Corey Day captures first career O’Reilly Series win at Talladega
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Corey Day emerges from the chaos to win his first career NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race winning the Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway.
This is his second win of the week after winning the Interstate Batteries High Limit Series race mid-week.
The third first-time winner of the season had plenty to say after a wild finish. “I didn’t think it would come at a Superspeedway,” said an enthusiastic Corey Day.
He became the sixth O’Reilly Series driver to win their first race with Hendrick Motorsports and the first for the organization at Talladega in the series.
He also became their first first-time winner since Kyle Busch at Richmond Raceway over two decades ago.
Brent Crews joined Day with a career-best finish in second and his third straight top five finish. He will look to soon join Sheldon Creed, William Sawalich, and now Corey Day as first time winners this season.
Creed finished third after taking command of the pack late in the race. He now has finished inside the top ten in seven of the previous nine events. He also took home the Dash4Cash for the second straight event as well.
Sammy Smith ran up front all afternoon and landed fourth, extending JRM’s remarkable top-ten streak to 68 consecutive races.
Jeremy Clements grabbed fifth for his best result since his 2022 summer Daytona win and tacked on an extra point for posting the fastest lap.
Dean Thompson and Sam Hunt Racing shook off any superspeedway rust and delivered a sixth-place finish.
Jesse Love led the field to green, paced a race-high 37 laps, and brought home seventh to maintain his perfect top-ten record at Talladega.
Brandon Jones, Parker Retzlaff, and Austin Green completed the top ten for his first top ten at an oval.
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Sam Mayer had a chance to win late but found himself spinning off the nose of the lapped William Sawalich to finish 25th. His single-car wreck kicked off the larger wreck in the middle of the final corners.
The pack further thinned out when Ryan Sieg and Jeb Burton squeezed each other into the outside wall and collected Harrison Burton, Blaine Perkins and more.
JJ Yeley ran a quiet and clean race to delvier a team-best 11th. He maintained the lead pack the entire race and avoided the late carnage entirely.
The green-flag pit cycle exposed several costly mistakes. William Sawalich locked his brakes and nearly tagged teammate Brent Crews, then compounded his day with a speeding penalty. Rajah Caruth and Josh Williams were also caught speeding among a group of offenders.
After sweeping the Talladega races in 2025, Austin Hill failed to win today. He stalled getting out of his box during the final stops and lost the draft which rendered him to a 13th finish after the final lap chaos.
The main pack pitted with 40 laps to go and Creed cycled back out front. But more drivers joined the penalty parade and fell out of contention.
Carson Kvapil and his JR Motorsports teammates set the tone early. Kvapil won the first stage over Sammy Smith by a margin of just .005 seconds and his teammates made their presence felt throughout.
Justin Allgaier rebounded to win the second stage after being shut out of stage points in the first which marked his first such miss of the season.
Both stage winners threatened to factor into the finish, but pass-through penalties for impeding ended their days. Kvapil finished 22nd while Allgaier finished 23rd.
Despite the disappointing finish, Allgaier remains in possession of the points lead by over 100 points as the series sets their eyes to Texas.
Below is the full results of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for the Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Full Results of the Ag-Pro 300
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Ryan Kemna View All
Ryan Kemna is a photojournalist for The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2025.
Currently residing in the Minneapolis, MN, area, Kemna brings his passion for motorsports, photography, and a good story to readers.