Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Talladega Superspeedway ended in a dramatic crash, and it was a first career win for Hendrick Motorsports driver Corey Day, making his 22nd career start. The win also featured a new crew member on the No. 17, as Super Bowl champ Jason Kelce joined Hendrick Motorsports for this race, assisting the fueler.
On the final lap, Sam Mayer was trying to hold on to the race lead, but spun down the backstretch after trying to block a run from behind. Several other cars crashed in a separate accident in Turns 3 and 4, forcing NASCAR to throw a race-ending yellow.
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When the field was frozen, it was Day clearly ahead with Brent Crews second, Sheldon Creed third, Sammy Smith fourth, and Jeremy Clements fifth. Dean Thompson, Jesse Love, Brandon Jones, Parker Retzlaff, and Austin Green filled out the remainder of the top ten.
Creed also earned the $100,000 Dash4Cash bonus for the second consecutive week.
Stages 1 and 2
On the very first lap of the race, Patrick Staropoli crashed into the outside wall on the backstretch, collecting David Starr and Tyler Ankrum — who was making his O’Reilly Series debut.
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Surprisingly, that was the only crash until the very end of the race, despite some very aggressive three-wide racing throughout the rest of Stage 1.
Kvapil ultimately won Stage 1 in a photo finish over teammate Smith, followed by Creed, Caruth, Thompson, Perkins, Mayer, Harrison Burton, Love, and Clements
Stage 2 was a bit calmer, and the field ended up single-file for a while. Allgaier passed teammate Kvapil after shuffling him out of line on the final lap, winning Stage 2 over Creed, Thompson, Reztlaff, Kvapil, H. Burton, Clements, Green, Hill, and J. Burton.
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Stage 3
Four of the top six runners after pit stops were penalized for a blend line violation. This really changed the outlook at the front of the field, with Taylor Gray now leading Jeb Burton.
With 43 laps to go, the final round of pit stops took place under green with the RCR and RCR-aligned cars coming down pit road first. The Totyotas were next, and Sawalich door-slammed one of his teammates while blowing the entry to pit road, suffering a speeding penalty.
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As the field came back together, the JR Motorsports duo of Allgaier and Kvapil pulled aggressive blocks against Love and the oncoming pack. NASCAR felt that was a bit too dangerous, and issued a drive-through penalty to the Stage 1 and Stage 2 winner, taking them out of contention.
With 16 laps to go, Mayer spun sideways at the exit of Turn 2, but somehow managed to straighten it out and stay in the lead pack.
As the field was lapping Rajah Caruth, everything got mixed up and drivers jumped at the opportunity to gain spots. Mayer rejoined the fight for the win, and Love got shuffled back as the Haas duo of Mayer and Creed faced off against Day.
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Mayer appeared to be in the best position, but a late-block on the final lap sent him spinning, while several other cars inside the top ten crashed soon after, ending the race.
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