Jesse Love Wins NASCAR O'Reilly Series Nu Way 225 at Gateway

Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing race recap, where we break down what actually decided the race. This one covers the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Gateway, not the Cup race.

The Short Version

Jesse Love won the Nu Way 225 at World Wide Technology Raceway on Saturday night, his first NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series win of 2026. The reigning series champion ran down Carson Kvapil with 16 laps left, leaned on him through Turns 3 and 4, and drove away. It was Love's fourth career win in the series and his first at Gateway in only his second start there. Sheldon Creed finished second and left Illinois with the Chase points lead.

How Jesse Love Won the Nu Way 225

For most of the night this was Carson Kvapil's race. He put the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet on the pole at 133.825 mph, won Stage 1, and led a career-high 105 of the 180 laps. Love led 70. Nobody else led more than four.

The last run is where it flipped. With 17 laps to go Love got to Kvapil's bumper down the back straight and drove in deep on him through Turns 3 and 4. Kvapil got loose off the corner, Love got a run, and he cleared him on the inside through Turns 1 and 2 on the next lap. From there Love controlled the final 16 laps and took the checkered flag by 0.896 seconds over Creed.

Love had gone since the 2025 season finale without a win. He talked afterward about how long the year had felt.

"Just proud of our crew. Proud of my pit crew. If I keep my grit, if I keep my tenacity, eventually one of these opportunities is gonna be there and I'm gonna take it, which we did tonight."

The champ has returned! @jesselovejr1 gets his first win of the season at @WWTRaceway.

— NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts (@NASCAROReillyAP) September 13, 2026

The Pit Road Wreck That Blew Up the Race

The biggest moment of the night had nothing to do with the racing. During the Stage 1 break, the field piled into the narrow single-lane entrance at Gateway and it came apart. Somebody checked up near the first pit stalls and cars started hitting each other at the start of pit lane. Nick Sanchez got into the back of Rajah Caruth and both of them ended up in the No. 19 pit box.

Crew members for the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team had their backs turned and narrowly avoided being hit. Pit road was blocked and NASCAR threw the red flag for close to eight minutes to clean it up. Cars were destroyed. Sanchez and Harrison Burton were both done for the night with 48 laps complete.

Three Chase drivers took real damage in it: Brent Crews, Rajah Caruth and Brandon Jones. All three still salvaged the night. Crews came back to finish seventh, Caruth 11th, Jones 15th. That is a good night for a torn-up race car.

Sawalich and Corey Day, Round Two

Late in the final stage, William Sawalich and Corey Day got together racing for fifth. Sawalich door-slammed Day down the backstretch. Day got into Justin Allgaier's right front, spun, and hit the inside wall. Day's night was over with 133 laps complete.

This was the second straight week those two got into each other after an incident at Darlington. Sawalich did not comment on it after the race. He finished 16th. The bigger cost may have been Allgaier's, who picked up fender damage he did not need.

Strategy: Track Position Over Everything

Seven cautions for 37 laps kept bunching the field up, and Gateway's pit road is the reason strategy mattered so much. It is tight, it is single-file on entry, and after the Stage 1 mess crew chiefs got careful about when they came in. Clean stops were worth more than fast ones.

That is where the Haas Factory Team cars made their night. Creed started third and never led a lap, and he still finished second. Sam Mayer started 18th and finished third. Neither one had the fastest car. Both stayed out of trouble and hit their stops, and both walked out with a top three.

Stats and Fun Facts

A few things worth knowing. Love also set the fastest lap of the race, a 34.045 on lap 100. Kvapil led 105 laps and finished fifth, which is the kind of night that stings more than a bad finish. Creed picked up his 18th top-10 of the season. And the race went the full 180 laps with an average speed of 92.965 mph over 2 hours, 25 minutes.

The Chase Picture After Gateway

This was race two of the nine-race Chase, and the top of the board tightened up. Creed leads. Allgaier is three points back after his 13th-place run. Kvapil is nine back. Love's win moved him to fourth, 16 out.

After that it drops off fast. Sam Mayer and Austin Hill are next, both 61 points behind Creed. With no elimination rounds in this format, every point counts the same from here to Homestead, which means a bad night in October is just as expensive as a bad night now. You can see the full picture on the NASCAR O'Reilly Series schedule and standings.

Next up is the Food City 300 at Bristol on Friday night. Short track, high tempo, and the kind of place that can flip this thing again.

Who's Hot and Who's Not

Hot: Jesse Love. He came into the Chase sixth and winless and is now fourth with momentum. Haas Factory Team also deserves a mention for putting both cars in the top three. Parker Retzlaff quietly ran sixth from 19th on the grid.

Not: Carson Kvapil, who led the most laps and lost the race in the last 20. Corey Day dropped from fifth in the Chase to eighth after the wreck. And Rajah Caruth, already 12th, took damage he did not cause and is now 118 points out.

The Bottom Line

Leading laps does not win races at Gateway. Being there at the end does. Love led 35 fewer laps than Kvapil and still drove home with the trophy, and Creed never led a single lap and left with the points lead. That is the whole night in one sentence.

Your turn: was Love's move on Kvapil good hard racing or one bump too many? Tell us where you land.

Shop the Story

Love is the defending series champion, and we still have the championship tee in stock. Here is the gear tied to this race:

• Jesse Love #2 Series Champion T-Shirt - the reigning champ, back in victory lane.
• Sheldon Creed and Austin Hill RCR Whelen Throwback Tee - the new points leader, in the same Whelen colors Love won in.
• Justin Allgaier #7 2026 Darlington Winner Tee - for the driver who is three points out of the lead.
• Sam Mayer Win Tee - third at Gateway and still in the Chase hunt.
• JR Motorsports Schedule Tee - for the Kvapil and Allgaier camp.

Want the winner's shirt every week without thinking about it? Take a look at the win shirt subscription fan club.