Jesse Love finds first win of the O’Reilly Season at Gateway
MADISON, Ill. — Defending NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Jesse Love finally finds his first win of the season at Gateway.
This is his first win since his championship clincher at Phoenix in 2025 and the fourth series victory overall.
It was the Love and Kvapil show. Both drivers took home stage wins and traded the lead twice, but it was Jesse Love who came out on top in the Nu Way 225.
For Love, he completes a long-awaited win in 2026 but more crucially it’s a message to his fellow Chase drivers. He is back and, in the mix, to repeat his title.
He now sits 16 points behind the new championship leader Sheldon Creed. While Creed has the lead, its slim.
His runners-up result only gained him a three-point advantage to Justin Allgaier who ran inside the top ten all day but ran into issues late to finish 13th.
Creed’s teammate Sam Mayer finished directly behind him in third. He now sits under one race behind the Chase leader for the first time.
Then, Taylor Gray climbed into the top five late for fourth.
Carson Kvapil had another stellar performance. He qualified on pole for the second time of the season and career. Then he led the first stage wire-to-wire for the stage win. In total he led the race-high 105 laps but he faded late.
Fifth is still good enough to remain in the championship hunt with seven races remaining.
Brent Crews came up big for his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 team by delivering them a sixth-placed result.
Sammy Smith was the final Chase driver inside the top ten from eighth.
Kyle Sieg accomplished his first career multi-top-ten result season from ninth. Then Jeb Burton lasted through the attrition for his third top ten finish from tenth.
Notable Results
It was a rough night for some Chase drivers. Between the William Sawalich and Corey Day feud to a nearly catastrophic pit road crash, some Chaser’s will have some work to do going forward.
Rajah Caruth and Brandon Jones sustained the most damage in the pit road crash. They both retained their lead-lap status and made repairs to finish on the lead lap. Caruth came home ahead of Jones in 11th place, with Jones taking his hurt Toyota to 15th.
Take a look at the scary incident below.
Austin Hill had an inverse night to his winning teammate. He suffered from a loose tire under green and lost a lap towards the end of the second stage. The team was able to quickly recover after a caution came out that gave them the free pass but their night was far from over.
Late in the going, Hill had to pit once again which rendered his day down to 29th.
Lastly but not least Corey Day DNF’d in 33rd after his continued contact with rival William Sawalich led to boiled over tempers.
Both drivers did not comment on the incident as their rivalry will see another race.
Below are the full results and updated points after the Nu Way 225 at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Full Results
Series Points
Categories
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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.