The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series visited Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday in The LiUNA! Sam Mayer started the race on the pole with Kyle Larson, making his first O’Reilly Auto Parts Series start of the season, started second.
Sam Mayer led the opening five laps before losing the lead to Sheldon Creed for one lap, before he got it back on the seventh lap. Mayer led an additional 27 laps before making a pit stop, and Justin Allgaier took the lead. Allgaier would go on to win the first stage. Mayer finished in second place before his car experienced power issues and was pushed to the garage. He would come back out later in the race and finished in 35th place.
There was only one caution in the second stage when Jeremy Clements spun on the frontstretch. It was the second in the race that Clements brought out a caution. The spin was one of eight cautions throughout the race for 42 laps. Justin Allgaier would go on to win the second stage. Allgaier would lead a race-high 48 laps.
In the final stage, there were three separate crashes. Dean Thompson and Patrick Staropoli got into it at Turn 2 on lap 92, Josh Bilicki and Patrick Staropoli got together on the frontstretch on lap 133, and Sheldon Creed tagged Taylor Gray at Turn 3, sending Gray hard into the wall on lap 149. Gray was unable to continue the race and finished in 37th place.
With 47 laps to go, Kyle Larson passed Brandon Jones for the lead. Jones lost a ton of spots, including second place to Chase Briscoe. Kyle Larson led the final 47 laps to win his first race of the season by 2.557 seconds over Chase Briscoe. It was Larson’s 18th career O’Reilly Auto Series win. Sheldon Creed, Justin Allgiaer, and Sammy Smith rounded out the top five. Jesse Love, Connor Zilisch, Corey Day, William Sawalich, and Austin Hill completed the top ten. Check out the rest of the finishing order here.
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series heads to Darlington Raceway next Saturday at 5:30 pm on The CW.
