The NASCAR O’Reilly Series made its debut at the Qualcomm Circuit on Naval Base Coronado on Saturday evening in San Diego, California, for the United Rentals Driven to Serve 250. Brent Crews started the race on the pole, with Parker Retzlaff starting second.
During the opening lap, Corey Day drove over a manhole cover that damaged his radiator. Brent Crews led the opening 11 laps before Austin Hill took the lead on lap 12. He led the last five laps to win the first stage. The second stage was won by Taylor Gray.
In the final stage, there were two cautions. On lap 34, Corey Day and Dean Thompson made contact at Turn 5, and two laps later, Sam Mayer hit the right-side wall at the exit of Turn 1, which shot him quickly to the left-side wall, causing a multi-car crash involving 25 cars. Among the drivers involved in the crash were William Sawalich and Anthony Alfredo. The red flag was displayed a short time later. There were two more cautions for the rest of the race.
In the closing laps, Carson Kvapil was leading the race with Taylor Gray behind him. Meanwhile, Austin Hill was lurking in the background. Gray hit Kvapil, sending him wide at Turn 12B. Hill moved into second and closed in on Gray.
On the final lap, Hill made slight contact with Gray to take the lead. He went on to win his second race of the season by 1.127 seconds over Taylor Gray. It was his 16th career O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win, and it was the first win for RCR since the death of Kyle Busch. Austin Hill led 13 of 60 laps. There were 10 lead changes among four drivers.
Sheldon Creed, Carson Kvapil, and Sammy Smith rounded out the top five. Jesse Love, Parker Retzlaff, Austin Green, Harrison Burton, and Corey Day completed the top ten. Click here for the full results.
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series heads to Sonoma Raceway next Saturday at 5:30 pm on The CW.
