Sammy Smith Pulls Off Another Last-Lap Pass For Win at Talladega

Sammy Smith, have yourself a weekend. A day after he picked up his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win at Talladega Superspeedway, the full-time NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series competitor did the exact same thing in a winning effort in The Progress Group 250.

Smith, who rode behind his JR Motorsports teammate, Carson Kvapil, for several laps as the race drew to a close, made his move to the inside lane of Kvapil coming down the backstretch with two laps remaining in the race.

A massive set of shoves from Jesse Love from behind would send Smith to the lead, and allow him to narrowly defeat Kvapil by 0.084 seconds to collect the victory. The win marks the first of the season for Smith, and it's his fourth career win in 139 starts in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.

“Man, that was mentally draining, just thank you to everybody,’’ Smith said. “It was a great executed race by JRM and we did a good job sticking to our plan with getting those guys [Kvapil team] stage points. I’m sure they wanted them to win, but I had a good run there to take it and [spotter] Tyler Green did a great job up top to help me get backed up. Thanks to Jesse [Love] for pushing me."

For Smith, it was a mentally draining day in what has been a difficult final season with JR Motorsports, but he's proud to cap off a strong weekend at Talladega with a win.

“Really, I’m just happy for everyone on this No. 8 Chevrolet, it’s been a tough year this year, and I’m looking forward to Martinsville next week,’’ said Smith.

On Friday, Smith announced that he'll move to the NASCAR FedEx Freight Truck Series full-time in 2027, as he'll drive the No. 15 Toyota for TRICON Garage.

Kvapil, who has collected his first two NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series wins this season, has seen several other opportunities for wins slip through his grasp this year. Saturday's finish at Talladega was the latest example. Still it was a decent points day for Kvapil, as he racked up a lot of Stage points in the race.

"...we’ve been, if not the best car, one of the best cars at all the speedways this year, so I knew this weekend would be a big opportunity for us to have a big points day and really eat away at that gap,’’ Kvapil said. “We did our jobs in stages one and two and got a lot of stage points and put ourselves in position at the end, leading the race."

On losing the race to Smith on the final lap, Kvapil explained, “You can always sit back, and hindsight is 20-20, but I don’t know; it’s hard to tell who’s going to have the momentum."

Love, the series point leader, would maintain his top spot in the championship standings, as he crossed the finish line in third behind Smith and Kvapil.

“Happy to leave here with the [points] lead," Love admitted after climbing from his car.

Justin Allgaier ended the afternoon with a fourth-place finish, and thanks to the Stage Points he earned on Saturday, Allgaier was able to slice Love's point lead from 36 to 19 points. With two races remaining, the damage Allgaier was able to do at Talladega, despite finishing behind Love, could potentially make the difference at Homestead-Miami Speedway in a couple of weeks.

Sheldon Creed finished fifth, and now sits fourth in the championship standings, 50 points behind Love.

Corey Day, Blaine Perkins, Dean Thompson, Brandon Jones, and Anthony Alfredo rounded out the top-10 finishers in The Progress Group 250 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Updated Chase Grid (2 races remaining)

1. Jesse Love, 2,401 points
2. Justin Allgaier, -19
3. Corey Day, -29
4. Sheldon Creed, -50
5. Carson Kvapil, -59
6. Sam Mayer, -96
7. Sammy Smith, -108
---Mathematically eliminated---
8. Taylor Gray, -155
9. Austin Hill, -168
10. Brandon Jones, -189
11. Parker Retzlaff, -201
12. Rajah Caruth, -218

The Progress Group 250 Race Results

Fin	Car	Driver	Laps	Points
1	8	Sammy Smith (C)	94	63
2	1	Carson Kvapil (C)	94	54
3	2	Jesse Love (C)	94	34
4	7	Justin Allgaier (C)	94	51
5	00	Sheldon Creed (C)	94	43
6	17	Corey Day (C)	94	44
7	31	Blaine Perkins	94	30
8	26	Dean Thompson	94	29
9	20	Brandon Jones (C)	94	28
10	96	Anthony Alfredo	94	29
11	27	Jeb Burton	94	26
12	91	Mason Maggio	94	25
13	41	Sam Mayer (C)	94	24
14	39	Ryan Sieg	94	23
15	42	Nick Leitz (i)	94	0
16	07	Josh Bilicki	94	21
17	88	Rajah Caruth (C)	94	29
18	51	Jeremy Clements	94	21
19	43	Connor Mosack (i)	94	0
20	55	Joey Gase	94	17
21	54	Taylor Gray (C)	94	20
22	87	Lee Pulliam	94	15
23	92	Josh Williams	94	14
24	24	Harrison Burton	94	17
25	53	Will Rodgers	94	12
26	44	Brennan Poole	94	12
27	0	Garrett Smithley	94	10
28	28	Kyle Sieg	94	9
29	18	William Sawalich	94	9
30	02	Ryan Ellis	94	7
31	99	Parker Retzlaff (C)	94	6
32	48	Patrick Staropoli #	94	5
33	32	Daniel Dye (i)	94	0
34	19	Brent Crews #	94	6
35	21	Austin Hill (C)	92	9
36	71	Leland Honeyman (i)	88	0
37	4	Caesar Bacarella	85	1
38	9	Jake Finch	84	4

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

What's Next?

Next up for the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series is the National Debt Relief 250 at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, October 31. That race will be televised on The CW with TV coverage set to kick off at 4 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of that event.

Add us as a preferred source on Google