Twenty-year-old Californian Corey Day took the lead from veteran Justin Allgaier with four laps remaining to claim his second NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series victory Saturday in the BetRivers 200 in his first Dover Motor Speedway start.
Allgaier, a three-time winner this season and the current championship leader, looked poised to add yet another trophy at Dover's famed Monster Mile. Ultimately, Day was able to run up high against the outside wall -- he and Allgaier splitting Blake Lothian's lapped car -- with Day pulling ahead and driving away from Allgaier.
It was enough momentum to propel Day's No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to a .461-second victory over Allgaier, who led a race-high 71 of the 200 laps, and was a worthy sequel to Day's first victory three weeks ago at the series' largest track, Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
"Man, I was hoping that's how it would play out, I saved so hard there early in the last run once we put on tires and the yellow came out and I thought, ‘Aw, this is just going to be a caution fest and it was all for nothing,' but oh man, it all just worked out good," said an elated Day, who screamed congratulations to his crew on the cool-down lap.
His "mentor," reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, sitting in the pit stand, was all smiles watching the outcome.
"This one feels really, really good," Day said. "The Talladega one was unexpected at a superspeedway, but we earned this one."
Allgaier's effort Saturday boosted his championship points advantage to an amazing 175 points over Haas Factory Team's Sheldon Creed, who finished 18th.
Allgaier acknowledged he was disappointed -- perhaps frustrated -- with a lapped car playing such a crucial role in deciding Saturday's outcome.
"Good teaching moment," Allgaier said after speaking with Lothian on pit road. "He kind of made a move to inside then back outside and I just didn't know which lane he was going to go in. And unfortunately, it allowed the 17 to get to my outside.
"But hats off to Corey and that whole 17 team. He was running me down there at the end. Proud of our team. It wasn't the day we wanted early on, but the team worked really hard all day long.
"Just disappointed to walk out of here with a second after leading that many laps at the end, but hats off to Corey and everyone on that team."
The race featured nine caution periods and a lot of short-run strategy.
Sam Mayer, Creed's Haas teammate, finished third. Joe Gibbs Racing's William Sawalich was fourth and Richard Childress Racing's Austin Hill claimed fifth place -- the perennial championship contender's best finish since a runnerup showing on the Austin road course back in March.
JGR's Brendan Jones won the first stage and NASCAR Cup Series regular Ross Chastain won the second stage after pacing the field four different times for a combined 68 laps. His shot at a trophy ended just past the race's midpoint when he and JGR's Taylor Gray collided and spun out.
JR Motorsports' Carson Kvapil finished sixth and extended the team's top-10 streak to an amazing 71 races. Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith and Anthony Alfredo rounded out the top 10.
Reuters