- Corey Day outduels Justin Allgaier at Dover.
- The HMS driver just had to lead four laps to grab his second NOAPS win.
- Lapped traffic led to Allgaier’s 38th runner-up finish.
Corey Day entered the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series full-time this season, and so far, the transition has gone like a driver kicking the door off the hinges instead of knocking first.
Through 14 starts, the 20-year-old has already collected two wins, five top-five finishes, and 10 top-10 runs, placing him fourth in the standings. His latest success came Saturday in BetRivers 200 at Dover Motor Speedway, where he outdueled Justin Allgaier to take the second win of his O’Reilly career.
The weekend marked Day’s first appearance at the Monster Mile in any series. During Saturday morning’s 45-minute practice session, Day clocked the sixth-fastest lap with a time of 23.902 seconds before backing it up in qualifying with a third-place starting spot.
Corey Day steals second in O’Reilly win after leading only four laps
After stumbling through a stretch of races, Day and the No. 17 team finally found daylight again Saturday afternoon with a return trip to Victory Lane. Day spent much of the afternoon hunting down the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Allgaier before finally making his move while both cars split lapped traffic behind Blake Lothian.
Day did not lead a single lap until four laps remained. Once he cleared Allgaier, however, he slammed the door shut and drove away from the field. After the race, Allgaier and Lothian were seen talking beside pit road after a hesitation in traffic cracked the race open for Day.
Behind Day and Allgaier, Sam Mayer crossed the line in third, followed by William Sawalich in fourth, Austin Hill in fifth, Brandon Jones in sixth, Carson Kvapil in seventh, Ryan Sieg in eighth, Sammy Smith in ninth, and Anthony Alfredo in 10th.
Earlier in the race, Ross Chastain controlled the opening portion from pole position, marking his first pole in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series since 2018. Day started from the second row directly behind Chastain.
Stage 3… it flipped
Stage 1 belonged to Jones, who won the stage ahead of Chastain. Mayer followed, while Taylor Gray, Rajah Caruth, Kvapil, Sawalich, Day, Jesse Love, and Allgaier rounded out the front group.
In Stage 2, Jones surrendered ground during pit stops, opening the door for Chastain to reclaim command. Chastain then held the field at bay and bagged the stage over Caruth, Gray, Love, Mayer, Kvapil, Day, Allgaier, Sawalich, and Ryan Sieg.
But once Stage 3 started, the race flipped on its head. Love exited pit road first ahead of Caruth, while Chastain slipped backward to third. Following a string of cautions and restarts, the race resumed with 34 laps remaining, and Allgaier cycled to the lead after finishing 10th and eighth in Stages 1 and 2.
At the same time, Day clawed his way into the top five. As the laps went by, Day’s No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet came alive against the outside lane. In the fight for second, Mayer appeared ready to edge past Sawalich before Day swept around both drivers in one motion. From there, he locked onto Allgaier.
The race turned on a single sequence through traffic. Day attacked the outside around a lapped car while Allgaier was pinned low, and with four laps remaining, Day ripped the lead away.
Those final four laps were the only laps Day led all afternoon.
Allgaier, meanwhile, had paced the field for 71 laps after cycling to the front through pit strategy during the closing stage.
Justin Allgaier had to watch victory slip through lapped traffic
The finish marked the 38th runner-up result of Allgaier’s O’Reilly Series career. Allgaier attempted to create breathing room between his No. 7 Chevrolet and Day, but lapped traffic turned the closing laps into rush-hour chaos. The biggest issue came from Lothian in the No. 55 Joey Gase Motorsports Toyota, whose movements through traffic forced Allgaier into split-second decisions.
After the race, Allgaier spoke with the 23-year-old Lothian regarding the closing laps.
Even with the frustration due to the lapped traffic, the 2024 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion said that he recognizes the talent Day brings to the garage. From Allgaier’s perspective, Day has adapted to stock-car racing in more ways than one, especially compared with earlier stretches this season when the rookie found himself tangled in incidents around the field.
The JR Motorsports driver leaves Dover holding a 175-point cushion over Sheldon Creed atop the standings, but he also understands that races like this sometimes get decided by timing, traffic, and whichever driver threads the needle first.
“Hats off to Corey…”
Allgaier said, “Obviously, Corey was doing a great job there. Probably ran the bottom just a little bit too long and got the right front a little harder than I wanted, and ultimately just got beat by a lap car today. He went left and went right and went left again, and then left the top open after I went to his inside. Just super frustrating, but you know, that’s how it goes… Hats off to Corey. He drove a great race, and to stick on the outside like that, you know, it was the move of the race.”
He continued, “So, we’ll go back, I’ll watch the race again. And look, this is probably one of the hardest Dovers I’ve ever seen. I hope tomorrow’s better… Corey is ultra-aggressive — in a good way — and I thought he raced super good today. Like at the beginning of the year, we had a lot of conversations about how to harness some of the energy, and I think he’s done a really good job with that. That 17 team, they’re doing a great job, and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, they always do a great job. Corey is ultra-talented. He’s just trying to get his feet wet and figure out the stock-car thing, and he’s doing a pretty darn good job of it.”
The series now heads toward BetMGM 300 next Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
