Corey Day prevails in jaw-dropping battle for NASCAR O'Reilly win at Las Vegas

Corey Day earned his third win of the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts season in dramatic fashion, narrowly holding off Carson Kvapil in an incredible back-and-forth battle.

Kvapil ran Day down and passed him with ten laps to go, only for Day to immediately go to the very top and snatch it back. They battled side-by-side for the rest of the race, with Kvapil clearing Day for the lead again with two laps to go.

Once again, Day went straight to the top, using all of his sprint car skills to put it right on the limit, sliding sideways and smacking the wall at the exit of the corner. They touched doors at the white flag, and Day hit the wall at the exit of Turn 2 even harder. He bounced off the wall once again as they raced through the final corner, clearing Kvapil and taking the win by just a couple of car lengths.

While Day and Kvapil led the field across the finish line, Jesse Love finished third, Brent Crews fourth, and Taylor Gray fifth. Sam Mayer, Jeremy Clements, William Sawalich, Austin Hill, and Anthony Alfredo filled out the remainder of the top ten.

After finishing 13th, Sheldon Creed still leads the championship standings, with Carson Kvapil 19 points back, Jesse Love 22 points behind, Justin Allgaier now 30 points behind after a wreck, and Day is now 41pts adrift of the lead after gaining over 50 points on championship leader.

Note: Brandon Jones, who crashed out of the race, was later disqualified for only having one lug nut tight, stripping him of all stage points

Stages 1 & 2

Creed took the lead from Day at the very start, but Day reeled him back in and retook the lead ten laps into the race.

Day went on to lead the rest of the opening stage, while Creed fell all the way back outside the top ten.

As Day won Stage 1, he was followed by Mayer, Caruth, Jones, Love, Crews, R. Sieg, Tay. Gray, Hill, and Allgaier  

During the stage break, Jones won the race off pit road, but there were questions around if they got the left-front right. Day lost four positions on pit road, falling down to fifth.

On the restart, Jones looked very unstable, as the car was too free due to what they now realized was a loose wheel on the No. 20. Mayer made a three-wide pass for the lead, and as Jones fell back, he got loose underneath Love's car.

Jones over-corrected up into the wall, ending his race and destroying Justin Allgaier's car as well. 

Mayer continued to lead for the rest of the stage, but Caruth and latr Day kept shadowing him.

Retzlaff had to make an unscheduled pit stop due to a flat right-front tire, but there were no other incidents.

Mayer went on to win Stage 2, followed by Day, Caruth, Kvapil, Clements, Sawalich, Crews, Love, Tay. Gray, and R. Sieg 

Stage 3

Corey Day, No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet; Carson Kvapil, No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Chris Graythen - Getty Images

Sawalich barely beat Kvapil in the race off pit road, while Mayer was sent to the rear of the field for a wheel that rolled away from the pit crew. Caruth also got hit with an uncontrolled tire penalty, and Gray had to make an extra stop to tighten a wheel.

On the restart that followed, Kvapil tagged the wall while trying to get by Sawalich, and Day ended up passing both of them soon after.

Things were very green in this stage as well, with Day pitting from the lead with 57 laps to go. After the cycle of green-flag pit stops, Day led Kvapil by less than a second.

As the laps ticked away, Day struggled to get around Sammy Smith, which helped Smith's teammate Kvapil close in on Day.

Kvapil passed Day with ten laps to go, only for Day to immediately go to the very top of the track, kicking up dust and powering back by. He drove all over the track in the closing laps, even losing the lead again with two laps to go before surging back by. Day bounced off the wall multiple times in the last two laps while ripping the top, holding onto the race win.

The margin of victory was 0.287s.

NASCAR O'Reilly Las Vegas race results

a	#	driver	manufacturer	laps	time	gap	int	pits	laps led	retirement	pts	best time	best lap
1	17	Corey Day	Chevrolet	201	2:13'37.625			5	136		75	30.412	100
2	1	Carson Kvapil	Chevrolet	201	2:13'37.912	0.287	0.287	6	3		42	30.609	100
3	2	Jesse Love	Chevrolet	201	2:13'44.259	6.634	6.347	6			43	30.590	100
4	19	Brent Crews	Toyota	201	2:13'44.676	7.051	0.417	6			42	30.792	102
5	54	Taylor Gray	Toyota	201	2:13'53.086	15.461	8.410	7			37	30.747	64
6	41	Sam Mayer	Chevrolet	201	2:13'55.766	18.141	2.680	7	40		50	30.489	65
7	51	Jeremy Clements	Chevrolet	201	2:13'56.059	18.434	0.293	6			36	30.503	100
8	18	William Sawalich	Toyota	201	2:13'57.487	19.862	1.428	6	5		34	30.671	100
9	21	Austin Hill	Chevrolet	201	2:14'00.553	22.928	3.066	6			30	30.861	101
10	96	Anthony Alfredo	Chevrolet	201	2:14'04.369	26.744	3.816	8	2		27	31.001	101
11	88	Rajah Caruth	Chevrolet	201	2:14'09.114	31.489	4.745	6	2		42	30.560	64
12	39	Ryan Sieg	Chevrolet	201	2:14'10.452	32.827	1.338	5			30	30.941	101
13	00	Sheldon Creed	Chevrolet	201	2:14'11.139	33.514	0.687	5	7		24	30.492	2
14	24	Harrison Burton	Toyota	200	2:13'40.518	1 Lap	1 Lap	6			23	30.890	100
15	8	Sammy Smith	Chevrolet	200	2:13'43.038	1 Lap	2.520	6			22	30.789	102
16	26	Dean Thompson	Toyota	200	2:13'59.375	1 Lap	16.337	6			21	31.299	145
17	44	Brennan Poole	Ford	200	2:14'04.637	1 Lap	5.262	6			20	31.279	2
18	87	Lee Pulliam	Chevrolet	199	2:13'41.342	2 Laps	1 Lap	6			19	31.266	102
19	99	Parker Retzlaff	Chevrolet	199	2:13'43.352	2 Laps	2.010	7			18	31.146	67
20	28	Kyle Sieg	Chevrolet	199	2:13'48.966	2 Laps	5.614	7			17	31.329	65
21	27	Jeb Burton	Chevrolet	199	2:13'50.860	2 Laps	1.894	6	2		16	31.098	102
22	32	Andrew Patterson	Chevrolet	199	2:14'02.642	2 Laps	11.782	8			15	31.159	2
23	42	Matt DiBenedetto	Chevrolet	199	2:14'06.450	2 Laps	3.808	5			14	31.345	65
24	48	Patrick Staropoli	Chevrolet	198	2:13'42.124	3 Laps	1 Lap	6			13	31.271	101
25	0	Garrett Smithley	Chevrolet	198	2:13'51.445	3 Laps	9.321	7			12	31.720	4
26	45	Lavar Scott	Chevrolet	198	2:14'03.769	3 Laps	12.324	6			11	31.648	101
27	55	Joey Gase	Ford	198	2:14'10.024	3 Laps	6.255	5			10	31.679	64
28	92	Josh Williams	Chevrolet	197	2:13'39.845	4 Laps	1 Lap	6			9	31.681	99
29	02	Ryan Ellis	Chevrolet	197	2:14'00.941	4 Laps	21.096	6			8	31.407	98
30	07	Josh Bilicki	Chevrolet	195	2:13'49.089	6 Laps	2 Laps	6			7	31.786	98
31	31	Blaine Perkins	Chevrolet	193	2:13'40.366	8 Laps	2 Laps	10			6	31.501	3
32	53	Blake Lothian	Chevrolet	192	2:13'50.480	9 Laps	1 Lap	7			5	31.689	2
33	91	Mason Maggio	Chevrolet	175	2:14'07.520	26 Laps	17 Laps	9			4	31.266	3
34	7	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	56	1:27'23.602	145 Laps	119 Laps	5		DVP	4	30.955	2
36	20	Brandon Jones (DQ)	Toyota	54	DISQUALIFIED	DISQUALIFIED	DISQUALIFIED	3	4	Accident/DISQUALIFIED	9	31.041	2
35	47	Dawson Cram	Chevrolet	13	26'53.952	188 Laps	41 Laps	5		Transmission	1	32.074	5