April 19, 2026 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Taylor Gray wins Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway

KANSAS CITY, Kansas—The early bird got the victory on Saturday night.

The first of the frontrunners to pit during the final 95-lap green-flag run in the Kansas Lottery 300, Taylor Gray grabbed the lead during the cycle and held off charging Sheldon Creed to score the second NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory of his career.

Crew chief Jason Ratcliff, who won at Kansas with driver David Green in 2003, called Gray into the pits on Lap 143 of 200. Creed and Brandon Jones, running first and second on Lap 146, emerged from pit road after stops on Lap 147 roughly three seconds behind Gray.

Jones, winner of the first two stages, had to serve a pass-through penalty for a tire violation during his stop and lost the chance to win. But Creed, with Justin Allgaier behind him in third, began a methodical pursuit of Gray that ultimately came up 0.718 seconds short.

“How about Jason Ratcliff?” Gray exclaimed after climbing from his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. “That pit call was awesome. We had a car capable of winning. I thought the 20 (Jones) was a little better than us before the green-flag cycle started, but we just had to stay locked in, and we had to be a little bit freer.

“Jason made a really good adjustment on the car and a really good pit call and got us in clean air. It’s been a long start to the year, man—not that we’re not bringing speed to the race track. It’s just that things haven’t really gone our way. So it’s nice to finally be able to close one out.”

Gray gained three positions to ninth in the series standings.

As it turned out, Creed also had plenty of reasons to celebrate. By finishing first among four eligible drivers, he earned a $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus for the first time in his career. It was Creed’s fifth attempt to win the Dash 4 Cash prize money.

“It was a great day for us after starting in the back,” said Creed who dropped to the rear of the field at the beginning of the race after his No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet failed pre-race inspection. “I kind of knew right away my car was really fast, and I was able to drive to the front, and I just had a lot of fun today…

“It’s just really cool to be able to bring a hundred grand back to the Haas Factory Team. I definitely wanted to win and add to it, but the 54 (Gray) did a really good job short-pitting us. He ran a really good last 40 laps there a got through traffic quick and made it where I never really got close enough.”

Allgaier came home third, followed by defending series champion Jesse Love and Brent Crews. William Byron, Cole Custer, Jones, Sam Mayer and Ryan Sieg completed the top 10 in a race that featured 11 lead changes among eight drivers.

Allgaier finished third in both stages and added one point to his series lead over second-place Creed. The margin is now 131 points.

Long before Gray took the checkered flag, there was plenty of action in the first stage.

The race wasn’t two laps old when an accident on the backstretch launched the No.1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet of Carson Kvapil into the air and sent it flipping down the backstretch.

Contact from Byron’s Chevy turned Kvapil’s car sideways near the front of the field. Parker Retzlaff’s piled into Kvapil’s car near the outside wall. The impact knocked the rear of Kvapil’s Camaro airborne, and the car proceeded to barrel-roll down the backstretch, coming to rest on its roof.

With the use of tethers and a tow truck, safety workers righted the car, and Kvapil climbed out before a mandatory trip to the infield care center.

“Maybe on dirt, I’ve flipped a few of them, but definitely never asphalt racing or a big stock car race,” Kvapil said after being evaluated and released from the care center. “It was actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be, once I realized I was going over, but it just sucks.”

On Lap 38, Jesse Love crowded Richard Childress Racing teammate Austin Hill down toward the apron as the two raced side-by-side in Turn 4. Hill spun sideways, and as he fought to control his No. 21 Chevrolet, the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of William Sawalich plowed into Hill’s car.

“I’ll remember this,” Hill promised on his radio, referring to racing from his teammate he thought was unnecessarily close.

Hill fell out of the race in 34th place. Corey Day saw his streak of eight straight top 10s end with a 12th-place finish after rallying from an accident on Lap 101 and subsequent flat tire.

Gray, Creed, Allgaier and Love qualified for the third Dash 4 Cash race of the season, Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway (4 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).


NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Race Number 10
Race Results for the Kansas Lottery 300 - Saturday, April 18, 2026
Kansas Speedway - Kansas City, KS - 1.5 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 200 Laps - 300. Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 4/18/2026 @ 10:20 PM Eastern

                                                  Stage 1  Stage 2  
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts  Pos     Pos  Status Tms Laps  
1 10 54 Taylor Gray Operation 300 Toyota 200 6 7 64 Running 1 48
2 4 00 Sheldon Creed Road Ranger Chevrolet 200 7 2 49 Running 1 48
3 3 7 Justin Allgaier BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet 200 3 3 50 Running
4 9 2 Jesse Love Whelen Chevrolet 200 4 4 47 Running 1 1
5 5 19 Brent Crews # YoungLife Toyota 200 8 35 Running
6 2 88 William Byron(i) HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 200 10 0 Running 1 1
7 36 0 Cole Custer(i) Sysco Chevrolet 200 0 Running
8 14 20 Brandon Jones Menards/Loctite Toyota 200 1 1 49 Running 3 67
9 19 41 Sam Mayer Audibel Chevrolet 200 9 30 Running
10 12 39 Ryan Sieg SciAps Chevrolet 200 27 Running 1 3
11 22 26 Dean Thompson Thompson Pipe Group Toyota 199 10 27 Running
12 6 17 Corey Day HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 199 2 5 40 Running 2 26
13 16 27 Jeb Burton easycare Chevrolet 199 9 26 Running
14 24 48 Patrick Staropoli # Syfovre Chevrolet 199 23 Running
15 18 51 Jeremy Clements Kingdom Truck Sales Chevrolet 199 22 Running
16 11 8 Sammy Smith Pilot Chevrolet 199 6 26 Running
17 30 92 Josh Williams Kole Trucking Chevrolet 199 20 Running
18 27 45 Lavar Scott # Urban Affairs Coalition Chevrolet 198 19 Running
19 17 44 Brennan Poole Skuttle Tight Chevrolet 198 18 Running
20 7 18 William Sawalich SoundGear Toyota 198 17 Running
21 13 32 Rajah Caruth HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 198 16 Running
22 29 02 Ryan Ellis Tablo TV Chevrolet 198 15 Running
23 21 31 Blaine Perkins WERNER Chevrolet 198 14 Running
24 32 42 Nathan Byrd Young's Motorsports Chevrolet 197 13 Running
25 25 28 Kyle Sieg SynerFuse Chevrolet 197 12 Running
26 23 07 Josh Bilicki SBG Records Chevrolet 196 11 Running
27 33 55 Joey Gase Stripes TV Chevrolet 194 10 Running
28 20 24 Harrison Burton DEX/SHARP Toyota 190 8 12 Running
29 28 74 Dawson Cram Mike Harmon Racing Chevrolet 120 8 Engine
30 31 96 Anthony Alfredo Dude Wipes Chevrolet 65 5 13 Accident 1 6
31 37 35 Blake Lothian Stripes TV Chevrolet 62 6 Brakes
32 35 87 Austin Green Peterson Racing Group Chevrolet 61 5 Engine
33 34 91 Mason Maggio KAM Powersports Chevrolet 51 4 Engine
34 15 21 Austin Hill Bennett Transportation Chevrolet 37 3 Accident
35 26 5 Luke Baldwin(i) Victory Custom Trailers Ford 4 0 Suspension
36 8 99 Parker Retzlaff GEMORO Chevrolet 2 1 Accident
37 1 1 Carson Kvapil Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet 1 1 Accident

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 33 Mins, 55 Secs. Average Speed: 116.946 MPH Margin of Victory: .718 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 20, 17, 7, 2, 96, 54, 00, 19, 27, 88
Stage 2 Top 10: 20, 00, 7, 2, 17, 8, 54, 24, 41, 26

Race Comments: Taylor Gray won the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway, his second career NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series victory. Prior to the green flag, the following car dropped to the rear for the reason indicated: No. 00 (pre-event inspection penalty).

Failed to Qualify: None.

Caution Flags: 7 for 37 laps; Laps: 3-5 (# 07, 1, 88, 99 Incident Backstretch (Red Flag 12:09) [None]); 22-26 (Competition Caution [35]); 39-42 (#2, 18, 21 Incident Turn 4 [None]); 47-53 (Stage 1 Conclusion [None]); 65-71 (#96 Incident Frontstretch [None]); 92-98 (Stage 2 Conclusion [None]); 102-105 (#8, 17, 39 Incident Backstretch  [None]).

Lead Changes: 11 among 8 drivers; C. Kvapil 0; C. Day 1-23; B. Jones 24-48; A. Alfredo 49-54; W. Byron(i) 55; B. Jones 56-70; J. Love 71; B. Jones 72-98; S. Creed 99-146; C. Day 147-149; R. Sieg 150-152; T. Gray 153-200.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: April 25, 2026 - Talladega Superspeedway

NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875



CURRENT NASCAR O'REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES STANDINGS

UNOFFICIAL UNOFFICIAL

1. Justin Allgaier 7 10 0 520 0 0 3 3
2. Sheldon Creed 00 10 0 389 -131 131 1 0
3. Jesse Love 2 10 0 371 -149 18 0 2
4. Corey Day 17 10 0 344 -176 27 0 2
5. Brandon Jones 20 10 3 324 -196 20 0 2
6. Sammy Smith 8 10 1 310 -210 14 0 1
7. Carson Kvapil 1 10 -2 301 -219 9 0 0
8. Austin Hill 21 10 -2 296 -224 5 1 4
9. Taylor Gray 54 10 3 294 -226 2 1 0
10. William Sawalich 18 10 0 271 -249 23 1 0
11. Parker Retzlaff 99 10 -2 258 -262 13 0 0
12. Rajah Caruth 32 10 -1 254 -266 4 0 1
13. Ryan Sieg 39 10 0 229 -291 25 0 0
14. Sam Mayer 41 10 0 225 -295 4 0 1
15. Brennan Poole 44 10 0 199 -321 26 0 0
16. Brent Crews # 19 6 2 190 -330 9 0 0
17. Jeb Burton 27 10 -1 189 -331 1 0 0
18. Anthony Alfredo 96 10 -1 171 -349 18 0 0
19. Dean Thompson 26 10 2 152 -368 19 0 0
20. Patrick Staropoli # 48 10 0 152 -368 0 0 0