Now that is how you make a statement. Corey Day sliced through a breathtaking three-wide move on the backstretch of the 1.5-mile track to capture his second consecutive victory in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase, taking the rain-postponed Blue Cross NC 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in style.
Pursued hard to the checkered flag by Jesse Love, the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver crossed the finish line 0.728 seconds ahead of the Richard Childress Racing driver. Series leader Sheldon Creed managed to slip past Justin Allgaier on the final lap to claim third place.
At the end, the 17 was not quite as good as we were, but just good enough that, when he took my air away, it was really hard to make up ground,
The stats on this run are simply wild. With his first triumph at Charlotte—marking his fourth of the season and the fourth of his career—Day vaulted two spots to third in the Chase standings. He now sits just seven points behind Creed, who leads second-place Love by a mere two points. Thanks to back-to-back wins at Las Vegas and Charlotte, Day has wiped out 85 points on the series lead over the last two outings.
Things looked dicey early on for the winner. After claiming the first stage, Day copped a penalty for driving through too many pit boxes during the stage break, forcing him to restart 30th on Lap 54. But his machine was a rocket, and by the end of the second stage on Lap 90, he had fought all the way back to seventh.
"What a job by my guys," Day said. "I screw up and (go through) too many boxes on entry and just have the car to do that (drive back to the front)."
The race turned on a chaotic final stretch. Justin Allgaier held the lead from a Lap 164 restart until Lap 183, but his car tightened up on his final set of tires. He scraped the outside wall in Turn 4 with 17 circuits left, letting both Love and Day through. Brent Crews then slammed the wall on Lap 186 to trigger the seventh and final caution. That set up a restart on Lap 191 where Day briefly dropped to third behind Love and Allgaier in the first two corners before spotting his opening.
"I think the 2 got really loose from what I could see up there in front of the 7, and that kind of messed them both up," Day said of the winning pass in the middle of the backstretch. "That was just enough for me to get a good run (off Turn 2) and take my run. That was crucial. I think if I don’t do that, I don’t win the race."
Love felt he had a superior machine at the end but had no answer for the leader's dirty air. "At the end, the 17 was not quite as good as we were, but just good enough that, when he took my air away, it was really hard to make up ground," Love said. "I wish I could have had that one back, but I’m still proud of myself for driving really hard and doing a lot of things right tonight."
Further back, Creed fought back from early wall contact and an extensive repair under caution to take third. Behind Allgaier in fourth, non-Chase driver Carson Brown engineered a late charge to finish fifth, while Brandon Jones, Austin Hill, Anthony Alfredo, Taylor Gray, and Brennan Poole rounded out the top 10.
It was a disastrous outing for polesitter Carson Kvapil, who arrived at Charlotte second in points and 19 behind Creed. A cut right rear tire and heavy contact with the outside wall left him 32nd, 29 laps down, plunging him three spots to fifth in the standings and 40 points adrift of the lead.
The O’Reilly Series Chase rolls on next Saturday with the Timberland PRO 200 at Phoenix Raceway.
