Allgaier Takes Second O'Reilly Series Title as Jones Wins at Homestead

On Saturday night, Brandon Jones won the battle, but Justin Allgaier won the war. As the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota crossed the finish line to score his second win of the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series season and ninth win of his career, Allgaier wasn't far behind.

As Allgaier successfully crossed the finish line for the final time, credited with a seventh-place finish, the JR Motorsports driver became a two-time NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series champion. Allgaier was able to take his second series title by a margin of 14 points over Jesse Love, who was defending his 2025 championship.

"It means more than you'll ever know," Allgaier said of the accomplishment. "It's obviously not the finish we wanted, tonight. We wanted to be in Victory Lane, but this team never quits. The effort, the time that they put in. The pit crew did a phenomenal job. The first [championship] was for me. The first one I really enjoyed. This one is for all the men and women that are standing right back here."

Allgaier, who suffered a couple of tire issues throughout the race, was able to weather the storm. And at the end of the day, he did what he needed to do to win the championship.

"Tonight, it was a battle," Allgaier admitted. "The idiot driver knocked the fence down too many times. I told you before the race, I wasn't going to do that, but I did it anyway."

While he made mistakes, Allgaier's body of work over the 2026 season and Chase were enough to help him overcome his shortcomings in Saturday night's championship race.

Allgaier closed out his second championship campaign with a career-best for wins in a season with six. Allgaier also racked up a career-high 19 top-five finishes, and was one top-10 short of matching a career best, as he had 23 this season.

While Allgaier basked in the glory of a second championship, Jones was celebrating the 700th NASCAR win for Toyota Racing.

“There were so many cool positives out of today. First off, knocking Toyota’s 700th win out of the park. I’ve gotten a couple of milestones for this group a few times," Jones, who previously scored the 500th win for Toyota said. "It’s so cool to be a part of these big moments for this company."

As far as his race, Jones didn't look like a contender for the win, but as the night moved along, the No. 20 machine started moving closer and closer to the front.

"I can say that we weren’t the best car to begin this race," Jones admitted. "We were capable of running inside the top five and top 10, and we just consistently made better gains on the car all night long. Our long run pace was really our strong suit tonight."

14 points is all that separated Love from hoisting the championship trophy a second time in a row. But as the driver is set to move to the Wood Brothers Racing team in the NASCAR Cup Series next season, Love isn't going to spend his resources wondering what he could have done differently on Saturday night.

"Probably not where I'm going to spend my headspace," Love explained. "There [are] a thousand things that could have gone differently to gain us those 15 points. So, you know, I feel that at the end of the day, obviously, it stings, right? It's a painful thing to go through losing anything close."

Love continued, "I was obviously upset getting out of the car, but when I get to be around our guys on the 2 car, a lot more happiness and greatfulness kind of overwhelms me than the sting of the loss. This closes out a big chapter in my life over the last three years that I'm going to miss tremendously, but I'll always be extremely grateful for."

Carson Kvapil, who looked like he had a shot at the win, and possibly the championship in the closing laps, faded down the stretch, and finished runner-up to Jones, 3.937 seconds behind the race winner.

While it was a disappointing finish to the night, Kvapil bounced back from a dead battery early in the race and had a legitimate shot at a race win. The driver, who will be in the No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet full-time next year, learned a lot of lessons in a year that he bounced around from ride to ride.

"Yeah, it's tough. Jumping around from the 9 to the 1 to the 91, 11 weeks in a row being in a different car, it makes it really hard," Kvapil said. "But I was able to honestly learn quite a bit throughout the year. And to get a lot of experience."

Kvapil continued, "Overall, it was a really fun year."

Brent Crews, the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Rookie of the Year, took home a third-place finish in Saturday night's race, and Love, the runner-up driver in the championship fight notched a fourth-place finish to end his season.

Parker Retzlaff, Sheldon Creed, Allgaier, Austin Hill, Sam Mayer, and William Sawalich rounded out the top-10 finishers in Saturday night's NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Championship Race.

Corey Day, who was among the five drivers with a shot at the championship heading into the night, made a critical error on the eighth lap of the race. Day attempted to clear himself in a battle with Rajah Caruth, but he wasn't clear.

.@corey_day_'s Championship dreams appear to be over early at Homestead-Miami.

The 17 hits the wall after Day is unable to clear Rajah Caruth. pic.twitter.com/yR2GSOQRmk
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) November 7, 2026

Day would make contact with Caruth and would go hard into the outside wall. In an instant, Day's championship hopes were dashed. He would finish 25 laps down in 34th.

Final NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase Standings

1. Justin Allgaier, 2,477
2. Jesse Love, -14
3. Carson Kvapil, -28
4. Sheldon Creed, -33
5. Corey Day, -61
6. Sam Mayer, -90
7. Sammy Smith, -125
8. Brandon Jones, -163
9. Taylor Gray, -177
10. Austin Hill, -196
11. Parker Retzlaff, -214
12. Rajah Caruth, -253

NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Championship Race Results

Fin	Car	Driver	Laps	Points
1	20	Brandon Jones (C)	200	61
2	1	Carson Kvapil (C)	200	44
3	19	Brent Crews #	200	44
4	2	Jesse Love (C)	200	49
5	99	Parker Retzlaff (C)	200	37
6	00	Sheldon Creed (C)	200	50
7	7	Justin Allgaier (C)	200	41
8	21	Austin Hill (C)	200	42
9	41	Sam Mayer (C)	200	48
10	18	William Sawalich	200	28
11	28	Kyle Sieg	200	26
12	39	Ryan Sieg	199	25
13	53	Will Rodgers	199	24
14	54	Taylor Gray (C)	199	23
15	8	Sammy Smith (C)	199	23
16	87	Nick Sanchez (i)	199	0
17	48	Patrick Staropoli #	198	20
18	88	Rajah Caruth (C)	198	19
19	96	Anthony Alfredo	198	18
20	92	Josh Williams	198	17
21	45	Lavar Scott #	198	16
22	27	Jeb Burton	197	15
23	24	Harrison Burton	197	14
24	50	Preston Pardus	197	13
25	51	Jeremy Clements	197	12
26	55	Joey Gase	196	11
27	44	Brennan Poole	196	10
28	31	Blaine Perkins	196	9
29	02	Ryan Ellis	195	8
30	07	Josh Bilicki	195	7
31	32	Andrew Patterson	195	6
32	42	Brad Perez	195	5
33	26	Dean Thompson	190	4
34	17	Corey Day (C)	175	3
35	47	Dawson Cram	149	2
36	91	Mason Maggio	95	1
37	0	Garrett Smithley	71	1
38	38	JJ Yeley	58	1

(C) indicates a Chase contender
# indicates a Rookie of the Year contender
(i) indicates a driver ineligible to score points

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