earlier, trailed by eight-tenths of a second.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Kvapil, who had his late advantage shrink to as low as half a second from Allgaier’s No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro entry over the previous four laps, remained in the lead by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Allgaier. Amid Allgaier’s charge, he then briefly slipped up entering the backstretch. This gave Kvapil a small breathing advantage through the backstretch. With Allgaier unable to reel in and mount a charge to Kvapil’s rear bumper for two final turns, Kvapil cycled back to the long drive through the frontstretch and notched his first-ever checkered flag by six-tenths of a second.
With the victory, Carson Kvapil became the fourth first-time winner of the 2026 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season and the 185th competitor overall to win in the series. He also joins Ty Dillon as the only competitors to record a first O’Reilly career victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as he recorded the 14th victory of the 2026 campaign for JR Motorsports and the third for the No. 1 team led by crew chief Rodney Childers.
As added bonuses, Kvapil, who did a Polish Victory lap by driving the opposite direction around Indianapolis Motor Speedway while saluting the fans, jumped from fifth to second in the regular-season standings and clinched his berth to this year’s Chase.
“[The win] means the world to me,” Kvapil said on the frontstretch on the CW Network. “Man, I don’t know. It’s very emotional. I rode around on that lap backwards and just sat there and thought about all the hard work I put in, me and my dad, Travis, to get to this point and the faith that Dale Jr., L.W. Miller and Kelley Miller put behind me to give me this opportunity and give me a second chance, I guess you could say, to come back at it this year. I knew we were gonna get one, and I’m hoping we can chase some more towards the end. I just can’t believe it. It’s been a lot of races and a lot of hours to work in building towards this…This is going to be an exciting one for a long time, and I’ll be able to go into the off weekend thinking about this. [I’m] Just going to try not to cry too much. I’ve already shed a few tears. Just trying to hold it together right now.”
Like Kvapil, team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. fought tears of joy as he soaked in the long-awaited first victory for Carson Kvapil amid a complex sophomore year for the latter, who was transitioning through three entries between JR Motorsports and DGM Racing through the first 21-scheduled events prior to Indianapolis. Kvapil will drive for JR Motorsports for the remainder of the 2026 season.
“This has been a long time coming,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “He’s like a son almost. You work with these guys for so long, and you work so hard. We work so hard with Josh Berry and all our drivers. You just want them to have success, and he’s got a win to keep going. You got to win if you want to stay in this deal. Man, he got so close, so I’m just so, so happy for him, for Travis, his dad; Caden, his brother, and whole family.”
Kvapil’s first career victory at Indianapolis was only a part of a historic event for JR Motorsports as the organization became the first ever to have four entries sweep the top-four results, with Justin Allgaier, Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott finishing second through fourth, respectively. While the trio was disappointed over their respective results, all took a moment to salute Kvapil on his first-ever NASCAR national touring series victory.
“Super happy for [the No. 1 team],” Allgaier said. “That whole No. 1 group, I’ve worked with all those guys for a number of years now and having Carson [Kvapil] as a teammate, so you’re super pumped for those guys. I think that’s the hard part. When you’re in this battle like this, you want to win. You always want to win, but when you work neck-and-neck with all these people day in and day out – we’re always pushing each other to be better – and when you see somebody else in our group have success, it’s hard not to enjoy that for them. When you’re that close, it’s like man, you want to wish you could have done something a little bit different. All in all, like I said, great day. Really proud of our team. Proud of the effort and we’re gonna have our heads high into the off week [period].”
“I’m happy for Carson,” Chastain added. “If I can’t win, I wanted him [to win]. I’ve been there trying to win, and I think for this track, for him to win here specifically, for everything behind the scenes, that’s really, really cool for me to watch. I remember when he came in the Chevy Rise program with belt loops in his shorts and how he wears normal gym shorts. Definitely happy for him as family.”
“I’m happy for Carson,” Elliott added. “Getting your first win’s a really big deal. I know that’s been a long time coming, it seems like just me watching these races, so pretty cool. Happy for all the Hendrick power under the hoods of our cars, too. So hopefully, I have a good day tomorrow.”
William Sawalich finished in sixth place for his sixth top-five result of the 2026 season. Teammate Brent Crews, Corey Day, Sheldon Creed, Brandon Jones and Austin Hill completed the top 10 in the final running order. Hill, along with teammate Jesse Love (16th-place finish at Indy), Creed, Day and Jones all joined Kvapil and Allgaier as competitors to solidify their berths to this year’s Chase.
This event featured 10 lead changes for eight different leaders, and three cautions for 13 laps. In addition, 31 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 22nd event of the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season, Justin Allgaier, who has already clinched the regular-season championship, leads the standings by 265 points over teammate Carson Kvapil.
Behind, Sammy Smith, Parker Retzlaff, Sam Mayer, Brent Crews and Taylor Gray occupy the remaining five vacant spots above the top-12 cutline in the standings to the Chase, with Gray only seven points ahead of teammate William Sawalich and 20 over Rajah Caruth with two regular-season events remaining this year.
Results:
- Carson Kvapil, 23 laps led
- Justin Allgaier, four laps led
- Ross Chastain, 31 laps led
- Chase Elliott
- William Sawalich, two laps led
- Brent Crews
- Corey Day
- Sheldon Creed, 23 laps led
- Brandon Jones
- Austin Hill
- Parker Retzlaff
- Taylor Gray
- Sam Mayer
- Anthony Alfredo
- Jeb Burton
- Jesse Love
- Ryan Sieg
- Harrison Burton
- Sammy Smith
- Nick Sanchez
- Dean Thompson, two laps led
- Rajah Caruth, six laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Patrick Staropoli
- Kyle Sieg
- Garrett Smithley
- Mason Maggio
- Lavar Scott
- Blaine Perkins
- Brennan Poole
- Preston Pardus
- Nathan Byrd
- Ryan Ellis, one lap down
- Josh Bilicki, one lap down
- Blake Lothian, one lap down
- David Starr, one lap down
- Joey Gase, one lap down
- Jeremy Clements, three laps down, nine laps led, Stage 1 winner
- JJ Yeley – OUT, Fuel Pump
Next on the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule is Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, for the Hy-Vee Perks 250. The event is scheduled to occur on August 8 and air at 5 p.m. ET on the CW Network, MRN Radio, and SiriusXM.
