Corey Day won the Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday night, and he had to fight for it twice. This was the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race, not the Cup race. Day started on the pole in the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, led a race-high 136 of 201 laps, lost the lead three separate times in the last 12, and took it back every time. He beat Carson Kvapil by 0.287 seconds. It is his third O'Reilly Series win of 2026.
Day is 20 years old. He is from Clovis, California, and he came up in sprint cars. He bounced the right side of the No. 17 off the Las Vegas wall at least twice in the closing laps and drove it to victory lane anyway.
How Corey Day Controlled the Night
Day qualified first at 180.856 mph and put Sheldon Creed on the outside of the front row. Creed cleared him on the opening lap. That lasted seven laps. On lap 9 Day rolled the outside lane, got to Creed's right rear off turn four and took the lead into turn one. He held it the rest of the way to the stage break and won stage one.
Stage two went the other way. Day led the field to pit road and his crew lost time on the stop. Brandon Jones won the race off pit road. On the restart Sam Mayer drove around the outside, cleared the field off turn two and led the next 40 laps. Day worked back up to second and was closing at the end of the stage, but Mayer held him off and took the stage two win.
The third stage was 111 laps and it was where the race was decided. William Sawalich got out front on the restart. On lap 100 Day got a run off turn two, dove to the inside into turn three and took the lead back. Once the green flag pit cycle finished with 45 to go, Day had 1.6 seconds on Kvapil and it looked done.
The Last Twelve Laps
It was not done. With 18 to go the gap was 0.6 seconds. With 12 to go Day got stacked up behind lapped cars and Kvapil went to his inside and cleared him for the lead. Two laps later Day ran the top, inches off the outside wall, got a run off turn two and dove under Kvapil into turn three to take it back.
With three to go Day clipped the apron in turn three, checked up and slid up the track. Kvapil took the lead again. With two to go Day ran the top in turn three and pulled even. On the last lap they ran side by side and banged doors at the line. Day brushed the wall off turn two, stayed even, brushed it again off turn four and beat Kvapil to the stripe by 0.287 seconds.
Day told the CW broadcast afterward that he was fighting the car at the end. "I just was so tight there to end. I was so scared I was gonna go down there and plow on the bottom and let [Kvapil] by me and then, just have no run. Man, just a great car."
Kvapil saw the same race from the other seat. "There at the end, I thought [Day] was pretty stout. He seemed to be kind of matching us or just barely pulling us. Some of that lapped traffic held him up there. I was able to find some speed in the bottom of [Turns] 1 and 2."
Pit Strategy and the Night's Two Big Mistakes
This race had three cautions for 21 laps, and two of them were scheduled stage breaks. Only one caution was for an on-track incident. That is a long green-flag race at a mile and a half, and it meant pit road decided almost everything.
Two crews paid for it. Day's team lost the lead on the stage one stop and had to go win it back on the track. Sam Mayer's team cost him more. Mayer won stage two, then got an uncontrolled tire penalty on the stage break stop and went to the tail of the field. He recovered to sixth. A driver who led 40 laps and won a stage finished behind four cars he had beaten all night.
The one real caution came just after the stage one restart, and it traces straight back to pit road too. Brandon Jones had won the race off pit road with a very fast stop. On lap 55 his No. 20 wiggled loose running ahead of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Brent Crews, snapped right and hit the outside wall in turn two. Justin Allgaier got collected. Both cars were done. Allgaier was out under the damaged vehicle policy at 56 laps and finished 34th.
Then it got worse for the No. 20. NASCAR disqualified Jones in post-race inspection after finding four or more loose lug nuts on the car. He had originally been scored 35th. The disqualification dropped him to 36th, last in the 36-car field, and stripped the stage points he had earned in stage one. The stop that put him out front is the same stop that put him in the wall and then cost him the result.
Stats and Fun Facts
- Day led 136 of 201 laps and led six separate times. Nobody else led more than 40.
- Fifteen lead changes among nine different drivers.
- Day also ran the fastest lap of the race, a 30.412 at 177.561 mph on lap 100, the same lap he took the lead back from Sawalich.
- Pole and win in the same weekend. It was Day's second career O'Reilly Series pole.
- Three wins in 2026 for Day: Talladega, Dover and now Las Vegas.
- Average speed for the race was 135.370 mph. Total time was 2 hours, 13 minutes, 38 seconds.
- Jeremy Clements started 21st and finished seventh in his own family-owned car. William Sawalich started 36th, dead last, and finished eighth after leading five laps.
Who Is Hot and Who Is Not
Hot: Corey Day. Three wins, a pole, the fastest lap and a race he won twice in the last 12 laps. Carson Kvapil is right there with him. Kvapil did not win but he out-raced the fastest car on the track twice and lost by three tenths. Jesse Love quietly finished third from 10th on the grid and is still inside the top three in points. Brent Crews finished fourth as a rookie.
Not: Justin Allgaier and Brandon Jones, both wrecked out of a race they needed, and Jones then lost his stage points to a disqualification on top of it. Sheldon Creed started second, led seven laps early and faded to 13th, which is not what the points leader wants in the chase. Sam Mayer had a winning car and a penalty took it away.
What It Means for the Chase
Sheldon Creed still leads the standings on 2,259 points, but the gap behind him is tight. Carson Kvapil is 19 back. Jesse Love is 22 back. Justin Allgaier is 31 back after wrecking out. Corey Day is fifth, 41 points behind, and he is the one with momentum. Sam Mayer sits sixth, 52 back.
Five races left. Charlotte is next on October 10, then Phoenix, Talladega, Martinsville and the championship race at Homestead-Miami on November 7. You can see every date and the current points on the NASCAR O'Reilly Series schedule and standings page.
Gear From the Race
Straight answer on Corey Day gear: we do not have any in stock right now. He is 20 and this is his first full season, and the licensed stuff has not caught up to him yet. What we do have is gear for a lot of the drivers who raced him Saturday night.
- HendrickCars.com sponsor mesh snapback hat. Same sponsor that was on the side of the winning No. 17 Saturday night.
- Jesse Love #2 series champion t-shirt. Love finished third and is 22 points out of the lead.
- Sam Mayer win t-shirt. Mayer won stage two before the penalty.
- Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed throwback t-shirt. Creed still leads the points. Hill finished ninth.
- Justin Allgaier #7 2026 win t-shirt. Rough night for him, but he is still fourth in points.
- Sammy Smith #8 win t-shirt.
- JR Motorsports race schedule t-shirt. Kvapil, Caruth and Smith all drive for JRM.
If none of that is what you want, the newest gear in the store is always worth a look, and the win shirt subscription sends you a shirt every time your driver wins.
Your Take
Day scraped the wall twice on the last two laps to keep Kvapil behind him. Some people call that driving the car to the edge. Some people call it running out of talent and getting away with it. Which one was it to you, and does Kvapil have a right to be mad about the way those last three laps went? Tell us in the comments.
