Corey Day Beats Carson Kvapil in Las Vegas O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Thriller

Corey Day won the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, barely out-dueling Carson Kvapil in the closing laps. The No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports team now has three wins on the 2026 season following one of the best finishes of the year.

“I just was so tight there to end and I was scared I was going to go down there and plow on the bottom,” Day said after riding the wall despite his team’s calls for him to run the inside. “It was badass.”

Day and Kvapil’s battle in the final laps of the race saw both cars struggling for control and Day’s car brushing the wall multiple times. Kvapil’s No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet edged in front as the pair reached lapped traffic, but Day utilized the outside lane’s speed on corner exit to surge back to the lead. In the end, even an impact with the wall in Turn 4 on the final lap was not enough to stall Day’s momentum.

“I feel like our stuff was pretty good on the bottom, that’s where we were making up out time,” Kvapil said. “I felt like out stuff right in the beginning might not have been where we wanted it but within a change or two I felt like we were one of the best cars.”

Trouble for Chase Contenders

Disaster struck for recent championship leader Justin Allgaier on Lap 55 when he was taken hard into the wall by Brandon Jones. It appeared Jones got loose in Turn 2, sending him hard into the outside wall directly in front of Allgaier’s car. Though Allgaier lifted, there was no time to miss the wreck. Jones was eliminated then and there, while Allgaier was only able to complete one more lap after returning to the track 60 laps later. This allowed him to move ahead of Jones in the race results and gain one point in the finishing order. As fate would have it, Jones was disqualified after the race for unsecured lug nuts.

Corey Day won Stage 1, while Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer took the second stage. Mayer may have had one of the faster cars on-track with a shot to win for part of the race, but a pit road mishap cost him a shot at a result. On Lap 94 the No. 41 crew lost a tire during their stop, resulting in a rear-of-the-field penalty. Mayer rebounded to sixth, aided in the end by 19 points from the race’s two stages.

Chase Outlook

Race winner Corey Day entered the race in eighth 92 points out of the Chase lead. He leaves only 41 points behind leader Sheldon Creed in fifth. Had Carson Kvapil hung on for his third win of the season, he would’ve had a much-needed boost in his quest for the championship. Instead he’s second, 19 points back from Creed.

Jesse Love is third in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase thanks to a strong third-place finish. Once the runaway favorite, Justin Allgaier has slipped to fourth in the standings with 31 points to make up on the leaders. Sam Mayer is sixth at 52 points back before a drop-off to seventh-place Taylor Gray at 91 points out.

Race Results