The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series visited the legendary Rockingham Speedway on Saturday afternoon in the North Carolina Education Lottery 250. Corey Day started the race on the pole, with Jesse Love starting second.
Corey Day dominated the majority of the race, leading a race-high 118 of 250 laps, including sweeping both stages. Unfortunately, Day did not recover after a loose lug nut during a pit stop and had to come in again a short time later, which set him back. Justin Allgaier led a lap, Taylor Gray led six laps, Brent Crews led 30 laps, and Jesse Love led 15 laps.
On lap 172, William Sawalich took the lead from Brent Crews. Sawalich led 80 laps, including the final 79 laps, to win his first-career NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win over Brandon Jones by 0.863 seconds.
Justin Allgaier, Rajah Caruth, and Carson Kvapil rounded out the top five. Sheldon Creed, Taylor Gray, Parker Retzlaff, Ryan Sieg, and Corey Day completed the top ten. There were eight lead changes throughout the race. Check out the rest of the finishing order here. Sawalich, Jones, Allgaier, and Caruth will compete in the Dash 4 Cash starting next week at Bristol Motor Speedway.
There were seven cautions for 44 laps. Among them, Jeremy Clements was involved in two of them on lap 95 when he lost it and spun, and on lap 174 when he made contact with Ryan Sieg. The only cars to not finish the race were Sam Mayer, who had an engine issue, and Kyle Sieg, whose car dealt with electrical issues.
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway next Saturday at 7:30 pm on The CW.
