That is how you do a weekend sweep. As Motorsport.com reports, Sammy Smith grabbed his fourth career win in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series at Talladega Superspeedway, following up on his Truck Series victory from the day before with a stunning last-lap charge. Driving the No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Smith lunged past teammate Carson Kvapil right at the finish line to win by a razor-thin 0.084s margin.
It was a mentally exhausting finish to a tough campaign. "Yeah, I'm out of breath," said Smith. "That was mentally draining. Just thank you to everybody. I mean, it was a great executed race by JRM and Cory [Shea, crew chief]. We did a good job sticking to our plan with getting those guys stage points and I'm sure they wanted them to win, but I had a good, good run there to take it."
Behind the JR Motorsports 1-2 finish, championship leader Jesse Love came home third, while Justin Allgaier took fourth and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top five. Corey Day, Blaine Perkins, Dean Thompson, Brandon Jones, and Anthony Alfredo filled out the rest of the top ten positions. With just two races remaining in the 2026 season, Love holds a 19-point advantage over Allgaier, with Day sitting 29 points back in third place.
The race itself was a chaotic affair from the outset. Finch paced the field early before the pack fanned out three-wide, with Kvapil eventually claiming the dominant top lane. Parker Retzlaff survived a spin through the grass entering Turn 3 without bringing out a caution, and Kvapil comfortably captured Stage 1 over Caruth, Allgaier, Day, and Creed.
Drama struck during the stage break when Kvapil stalled on pit road and Richard Childress Racing cars hit trouble, including a penalty for Love and radio issues for Hill. Kvapil fought his way back to the front on the restart, while Dean Thompson pulled off a brilliant mid-pack save after getting turned down the track. JR Motorsports maintained their iron grip on proceedings as Allgaier won Stage 2 ahead of Kvapil, S. Smith, A. Hill, and Day.
The final stage descended into proper superspeedway chaos. H. Burton and Tay. Gray won the race off pit road, but a collision in the tri-oval sent Gray spinning directly in front of the pack, collecting Hill and Jones in the mess. Later, a debris caution set up a frantic sprint to the finish with 16 laps to go, during which Kvapil led the restart and Hill dropped off the pace with a flat tire.
As the white flag waved, Mayer tried an inside dive from third but was quickly shut down by Kvapil. That opened the door for Smith, who grabbed a massive run down the backstretch with a timely push from Love. Smith carved underneath Kvapil, cleared him, and raced to the checkered flag to seal the victory.
