By Reed Spencer
Jesse Love earns his first NASCAR O’Reilly Series win of 2026 at World Wide Technology Raceway in Saturday’s Nu Way 225.
MADISON, Ill.—In a race that reignited the rivalry between Corey Day and William Savalic, Jesse Love showed the form that made him the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion last year.
Jesse Love celebrates victory
Taking a fine lead from Carson Kvapil in the 180th to 165th circuit, Love took the top spot to win Saturday night’s Nu Way 225.
Love crossed the finish line 0.896 seconds ahead of last week’s Darlington winner Sheldon Creed, who finished atop the Chase standings by three points over leader Justin Allgaier.
Kvapil, who dropped to fifth in recent laps, are third in the standings, nine points behind Allgaier. Love moved up two places to fourth, 16 points behind. Chase drivers Sam Mayer and Taylor Gray finished third and fourth respectively in Saturday’s race.
Parker Retzlaff, Brent Crews, Sammy Smith, Kyle Sieg and Jeb Burton rounded out the top ten.
Love was confident that his chance for his first win of the season would come if he kept up his drive and work ethic.
“Eventually one of these opportunities was going to be there and I’m going to take it the way we were going down tonight,” an excited Love said after getting out of his car. “Man, I love St. Louis. I got my first National Junior win across the street with Chad Boat.
“Had my first truck race start here and won here last year, had a good car. Just so proud of my team.”
The win was Love’s first at Gateway and the fourth of his career.
Love avoided the pitfalls that ultimately hurt the other Chase drivers, particularly the blocked pit road and the last of the violent incidents between Day and Savalic.
William Savalich v. Corey Day
After the lap 133 restart, Day and Savalic raced side-by-side with Day on the inside as Allgeier pushed Gray’s Toyota to the bottom of the track.
With Gray on the bumper, Allgeier Day drove up the track to the driver’s side of Savalic’s Toyota. Savalic veered left into Day’s Chevrolet, sending it crashing into the track, ending up with hard contact with the inside wall.
The crash forced Day out of the race in 33rd place and left him eighth in the standings, 69 points behind Creed.
“I just hate it for my 17 guys,” Day said. “For us, it was going to be at least top five. We had a really fast car. It’s just so sad.
Day had no message for Savalic after leaving the inpatient care facility. “I don’t, no. I think he looked too stupid for me not to say anything.”
For his part, Savalic, who finished 16th, chose not to directly address the incident.
“Just worry about next week,” Savalic said.
Pit Road Melee:
Pyrotechnics between the two drivers, who also clashed at Darlington last week, followed a strange pile-up as drivers scrambled to access their pit boxes.
On lap 49, during the pit stop of lap 1, a huge piece of chain reaction debris jumped the infield just beyond the pit road entrance and damaged several Chase cars.
With Day already in the first pit after the entry, the No. 88 Chevrolet of Raja Caruth clipped the bumper of the No. 87 Chevy of Nick Sanchez as the field tightened behind them.
Sanchez’s car slid into the No. 19 Toyota of Brent Crews as the pit crew was already servicing Crews’ car. A ten-car mess blocked pit road and trapped Day’s Chevy in its pit stall. Fortunately, none of the crew members were injured.
NASCAR ran a red flag of 7 minutes, 54 seconds to clear pit road. The Chase cars of Brandon Jones and Carruth sustained significant damage and were restarted on lap 54 in the back third of the race.
Allgaier survived the crash on pit road, only to leave his stall with a loose wheel. A return trip to the pits left the Chase 19th in the standings, but when NASCAR brought out the third caution on lap 73 for debris from Anthony Alfredo’s blown tire, Allgeier had clawed his way to ninth.
By the end of Round 2, which was won by Love, the 2024 series champion had moved up to sixth place. But Allgaier damaged the right front of his Camaro in the Day/Sawalich dustup, and his 13th-place finish cost him the series lead.
“This is the first time the No. 7 car hasn’t been out of points in a long time,” Allgaier said. “It just fuels this team. If we go our way, we’ll be right there.”
In addition to Sheldon Creed, who leads the series points standings by three points over Justin Allgaier, Carson Kvapil sits in third place, nine points behind the leader. Jesse Love (-16) moved up two spots to fourth, while Sam Mayer (-61) moved up four spots to round out the top five.
Next
The Bristol Night Race takes place next Friday, September 18th. The Food City 300 begins at 7:30pm ET on CW/ESPN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Aric Almirola, who has now retired from racing, won the race last year.
Related to:
