Youth Prevails Over Experience In NASCAR O'Reilly Race At Dover

If Corey Day wasn't already on the radar for a future NASCAR Cup Series ride, he lit up the displays on Saturday afternoon with an impressive win in the BetRivers 200 at Dover Motor Speedway. The 20-year-old Hendrick Motorsports developmental driver drove like a seasoned veteran in the closing laps of the 200-lap contest.

With 31-time NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race-winner and 2024 series champion Justin Allgaier in control of the race, Day, who conserved his tires early in the final run of the race, saw his No. 17 Chevrolet come to life in the closing laps.

The driver was able to work past William Sawalich and Sam Mayer, and from there, he was able to reel in Allgaier, the race leader. With four laps to go, Day was applying pressure, when Allgaier came up on the lapped car of Blake Lothian.

Allgaier had to juke and jive as Lothian made a late decision on which lane he was going to run. This caused Allgaier to cut his car to the bottom lane, while Day took the high lane. As the two leaders took Lothian three-wide, Day prevailed with the lead of the race after the battle.

Day, who hadn't led a lap all race long, would not look back over the final four laps of the race, as he took his second win of the season, and second career win in his 25th start. Day also won at Talladega Superspeedway in April.

"Oh man, I was hoping that's how it would play out there," Day said in his victory interview on The CW.

The driver, who chose to conserve his tires early in the run, felt that his strategy had gone by the wayside as a rash of cautions in the final Stage of the race eliminated the chance of a super-long green flag run to end the race.

"I saved so hard there early in that last run once we put on tires. Then, the yellow came out, and I was like, ah, this is going to be a caution-fest and it was all for nothing," Day explained. "But, oh man, it all just worked out so good."

In the end, it all worked out just fine for Day.

While Allgaier wasn't in the mix for the race win for the majority of the day, either, the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet got the lead of the race due to a strategic call to pit under caution on Lap 113.

William Sawalich, the leader of the race at the time, and the remainder of the cars at the front of the field stayed on track, and chose to instead pit on Lap 122. This cycled Allgaier to the lead, and put him in the catbird seat to claim his 32nd career win. However, Allgaier came up short, ultimately.

After climbing from his car, Allgaier sought out Lothian, the lapped car that impacted the race for the win.

"Yeah, I mean, it's a good teaching moment," Allgaier said of the late-race situation with Lothian. "Blake and I have spoken a couple of times. Obviously, he's super talented. Just he kind of made a move to go inside, and then back outside. And I just didn't know which lane he was going to go in. And unfortunately, I let [Day] get to my outside. Hats off to Corey, I mean, that whole 17 team. He was running me down at the end."

Sam Mayer, like Day, saw his No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet come to life on the final run of the race, and would record a solid third-place finish. With the top-five result, Mayer moved from 12th in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series championship standings to ninth, and he now sits 30 points above the Chase cutline with 10 races until the Chase begins.

William Sawalich, who briefly looked like the driver who could win Saturday's race, would fade in the closing laps of the race to finish fourth. It was still a very solid effort for Sawalich and his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team.

Austin Hill would record a fifth-place finish behind the wheel of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

It was a rough afternoon for a slew of O'Reilly Series championship contenders.

On Lap 11, Parker Retzlaff and Jeb Burton saw their days come to an early end. As the drivers attempted to slow for an incident ahead of them involving Brent Crews and Ryan Sieg, Lavar Scott couldn't get slowed down in time, and collided with Retzlaff, which triggered a three-car incident.

On Lap 102, Rajah Caruth, who had put together possibly the best O'Reilly Series race of his young career to that point, got loose on a restart, while battling Jesse Love for the race lead. Caruth would slide into Love, which would send Love into the outside wall.

This is the third incident this season between Love and Caruth, and Love has suffered the rough end of each of the incidents. This time, Love limped home to a 23rd-place finish.

On Lap 113, Caruth was involved in yet another incident as Sammy Smith, his JR Motorsports teammate, put him in a brief three-wide situation, which caused Caruth to crash with Harrison Burton.

Incredibly, Caruth still found a way to finish 14th, but it was a far cry from what could have been for the young racer.

On Lap 122, Taylor Gray, who was fighting for the second position with Ross Chastain, would get together with Chastain, and would spin into the inside wall on the frontstretch, causing major damage to his No. 54 Toyota.

Gray would finish the race in 32nd.

BetRivers 200 Race Results

1. 17-Corey Day
2. 7-Justin Allgaier
3. 41-Sam Mayer
4. 18-William Sawalich (X)
5. 21-Austin Hill
6. 20-Brandon Jones (S1)
7. 1-Carson Kvapil
8. 39-Ryan Sieg
9. 8-Sammy Smith
10. 96-Anthony Alfredo
11. 44-Brennan Poole
12. 87-Austin Green
13. 9-Ross Chastain (S2) (i)
14. 88-Rajah Caruth
15. 51-Jeremy Clements
16. 24-Harrison Burton
17. 28-Kyle Sieg
18. 00-Sheldon Creed
19. 32-Andrew Patterson
20. 26-Dean Thompson
21. 48-Patrick Staropoli #
22. 19-Brent Crews #
23. 2-Jesse Love
24. 91-Myatt Snider
25. 02-Ryan Ellis, -1 lap
26. 55-Blake Lothian, -1 lap
27. 07-Josh Bilicki, -1 lap
28. 35-Dawson Cram, -2 laps
29. 92-BJ McLeod (i), -5 laps
30. 42-CJ McLaughlin, -7 laps
31. 0-Garrett Smithley, -11 laps
32. 54-Taylor Gray, Out
33. 53-David Starr, Out
34. 31-Blaine Perkins, Out
35. 38-Logan Bearden, Out
36. 45-Lavar Scott #, Out
37. 27-Jeb Burton, Out
38. 99-Parker Retzlaff, Out