The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship battle continues to be dramatic with the top four drivers separated by less than a single race points-potential heading into Saturday’s Progress Group 250 (2 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Reigning series champ, Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love claimed his second win of the Chase – and the season – last week at Phoenix and has taken over the points lead for the first time this season in the most crucial part of the calendar.
He’s now up 36 points on another former series champ, JR Motorsports Justin Allgaier, who dominated the regular season but has had to regain footing in the six Chase races to date.
Much to the pleasure of fans, the top of the standings has been a competitive free-for-all throughout the Chase. Hendrick Motorsports’ rookie Corey Day is only 39 points off Love’s pace with an impressive four wins in his first title run. And Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed not only earned his first career victory this year (at Atlanta), but has answered it with two more in the Chase to keep the front-runners honest. He’s 59 points off Love’s pace.
Love, the driver of the No. 2 RCR Chevrolet, has scored the most points in the Chase to date – 307 to Day’s 283. And the 18-year-old Californian, Day, earned his career first O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory here at Talladega this spring in true ‘Dega style – leading only the final lap in his No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet holding off Brett Crews and Creed.
“Superspeedways are always pretty unpredictable, and Talladega will be the same way,” said Day, who steers the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “Winning there in the spring was a pretty cool surprise, and hopefully I can take what I learned from that race and apply it this weekend.
“We’re still in contention for The Chase, so we need to put together a clean race, stay out front and give ourselves a shot at the end.”
Four Chase drivers have previous wins at Talladega, including Day, Love (2024-1), JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith (2024-2) and RCR’s Austin Hill, an absolute master on the big tracks who claimed both 2025 race trophies. Hill’s back-to-back wins marks the only time a driver has claimed consecutive trophies since Martin Truex Jr. accomplished the feat in a three-peat in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Although not Chase-eligible, Jeb Burton is the only other former winner in the field boasting two Talladega spring triumphs in 2021 and 2023.
Only Hill has previous wins at all three of the remaining Chase tracks. Allgaier is the only other driver with multiple trophies at those tracks, winning at Martinsville (twice) and Homestead-Miami.
Of note: Love has won the last four Talladega pole positions and could become the first driver in series’ history to win five consecutive pole positions at a single track.
Qualifying is at 11 a.m. Saturday. Love is the defending polesitter, however the last time a pole-winner also won the race was driver Justin Haley in 2020.
— NASCAR Wire Service —