Corey Day officially became a NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series winner on Saturday (April 25) after holding off the field as they crashed on the final lap to win his maiden race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Day was locked in a three-wide battle with Haas Factory Team teammates Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer for the final laps, but Day was able to clear Creed down the backstretch on the final lap, while Mayer got turned heading into turn 3. As the field crashed behind him, Day held off a hard-charging Brent Crews as the caution came out to seal his first win.
“Never in a million years did I think my [first] win would be at a superspeedway,” Day said on the radio after taking the checkered flag.
Despite running near the front all day, Day led just one lap — the final one.
It’s the first O’Reilly win for Hendrick Motorsports since Kyle Larson won the spring race at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2025, and Day becomes the first Hendrick Motorsports driver since Kyle Busch in 2004 to get his first O’Reilly win driving for Rick Hendrick.
Crews was officially scored second, while Creed finished third. For the second straight week, the driver of the No. 00 was the top Dash 4 Cash driver, earning him another $100,000.
”To win two of them back-to-back is awesome for our team,” Creed told The CW after the race. “Just try to keep the momentum rolling.”
Day, Crews, Creed and Sammy Smith, who finished fourth, will compete for the final Dash 4 Cash prize of the season at Texas Motor Speedway.
Jeremy Clements completed the top-five.
The race wasn’t green long before the first caution of the day came out. Going down the backstretch on lap 1, Patrick Staropoli got turned into the outside wall and collected David Starr and Tyler Ankrum, who was making his O’Reilly debut.
Carson Kvapil won stage one in a photo finish over teammate Smith. Kvapil’s other teammate Justin Allgaier took home stage two. Polesitter Jesse Love paced the field for 37 laps, the highest on the day.
The final stage went green the whole way, but it wasn’t for lack of trying to draw a yellow on the field’s part. During the round of green flag pit stops, William Sawalich came in way too hot and smoked the right front of Crews’ car as he flew in. Sawalich was subsequently penalized for speeding. Kvapil and Allgaier were also penalized for blend line violations after blocking a freight train of race cars down the backstretch led by Love.
Then, with 16 laps to go, Mayer got turned sideways by Parker Retzlaff, but was somehow able to hang on to it and stay in the fight before he got turned by Sawalich on the final lap.
The field finally wadded it up in turn 3 on the final lap, when the field got jumbled by Mayer’s spin. After a brief five-wide moment, Ryan Sieg and Jeb Burton squeezed into the outside wall and crashed. Sieg came back down the hill and clipped Harrison Burton, sending the No. 24 hard into the outside wall. At that point, NASCAR threw the caution with Day comfortably in front of the field.
Day’s win was also notable for his pit crew, as former Philadelphia Eagles center and Super Bowl champion Jason Kelce was on the No. 17’s pit crew for the day.
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series now heads to Texas Motor Speedway for the Andy’s Frozen Custard 340. Kyle Larson won last year’s race as a fill-in for Connor Zilisch after Zilisch broke his back at Talladega. Coverage begins at approximately 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 2. The CW will carry the television broadcast, while Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Channel 90 will carry the radio broadcast.
Featured photo: NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series on Twitter/X.
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