{"id":61390,"date":"2026-10-03T22:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T03:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=61390"},"modified":"2026-10-04T19:26:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T00:26:32","slug":"day-hits-the-jackpot-in-back-and-forth-vegas-battle-with-kvapil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/03\/day-hits-the-jackpot-in-back-and-forth-vegas-battle-with-kvapil\/","title":{"rendered":"Day hits the jackpot in back-and-forth Vegas battle with Kvapil \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – OCTOBER 03: Corey Day, driver of the #17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 03, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

LAS VEGAS \u2013 In one of the most thrilling finishes of the season, 20-year-old Hendrick Motorsports rookie driver Corey Day prevailed in a final laps back-and-forth with 23-year-old JR Motorsports\u2019 racer Carson Kvapil to claim his third career NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series victory in Saturday\u2019s Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – OCTOBER 03: Corey Day, driver of the #17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, leads Carson Kvapil, driver of the #1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet, to win the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 03, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Day and Kvapil exchanged the lead four times in the last 12 laps before Day made a daring pass \u2013 after brushing the wall multiple times \u2013 with two laps remaining to solidify a trophy hoist ultimately decided by a slight .287-seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh man, I just was so tight there and so scared I was going to go down and plow on the bottom let him get by me.” said a grinning Day, who started his No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from pole position, won the opening stage and led a career high 136 of the 201 laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a great car. We struggled over the summer, to tell you the truth. Won Talladega (in April) and then Dover pretty close and then just went dry. This feels really good. A dominant day for us for sure, great car.<\/p>\n

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – OCTOBER 03: Corey Day, driver of the #17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 03, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI knew we\u2019d be a title contender from the start of the year,” added Day, whose win puts him fifth in the 12-driver championship rankings with five races remaining on the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust had a dry summer there but we\u2019re getting things rolling back in the right direction. We\u2019ll just keep working.<\/p>\n

Kvapil, who like Day also earned his first career series wins this season (at Indianapolis and Iowa) – was understandably disappointed to lose out on Saturday\u2019s victory, but also encouraged with the showing. It moved him into second place in the championship standings, now 19 points behind Haas Factory Team\u2019s Sheldon Creed, who finished 13th.<\/p>\n

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – OCTOBER 03: Jeremy Clements, driver of the #51 Pounds Pickle Co\/Inception Energy Chevrolet, drives during the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 03, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI feel like our stuff was really good around the bottom,” Kvapil said. \u201cHad a really good car today. Props to those guys for making us a top-three car. There at the end, I thought the 17 [Day] was pretty stout. Some lapped traffic held him up there and I was able to find some speed at the bottom of [turns] one and two. Just never really tried the fence. I knew once I got in front of him what would be best for me was to run the bottom. He ran the top and just hit a perfect corner.”<\/p>\n

Reigning series champion, Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Jesse Love finished just behind the duel up front, in third place, followed by JGR teammates \u2019s William Sawalich \u2013 one of four drivers among the top-10 not Chase eligible \u2013 and Taylor Gray.<\/p>\n

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – OCTOBER 03: Corey Day, driver of the #17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, leads the field to start the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 03, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Haas Factory Team\u2019s Sam Mayer \u2013 another Chase-eligible driver – finished sixth having turned in an impressive comeback. He won Stage 2 and led 40 laps (second to Day) but had to rally from the rear of the field after a pit stop penalty during the Stage 2 break.<\/p>\n

Non-Chase eligible drivers Jeremy Clements, William Sawalich, and Anthony Alfredo finished seventh, eighth and 10th respectively with Chase driver Austin Hill taking ninth place.<\/p>\n

It was an especially impactful race for former series champion and the season\u2019s most productive team, JR Motorsports\u2019 Justin Allgaier. He was collected in an accident on Lap 55 with fellow Chase competitor, Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Brandon Jones.<\/p>\n

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – OCTOBER 03: Corey Day, driver of the #17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 03, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just after winning the race off pit road for the restart from the first stage break, Jones\u2019 No. 20 Toyota had a problem and drifted up into Allgaier\u2019s No. 7 Chevrolet in Turn 2 putting it into the wall. Both cars were towed back to the garage. Allgaier was able to return to the track with 84 laps remaining and made a single lap to move up a position in the race finishing order. Still, his 34th place result dropped the regular season champion from second to fourth in the standings \u2013 31 points off the leader Creed.<\/p>\n

It was only the second DNF of the season for the six-race winner Allgaier, who held an enormous 229-point advantage atop the regular season standings before the points reset for the Chase run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI checked up and tried to be able to sneak by him [Jones] on the outside, but it just didn\u2019t work out,” said Allgaier. \u201cI hate it for everybody on the seven-team. Obviously, we\u2019ve had lots of speed everywhere we\u2019ve gone all year, but to start the Chase off like this has been pretty frustrating. But we\u2019ll go next week and try to win another race. Disappointing end to a day I thought we were making some headway.”<\/p>\n

The NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action next Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the Blue Cross NC 250 (4 p.m. ET on the CW, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). This marks the first Fall race on the 1.5-mile Charlotte oval since 2017 when Alex Bowman hoisted the trophy driving for Chip Ganassi Racing.<\/p>\n

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Race – Focused Health 302<\/b><\/p>\n

Las Vegas Motor Speedway<\/b><\/p>\n

Las Vegas, Nevada<\/b><\/p>\n

Saturday, October 3, 2026<\/b><\/p>\n

                1. (1)  Corey Day (C), Chevrolet, 201.<\/p>\n

                2. (9)  Carson Kvapil (C), Chevrolet, 201.<\/p>\n

                3. (10)  Jesse Love (C), Chevrolet, 201.<\/p>\n

                4. (4)  Brent Crews # (C), Toyota, 201.<\/p>\n

                5. (5)  Taylor Gray (C), Toyota, 201.<\/p>\n

                6. (8)  Sam Mayer (C), Chevrolet, 201.<\/p>\n

                7. (21)  Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 201.<\/p>\n

                8. (36)  William Sawalich, Toyota, 201.<\/p>\n

                9. (12)  Austin Hill (C), Chevrolet, 201.<\/p>\n

                10. (18)  Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 201.<\/p>\n

                11. (6)  Rajah Caruth (C), Chevrolet, 201.<\/p>\n

                12. (20)  Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 201.<\/p>\n

                13. (2)  Sheldon Creed (C), Chevrolet, 201.<\/p>\n

                14. (11)  Harrison Burton, Toyota, 200.<\/p>\n

                15. (23)  Sammy Smith (C), Chevrolet, 200.<\/p>\n

                16. (22)  Dean Thompson, Toyota, 200.<\/p>\n

                17. (16)  Brennan Poole, Ford, 200.<\/p>\n

                18. (26)  Lee Pulliam, Chevrolet, 199.<\/p>\n

                19. (17)  Parker Retzlaff (C), Chevrolet, 199.<\/p>\n

                20. (19)  Kyle Sieg, Chevrolet, 199.<\/p>\n

                21. (14)  Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 199.<\/p>\n

                22. (15)  Andrew Patterson, Chevrolet, 199.<\/p>\n

                23. (25)  Matt DiBenedetto, Chevrolet, 199.<\/p>\n

                24. (13)  Patrick Staropoli #, Chevrolet, 198.<\/p>\n

                25. (31)  Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 198.<\/p>\n

                26. (30)  Lavar Scott #, Chevrolet, 198.<\/p>\n

                27. (33)  Joey Gase, Ford, 198.<\/p>\n

                28. (28)  Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 197.<\/p>\n

                29. (29)  Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 197.<\/p>\n

                30. (34)  Josh Bilicki, Chevrolet, 195.<\/p>\n

                31. (24)  Blaine Perkins, Chevrolet, 193.<\/p>\n

                32. (32)  Blake Lothian, Chevrolet, 192.<\/p>\n

                33. (27)  Mason Maggio, Chevrolet, 175.<\/p>\n

                34. (7)  Justin Allgaier (C), Chevrolet, DVP, 56.<\/p>\n

                35. (3)  Brandon Jones (C), Toyota, Accident, 54.<\/p>\n

                36. (35)  Dawson Cram, Chevrolet, Transmission, 13.<\/p>\n

Average Speed of Race Winner:  135.37 mph.<\/p>\n

Time of Race:  2 Hrs, 13 Mins, 38 Secs. Margin of Victory:  0.287 Seconds.<\/p>\n

Caution Flags:  3 for 21 laps.<\/p>\n

Lead Changes:  15 among 9 drivers.<\/p>\n

Lap Leaders:   C. Day (C) 1;S. Creed (C) 2-8;C. Day (C) 9-48;R. Caruth (C) 49;B. Jones (C) 50-53;S. Mayer (C) 54-93;R. Caruth (C) 94;W. Sawalich 95-99;C. Day (C) 100-144;A. Alfredo 145-146;J. Burton 147-148;C. Day (C) 149-189;C. Kvapil (C) 190-191;C. Day (C) 192-198;C. Kvapil (C) 199;C. Day (C) 200-201.<\/p>\n

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Corey Day (C) 6 times for 136 laps; Sam Mayer (C) 1 time for 40 laps; Sheldon Creed (C) 1 time for 7 laps; William Sawalich 1 time for 5 laps; Brandon Jones (C) 1 time for 4 laps; Carson Kvapil (C) 2 times for 3 laps; Rajah Caruth (C) 2 times for 2 laps; Anthony Alfredo 1 time for 2 laps; Jeb Burton 1 time for 2 laps.<\/p>\n

Stage #1 Top Ten: 17,41,88,20,2,19,39,54,21,7<\/p>\n

Stage #2 Top Ten: 41,17,88,1,51,18,19,2,54,39<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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