{"id":62022,"date":"2026-10-24T18:00:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T23:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=62022"},"modified":"2026-10-25T13:45:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T18:45:50","slug":"sammy-smith-makes-it-2-for-2-with-oreilly-auto-parts-series-talladega-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/24\/sammy-smith-makes-it-2-for-2-with-oreilly-auto-parts-series-talladega-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Sammy Smith makes it 2-for-2 with O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Talladega victory"},"content":{"rendered":"
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TALLADEGA, ALABAMA – OCTOBER 24: Sammy Smith, driver of the #8 Pilot Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series The Progress Group 250 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 24, 2026 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Karl Anderson\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Holly Cain | <\/strong><\/b>NASCAR Wire Service<\/b><\/p>\n

TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013  As Sammy Smith walked away from the interviews and Victory Lane celebrations following an overtime win in Friday night\u2019s NASCAR truck race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, he smiled and promised there would be no post-race party because he had a race to win Saturday.<\/p>\n

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TALLADEGA, ALABAMA – OCTOBER 24: Sammy Smith, driver of the #8 Pilot Chevrolet, takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series The Progress Group 250 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 24, 2026 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And he did just that.<\/p>\n

The 22-year old JR Motorsports driver snapped a 53-race winless streak in the NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series Saturday afternoon with a dramatic last lap pass in his No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to claim a .084-second win over the day\u2019s most dominant driver, his teammate Carson Kvapil in The Progress Group 250.<\/p>\n

The checkered flag lap was the only one Smith led all day as he becomes the first driver to win multiple series races at the famous 2.66-mile high banks since his team owner, NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. did it back in April 2003.<\/p>\n

And Smith becomes the first non-NASCAR Cup Series driver to sweep both the NASCAR Craftsman Truck and O\u2019Reilly Series races at a track since the late Greg Biffle in 2001.<\/p>\n

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TALLADEGA, ALABAMA – OCTOBER 24: Sammy Smith, driver of the #8 Pilot Chevrolet, celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series The Progress Group 250 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 24, 2026 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMan, that was mentally draining, just thank you to everybody,\u2019\u2019  Smith said. \u201cIt was a great executed race by JRM and we did a good job sticking to our plan with getting those guys [Kvapil team] stage points. I\u2019m sure they wanted them to win, but I had a good run there to take it and [spotter] Tyler Green did a great job up top to help me get backed up. Thanks to Jesse [Love] for pushing me.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, I\u2019m just happy for everyone on this No. 8 Chevrolet, it\u2019s been a tough year this year and I\u2019m looking forward to Martinsville next week,\u2019\u2019 said Smith, who announced this weekend he will be moving to the truck series fulltime in 2027.<\/p>\n

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TALLADEGA, ALABAMA – OCTOBER 24: Sammy Smith, driver of the #8 Pilot Chevrolet, celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series The Progress Group 250 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 24, 2026 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Scott Taetsch\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kvapil, whose No. 1 JRM Chevy led a race-best 67 of the 94 laps \u2013 including 31 of the last 32 laps – was obviously disappointed in the outcome after such a strong day at the front of the field. He remains fifth in the championship run, however, and cut 20 points out of his deficit to Love, but still trails by 59 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst things first, [crew chief] Rodney [Childers] and all the guys on this entire No. 1 team brought a fast race car and we\u2019ve been if not the best car, one of the best cars at all the speedways this year so I knew this weekend would be a big opportunity for us to have a big points day and really eat away at that gap,\u2019\u2019 Kvapil said. \u201cWe did our jobs in stage one and two and got a lot of stage points and put ourselves in position at the end, leading he race.<\/p>\n

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TALLADEGA, ALABAMA – OCTOBER 24: JJesse Love, driver of the #2 Samsara Chevrolet, leads the field to the green flag to start during the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series The Progress Group 250 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 24, 2026 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cYou can always sit back, and hindsight is 20-20, but I don\u2019t know it\u2019s hard to tell who\u2019s going to have the momentum. \u2026 I thought overall our organization did a great job of working together better this year.”<\/p>\n

Significant to the championship standings, Kvapil outpaced Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Jesse Love, who started from pole position for a record fifth consecutive Talladega O\u2019Reilly Series race and rallied to a third place showing after a challenging afternoon that cut his lead atop the standings. With only a pair of races now remaining in the championship battle, Love\u2019s gap to second place Allgaier closed from 36 points before the green flag to only 19 points after the checkered flag.<\/p>\n

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TALLADEGA, ALABAMA – OCTOBER 24: A general view of racing during the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series The Progress Group 250 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 24, 2026 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Scott Taetsch\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI was the \u2018help\u2019, which is fine. I realize I was a little stubborn in stage 1 and 2. \u2026 hats off to JRM and all the Hendrick engine shop cars, they knew what they were doing and executed it very well the whole race. I had zero chance really to do anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou still try, still give it the ole\u2019 college try, but I just realized there probably wasn\u2019t one car out there that was going to push the two, so I was like, all right, I\u2019ll just play ball and push whoever\u2019s in front of me and see where that puts us at the end. It was definitely a little bit frustrating for sure, but in the middle part of that race if you had told me I was going to finish third I\u2019d have been jumping up and down in joy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHappy to leave here with the [points] lead.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

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TALLADEGA, ALABAMA – OCTOBER 24: A general view of racing during the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series The Progress Group 250 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 24, 2026 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Karl Anderson\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Allgaier finished fourth on the day, won Stage 2 and cut his deficit to Love heading to next Saturday\u2019s race at Martinsville, Va.  \u2013 a victory of sorts for the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like this is the pace we\u2019ve had all year,\u2019\u2019 Allgaier said. \u201cWe\u2019ve run out front. We\u2019ve just had things out of our control happen and honestly, that\u2019s what makes it weird. I love this [new championship] format even though it\u2019s kinda going against us at the moment. We just haven\u2019t \u2013 not by our own accord \u2013 had the races go the way we wanted to. We\u2019ve been behind, but days like today are what we need. And we\u2019ve got to go do that next week at Martinsville and the next week at Homestead [season finale]. I\u2019m pumped.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Haas Factory Team driver Sheldon Creed rounded out the top-five with Hendrick Motorsports rookie Corey Day finishing sixth \u2013 the top-six drivers among the 12-driver championship field.<\/p>\n

Blaine Perkins, Dean Thompson, Chase-eligible Brandon Jones and Anthony Alfredo rounded out the top-10.<\/p>\n

The NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action next week in the National Debt Relief 250 (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Taylor Gray is the defending Fall race winner.<\/p>\n

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Race – The Progress Group 250<\/b><\/p>\n

Talladega Superspeedway<\/b><\/p>\n

Talladega, Alabama<\/b><\/p>\n

Saturday, October 24, 2026<\/b><\/p>\n

                  1. (11)  Sammy Smith (C), Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  2. (4)  Carson Kvapil (C), Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  3. (1)  Jesse Love (C), Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  4. (14)  Justin Allgaier (C), Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  5. (12)  Sheldon Creed (C), Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  6. (10)  Corey Day (C), Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  7. (36)  Blaine Perkins, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  8. (27)  Dean Thompson, Toyota, 94.<\/p>\n

                  9. (16)  Brandon Jones (C), Toyota, 94.<\/p>\n

                  10. (7)  Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  11. (32)  Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  12. (24)  Mason Maggio, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  13. (3)  Sam Mayer (C), Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  14. (25)  Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  15. (13)  Nick Leitz(i), Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  16. (35)  Josh Bilicki, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  17. (6)  Rajah Caruth (C), Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  18. (15)  Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  19. (23)  Connor Mosack(i), Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  20. (28)  Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  21. (17)  Taylor Gray (C), Toyota, 94.<\/p>\n

                  22. (38)  Lee Pulliam, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  23. (22)  Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  24. (19)  Harrison Burton, Toyota, 94.<\/p>\n

                  25. (30)  Will Rodgers, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  26. (34)  Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  27. (37)  Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  28. (29)  Kyle Sieg, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  29. (9)  William Sawalich, Toyota, 94.<\/p>\n

                  30. (20)  Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  31. (26)  Parker Retzlaff (C), Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  32. (21)  Patrick Staropoli #, Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  33. (33)  Daniel Dye(i), Chevrolet, 94.<\/p>\n

                  34. (8)  Brent Crews # (C), Toyota, 94.<\/p>\n

                  35. (5)  Austin Hill (C), Chevrolet, 92.<\/p>\n

                  36. (31)  Leland Honeyman Jr.(i), Chevrolet, 88.<\/p>\n

                  37. (18)  Caesar Bacarella, Chevrolet, 85.<\/p>\n

                  38. (2)  Jake Finch, Chevrolet, Accident, 84.<\/p>\n

Average Speed of Race Winner:  139.557 mph.<\/p>\n

Time of Race:  1 Hrs, 47 Mins, 30 Secs. Margin of Victory:  0.084 Seconds.<\/p>\n

Caution Flags:  4 for 20 laps.<\/p>\n

Lead Changes:  11 among 8 drivers.<\/p>\n

Lap Leaders:   J. Love (C) 0;C. Kvapil (C) 1-27;R. Ellis 28;C. Day (C) 29-32;C. Kvapil (C) 33-41;J. Allgaier (C) 42-52;J. Gase 53;H. Burton 54-55;T. Gray (C) 56;H. Burton 57-62;C. Kvapil (C) 63-93;S. Smith (C) 94.<\/p>\n

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Carson Kvapil (C) 3 times for 67 laps; Justin Allgaier (C) 1 time for 11 laps; Harrison Burton 2 times for 8 laps; Corey Day (C) 1 time for 4 laps; Taylor Gray (C) 1 time for 1 lap; Joey Gase 1 time for 1 lap; Sammy Smith (C) 1 time for 1 lap; Ryan Ellis 1 time for 1 lap.<\/p>\n

Stage #1 Top Ten: 1,88,7,17,00,43,54,9,51,18<\/p>\n

Stage #2 Top Ten: 7,1,8,21,17,00,24,19,96,71<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013  As Sammy Smith walked away from the interviews and Victory Lane celebrations following an overtime win in Friday night\u2019s NASCAR truck race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, he smiled and promised there would be no post-race party because he had a race to win Saturday. And<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":62005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,1147,1004,208],"class_list":["post-62022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-oreilly-auto-parts-series","tag-sammy-smith","tag-talladega-superspeedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-g8m","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GettyImages-2301834259-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62022"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62027,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62022\/revisions\/62027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}