The O’Reilly’s Auto Parts Series made their first trip to the desert this weekend as the series visited their first non drafting oval of the year. Taylor Gray led the field to the green flag with Jesse Love to his inside. Gray led the first 11 laps after Love spun his tires on the initial start. Love took command on lap 12 and took control of the race for the majority of the first stage. Sammy Smith climbed his way to the front of the field and prepared to challenge Love in lapped traffic as we approached lap 40. After some back and forth in traffic Smith took the lead on lap 42 and went on to win the first stage.
Stage One Results:
- Sammy Smith
- Jesse Love
- Carson Kvapil
- Justin Algaier
- William Byron
- Jeb Burton
- Corey Day
- Brent Crews
- Sheldon Creed
- Brandon Jones
During the stage break pit stops ensued. Love won the race off pit road over Carson Kvapil and Sammy Smith. Corey Day slid too close to the wall and slid from 7th to 23rd. Love retained the lead off the start of the second stage over Kvapil and stretched his lead out to nearly three seconds. This stage was mostly uneventful at the front as Love led the entire stage wire to wire.
Stage Two Results:
- Jesse Love
- Carson Kvapil
- William Byron
- Justin Algaier
- Brent Crews
- Sammy Smith
- Jeb Burton
- Taylor Gray
- Sheldon Creed
- Jeremy Clements
During the stage break pit stops Gray’s crew rocketed him up the leaderboard from 8th to 2nd. On the other side of the coin Justin Algaier’s team had struggles that dropped him from 4th to 21st. Love maintained his hold on the lead as we started the final stage with Gray and Kvapil battling for second behind him.
Kvapil set his sights on Love and started to reel him in, getting side by side with him as we hit lap 133. Love was not willing to give up the lead easily as the two would spend the next six to seven laps battling each other incredibly respectfully while weaving through lapped traffic before Kvapil would finally get clear and pull away at lap 139.
Jeremy Clements was a highlight for the self funded drivers in the field as he made his way into the top five after spending the early stages of the race battling through the field and into the top ten. Kvapil stretched his lead out to over two seconds as green flag pit stops started as we hit 50 laps to go, with William Sawalich being the first to go down pit road from the mid teens and Sheldon Creed who had climbed to second place in his Haas Factory Team entry would be the first of the leaders to pit a lap later.
Creed would cycle out to the lead from his early pit stop and Kvapil closed back onto his bumper but couldn’t pass him before a caution came out with 45 laps to go as Anthony Alfredo made contact with and spun Lavar Scott. Creed led the inside line and Kvapil the outside line as we restarted with 28 laps to go. Creed spun his tires and Sam Mayer would pass both his HFT teammate and Kvapil to take the lead before a caution came out only two laps into the run as Brandon Jones spun off the nose of Sammy Smith’s car after contact into turn one battling for 9th. This wreck would collect William Byron, Dean Thompson, Blaine Perkins, Gray and Sawalich who leaked fluid onto the racing surface requiring a lengthy cleanup.
We finally got back to racing with 14 laps to go, Mayer controlled the inside as Creed controlled the outside. Mayer went high into turn two which created an opening for both Kvapil and Love to challenge alongside. Kvapil got into Mayer in turn three which allowed Love to get a clean run on Creed who hit the wall on the exit of turn four. This gave Love the lead with a hard charging Justin Algaier in tow.
Algaier got around Love as we came to nine laps to go and did not relinquish the lead once he got ahold of it despite Love’s best efforts. Algaier wins the GOVX 200 at Phoenix Raceway and extends his active win streak in the ORAPs series to 10 consecutive seasons. Passing both Kyle Busch and Mark Martin who he tied for the record last year. This win also propelled Algaier into the points lead after four races.
Top Ten Results:
- Justin Algaier
- Jesse Love
- Carson Kvapil
- Sheldon Creed
- Sam Mayer
- Sammy Smith
- Jeb Burton
- Rajah Caruth
- Corey Day
- Anthony Alfredo
Photo Credit: @JRMotorsports on Twitter
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