Corey Day put on a performance worthy of a Las Vegas residency in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, working every single lane of the racetrack to hold off Carson Kvapil and park the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet in Victory Lane.
The Clovis, California-native led a race-high 136 of 201 laps on the evening, and was the dominant driver, but looked as though he faded late in the final stint of the race, allowing Kvapil to close in on the Hendrick Motorsports driver.
What followed was one of the best 10-lap duels the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series has seen in quite some time, if not ever. In the final two laps of the race, Day, the race winner, hit the wall off Turn 4, made contact with Kvapil at the line, hit the wall in Turn 2 on the final lap, and again off Turn 4 coming to the checkered, never bailed out of the throttle, and somehow, was the first driver to the line.
It’s the third NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory of the year for Day, who also won at Talladega Superspeedway and Dover Motor Speedway earlier this year.
“Oh man, I was just so tight there at the end, and I was so scared I was going to go down there and plow on the bottom and let him by me, and then just have no run and be able to do nothing,” Day told The CW on the frontstretch post-race. “Man, just a great car man, Adam Wall, Becker, Jordan, and everybody that works hard at the shop on this thing, we’ve been, we struggled over the Summer there, to tell you the truth, we won Talladega and Dover there pretty close, and just went dry, so feels really good, dominant day for us, for sure.”
“That was badass.”
Carson Kvapil finished in the runner-up position, with Jesse Love coming home in third. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Brent Crews and Taylor Gray rounded out the top-five. Sam Mayer rebounded from a pit road penalty to finish in sixth, with Jeremy Clements, William Sawalich, Austin Hill, and Anthony Alfredo rounding out the top-10.
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series points leader Sheldon Creed finished a subpar 13th on the night, but still maintained the points lead after an early-race issue for Justin Allgaier, who crashed into the outside SAFER Barrier with Brandon Jones, ending their days in 34th and 35th.
Jones would later be disqualified from 35th place for having more than four lug nuts improperly secured. The No. 20 drops from 35th to 36th in the running order, but forfeits eight points, after losing his fourth-place result in Stage 1.
Sheldon Creed leaves Las Vegas with a 19-point advantage over Carson Kvapil. The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will tackle Charlotte Motor Speedway next weekend, with the race taking place on Saturday, October 10 at 4:00 PM ET on The CW.
