Corey Day wins his second straight NASCAR O’Reilly Series race with a late charge in Sunday’s Blue Cross NC 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
CONCORD, NC — A gutsy three-wide pass on the backstretch gave Corey Day his second straight NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase victory and put the driver of the N 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet within striking distance of the series lead.
Corey Day wins in Charlotte
With ten laps remaining in Sunday’s rain-delayed Blue Cross NC 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Day was driving under the No. 2 Chevy of series champion Jesse Love and the No. 7 Camaro of Justin Allgaier for the lead.
“I think 2 got really loose from what I could see there in front of 7 and it mixed them both up,” Day said of the winning pass in the middle of the 1.5-mile course. “That was enough for me to get a good run (turn 2) and run.
“It was very important. I think if I don’t do that, I won’t win the race.”
After winning the first stage, Day came out of the penalty box for going through too many pit boxes during the stage break. He restarted in 30th on lap 54, but by the end of the second lap (lap 90) he had moved through the field to seventh.
“What a job by my guys,” Day said. “I spin and (go through) too many boxes on entry and just have the car to do it (drive back to the front).
With Love and Day in hot pursuit, Allgeier held the lead from the lap 164 restart until lap 183. But his car pinched its final tires and Allgaier scraped the outside wall in turn four with 17 laps to go, allowing both Love and Day to pass.
Brent Crews hit the wall on lap 186, bringing out the seventh and final caution, setting up the final restart on lap 191 and Day’s dramatic pass for the win after he briefly dropped third in the first two corners of the restart lap to Love and Allgaier.
Love thought he had the better car at the end of the race but couldn’t find a way past Day.
“At the end, 17 wasn’t as good as we were, but it was good enough that when he took my air, it was really hard to make up ground,” Love said. “I wish I could go back to that one, but I’m still proud of myself for riding really hard and doing a lot of things right tonight.”
Creed recovered from early contact with the wall and lengthy repairs to secure third place under caution. Behind Allgaier in fourth, non-Chase driver Carson Brown made a late charge to fifth.
Brandon Jones, Austin Hill, Anthony Alfredo, Taylor Gray and Brennan Pool completed the top ten.
Pole-sitter Carson Kvapil, who is 19 points behind second-place Creed in Charlotte, suffered a cut right rear tire and contact with the outside wall. Kvapil finished 32nd with 28 laps to go and dropped to fifth in the standings, 40 points behind Creed.
With his first victory at Charlotte, his fourth of the season and fourth of his career, Day moved up two positions to third in the Chase standings, seven points behind Creed, who leads second-place Love by just two points.
With back-to-back wins in Las Vegas and CharlotteDay has scored 85 points over the series leader in two outings.
Next
The O’Reilly Series Chase continues next Saturday at Phoenix Raceway. The Timberland PRO 200 begins at 7:30 PM ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. 2025 O’Reilly Series champion Jesse Love is the winner at Phoenix Raceway and is now in his final season with Richard Childress Racing.
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