April 25, 2026 | By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Corey Day earns first career NASCAR O'Reilly Series win at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala.—Corey Day claimed the first NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory of his career Saturday afternoon, driving to the yellow and checkered flags in the Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway — his No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet leading only the last lap to earn his first trophy in his first full-time season.

The 20-year-old Californian sprint car driver delivered the multi-time Cup Series championship-winning Hendrick team its first O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory at Talladega and this weekend earned a win for a special “guest” crew member, former NFL great Jason Kelce, who dressed out in Hendrick blue and helped transport tires for the team on pit road Saturday.

“I sure as heck didn’t think it [first win] would be at a superspeedway,” said a grinning Day, who also won a sprint car race in Nebraska earlier this week. “My 17 guys just built a rocket ship.

“I feel like we’ve been close, had a good day at Rockingham and had a couple other good days and just didn’t finish it off, so this is super cool.”

Rookie Brent Crews finished a career-best runner-up in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, with Haas Factory Team driver Sheldon Creed scoring third in a typical photo finish-type conclusion on the 2.66-mile Talladega high banks. Creed’s work was good enough to claim the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash incentive prize for his effort — the second straight week he did so.

“Hard to be too mad at [third] here when so much happens and very easily could have been in one of those crashes at the end.” Creed said. “Getting to take home the Dash 4 Cash is really special and thank the guys in the shop for that.”

JR Motorsports driver Sammy Smith was fourth in the No. 8 Chevrolet, extending a top-10 streak for the team to 68 races, second best all-time in the series. Owner-driver Jeremy Clements was fifth in the South Carolina-based No. 51 Jeremy Clements Racing team Chevrolet, earning the independent team’s best showing since 2022.

Dean Thompson, Jesse Love, Brandon Jones, Parker Retzlaff and Austin Green rounded out the top 10, with JJ Yeley earning the only Ford in the 38-car field an impressive 11th-place finish.

Love started on pole position in the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, led the most laps (37) and was out front late before getting shuffled backwards with six laps remaining. The field split his car high and low on track, with Creed moving into the lead with five laps remaining.

Creed’s HFT teammate Sam Mayer, who had been impressive throughout the afternoon, was scored the leader with two laps to go in a three-wide front row also featuring Creed and Day. And then, as so often happens at Talladega, contact during the final frantic laps of competition shuffled the front pack, slamming Mayer’s No. 41 Chevy and two-time Talladega winner Jeb Burton’s No. 27 Jordan Anderson Chevrolet into the outside wall.

Mayer settled for 25th despite leading three times for eight laps on the day. Burton, a photo-finish runner-up last year in the race, settled for 26th.

JRM teammates Carson Kvapil (Stage 1) and Justin Allgaier (Stage 2) claimed the two wins, but both were unable to recover from a mid-race green flag penalty for “impeding” cars on track during the final stage of racing.

The four caution periods were the fewest since 2022. The 38 lead changes were the most at the track since 2013.

Despite recording the lowest finish of the season (23rd), Allgaier retains the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship lead by 105 points over Creed.

The series moves to Texas Motor Speedway for next Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 340 (3:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Larson is the defending race winner.

Day, Crews, Creed and Smith will be eligible for the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash award next week in the Lone Star State.



NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Race Number 11
Race Results for the AG-PRO 300 - Saturday, April 25, 2026
Talladega Superspeedway - Talladega, AL - 2.66 - Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 113 Laps - 300.58 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 4/25/2026 @ 06:40 PM Eastern

                                                  Stage 1  Stage Pos
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts  Pos        Pos  Status Tms Laps 
1 3 17 Corey Day HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 113 55 Running 1 1
2 18 19 Brent Crews # Mobil 1 Toyota 113 35 Running
3 5 00 Sheldon Creed Ollie's Chevrolet 113 3 3 50 Running 5 7
4 13 8 Sammy Smith Arby's BBQ Chevrolet 113 2 42 Running 2 6
5 15 51 Jeremy Clements AllSouthElectric.com Chevrolet 113 10 8 37 Running
6 17 26 Dean Thompson Thompson Pipe Group Toyota 113 5 4 44 Running
7 1 2 Jesse Love Whelen Chevrolet 113 9 32 Running 6 37
8 22 20 Brandon Jones Menards/Charbroil Toyota 113 29 Running
9 19 99 Parker Retzlaff FUNKAWAY Chevrolet 113 5 34 Running
10 31 87 Austin Green 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet 113 9 29 Running 2 5
11 25 5 JJ Yeley Jobber Ford 113 26 Running 2 2
12 23 31 Blaine Perkins Mezrano Alabama Injury Lawyers Chevrolet 113 6 30 Running
13 6 21 Austin Hill Bennett Transportation Chevrolet 113 10 25 Running 1 3
14 35 07 Josh Bilicki Insurance King Chevrolet 113 23 Running
15 34 44 Brennan Poole CWSons.com/Clark's Chevrolet 113 22 Running 1 3
16 27 38 Patrick Emerling(i) Cowboy Pillows Chevrolet 113 0 Running
17 10 91 Mason Maggio ControlAltProtect Chevrolet 113 20 Running
18 28 28 Kyle Sieg Mama Justice MW LAW FIRM Chevrolet 113 19 Running
19 29 55 Joey Gase SunFire Heaters Chevrolet 113 18 Running
20 37 0 Garrett Smithley SLCC Chevrolet 113 17 Running
21 12 39 Ryan Sieg radius recycling Chevrolet 113 2 25 Running
22 8 1 Carson Kvapil Champion Irrigation Products Chevrolet 113 1 6 30 Running 7 22
23 11 7 Justin Allgaier BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet 113 1 24 Running 2 4
24 32 45 Lavar Scott # Urban Affairs Coalition Chevrolet 113 13 Running 1 1
25 2 41 Sam Mayer Audibel Chevrolet 112 7 16 Accident 3 8
26 24 27 Jeb Burton Golden Corral Chevrolet 112 11 Accident 1 2
27 30 24 Harrison Burton Jesse Gerhard Memorial Fdn/Bulovas Toyota 112 8 7 17 Accident 1 1
28 16 18 William Sawalich Starkey Toyota 112 9 Running
29 26 54 Taylor Gray Operation 300 Toyota 112 8 Running 2 6
30 7 88 Rajah Caruth HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 112 4 14 Running 2 5
31 9 96 Anthony Alfredo Dude Wipes mentHOLE Chevrolet 112 6 Running
32 33 32 Tyler Ankrum(i) LiUNA!/TDA Investment Group Chevrolet 112 0 Running
33 36 35 Natalie Decker T.N. Dickinson's Witch Haze' Chevrolet 112 4 Running
34 38 74 Dawson Cram Jack's Chevrolet 112 3 Running
35 4 92 Josh Williams First Bank of Alabama Chevrolet 112 2 Running
36 21 02 Ryan Ellis Zeroes Chevrolet 111 1 Running
37 14 48 Patrick Staropoli # Syfovre Chevrolet 105 1 Running
38 20 42 David Starr Breakthrough T1D Chevrolet 14 1 Overheating

Tme of Race: 1 Hrs, 58 Mins, 33 Secs. Average Speed: 152.128 MPH Margin of Victory: Under Caution

Stage 1 Top 10: 1, 8, 00, 88, 26, 31, 41, 24, 2, 51
Stage 2 Top 10: 7, 39, 00, 26, 99, 1, 24, 51, 87, 21

Race Comments: Corey Day won the Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway, his first NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series victory. Prior to the green flag to start the race, the following car dropped to the rear for the reason indicated: No. 02 (unapproved adjustments).

Failed to Qualify: None.

Caution Flags: 4 for 15 laps; Laps: 2-4 (#48, 42, 32 incident backstretch [None]); 27-31 (Stage 1 Conclusion [32]); 52-57 (Stage 2 Conclusion [48]); 113-113 (#27, 20, 24, 31, 39 incident turn 4 [None]).

Lead Changes: 38 among 16 drivers; J. Love 0; J. Love 1-5; C. Kvapil 6; J. Love 7-10; C. Kvapil 11; S. Mayer 12-16; C. Kvapil 17-19; J. Love 20; S. Mayer 21-22; C. Kvapil 23-27; J. Yeley 28; C. Kvapil 29-30; H. Burton 31; C. Kvapil 32; J. Love 33-34; A. Hill 35-37; S. Smith 38-39; J. Allgaier 40; C. Kvapil 41-49; J. Allgaier 50-52; J. Yeley 53; T. Gray 54-56; J. Burton 57-58; T. Gray 59-61; A. Green 62; S. Creed 63; R. Caruth 64; S. Creed 65; A. Green 66-69; R. Caruth 70-73; B. Poole 74-76; L. Scott # 77; S. Creed 78; J. Love 79-83; S. Smith 84-87; J. Love 88-107; S. Creed 108-110; S. Mayer 111; S. Creed 112; C. Day 113.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: May 2, 2026 - Texas Motor Speedway

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



CURRENT NASCAR O;REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES STANDINGS

THrough April 25, 2026

UNOFFICIAL UNOFFICIAL

1. Justin Allgaier 7 11 0 544 0 0 3 4
2. Sheldon Creed 00 11 0 439 -105 105 1 0
3. Jesse Love 2 11 0 403 -141 36 0 2
4. Corey Day 17 11 0 399 -145 4 1 2
5. Brandon Jones 20 11 0 353 -191 46 0 2
6. Sammy Smith 8 11 0 352 -192 1 0 1
7. Carson Kvapil 1 11 0 331 -213 21 0 1
8. Austin Hill 21 11 0 321 -223 10 1 4
9. Taylor Gray 54 11 0 302 -242 19 1 0
10. Parker Retzlaff 99 11 1 292 -252 10 0 0
11. William Sawalich 18 11 -1 280 -264 12 1 0
12. Rajah Caruth 88 11 0 268 -276 12 0 1
13. Ryan Sieg 39 11 0 254 -290 14 0 0
14. Sam Mayer 41 11 0 241 -303 13 0 1
15. Brent Crews # 19 7 1 225 -319 16 0 0
16. Brennan Poole 44 11 -1 221 -323 4 0 0
17. Jeb Burton 27 11 0 200 -344 21 0 0
18. Dean Thompson 26 11 1 196 -348 4 0 0
19. Blaine Perkins 31 11 2 181 -363 15 0 0
20. Jeremy Clements 51 11 2 179 -365 2 0 0