Corey Day Takes First Win In Frantic Final Lap At Talladega

With how well Corey Day has been running in recent weeks, it just felt like the Hendrick Motorsports driver's first career NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series win was just around the corner. Little did he, or anyone else know, it would come at Talladega Superspeedway.

You see, Day, who cut his racing teeth on dirt tracks across the country, is still learning this whole drafting track thing. Hell, even his mentor, Kyle Larson, is still trying to figure out how to win at superspeedways. Yet, in the closing laps of Saturday's Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega, Day made all the right moves on the final lap of the race.

As Day worked his way to the race lead, chaos erupted behind him, and as cars collided with the wall, the yellow flag was displayed, and the field was frozen. For today, driver No. 17 was No. 1 on the scoring pylon.

Day's first career win came in the driver's 22nd career start, and the driver continues to show incredible consistency on the track, despite many questioning if he belonged in the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet full-time at the beginning of the season.

That chatter has diminished as Day now has nine top-10 finishes over his last 10 starts, and ranks fourth in the championship standings. Now, he's a winner.

Another item to note about Day's victory is that he had NFL legend Jason Kelce as a member of his No. 17 pit crew. Kelce was operating the pit sign, and handing fuel cans over the pit wall to the fueler.

Another young driver, who is zeroing in on their first career win is Brent Crews, the 18-year-old driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra. Crews collected a career-best second-place finish on Saturday at Talladega, which extends his top-five finishing streak to three races.

Just behind Crews was Sheldon Creed, who was able to pick up his second consecutive $100,000 Dash4Cash bonus with a third-place result. The Haas Factory Team driver had never collected the Dash4Cash bonus prior to last weekend's event at Kansas Speedway, but he has done so in each of the last two races.

While Justin Allgaier, the series points leader, suffered a miserable 23rd-place finish after a late-race penalty, he remains the point leader exiting Talladega. However, his point lead was shaved down to 105 points over Creed.

Rajah Caruth, who finished 30th, a lap off the pace, exits Talladega as the final driver above the Chase cutline, and he sits 14 points above. With 13 races remaining, Ryan Sieg is the first driver on the outside of the Chase looking in.

Sam Mayer, who was battling for the win in the closing laps, but crashed on the final lap, is 27 points outside of the Chase Grid.

The next race for the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series is the Andy's Frozen Custard 340 at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 2. That event will be televised on The CW, and television coverage is set to kick off at 3:30 PM ET.

Ag-Pro 300 Race Results

1. 17-Corey Day
2. 19-Brent Crews
3. 00-Sheldon Creed
4. 8-Sammy Smith
5. 51-Jeremy Clements
6. 26-Dean Thompson
7. 2-Jesse Love
8. 20-Brandon Jones
9. 99-Parker Retzlaff
10. 87-Austin Green
11. 5-JJ Yeley
12. 31-Blaine Perkins
13. 21-Austin Hill
14. 07-Josh Bilicki
15. 44-Brennan Poole
16. 38-Patrick Emerling
17. 91-Mason Maggio
18. 28-Kyle Sieg
19. 55-Joey Gase
20. 0-Garrett Smithley
21. 39-Ryan Sieg
22. 1-Carson Kvapil
23. 7-Justin Allgaier
24. 45-Lavar Scott
25. 41-Sam Mayer
26. 27-Jeb Burton
27. 24-Harrison Burton
28. 18-William Sawalich
29. 54-Taylor Gray
30. 88-Rajah Caruth
31. 96-Anthony Alfredo
32. 32-Tyler Ankrum
33. 35-Natalie Decker
34. 74-Dawson Cram
35. 92-Josh Williams
36. 02-Ryan Ellis
37. 48-Patrick Staropoli
38. 42-David Starr

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