Hendrick Motorsports' Corey Day rode the No. 17 Chevrolet to the front when it mattered, beat Brent Crews and Sheldon Creed off the final corner, and watched a multicar crash in Turns 3 and 4 freeze the field for his first NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series victory. Creed's runner-up — third officially after the caution sorted things out — was good enough to claim the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus.
Ag-Pro 300 — Saturday, April 25, 2026 · Talladega Superspeedway · 113 laps, 300.58 miles
Corey Day led one lap of the Ag-Pro 300. It was the only one that mattered.
The twenty-one-year-old Hendrick Motorsports development driver rode the No. 17 Chevrolet to the front on the final circuit, cleared a run from Brent Crews, and watched a multicar wreck through Turns 3 and 4 freeze the field behind him for his first career NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series victory. He started third. He finished first. Everything in between was a survival exercise — and Day passed it.
Race Summary
Pole-sitter Jesse Love spent most of the afternoon up front. The Richard Childress Racing #2 led 37 laps — the most of any driver in the race — and looked, for stretches, like the eventual winner. Sixteen drivers took a turn at the front, the kind of carousel Talladega reliably produces, but Love's hold on the top spot stayed steady through both stages.
Carson Kvapil took Stage 1, holding off Sammy Smith with Sheldon Creed third, Rajah Caruth fourth, and Dean Thompson rounding out the stage top five. Justin Allgaier answered with Stage 2 — Ryan Sieg in second, Creed back into the top three, Thompson fourth and Parker Retzlaff fifth.
Day kept himself in striking distance the whole day. Started third, ran in the top ten through both stages, never burned a tire pushing too hard. The move came on the white-flag lap. Coming out of the tri-oval, Day had Crews to his outside and a clean draft on the high side. When Crews' run on the bottom stalled, Day cleared him through Turn 1, and as the leaders crossed the line the inevitable Talladega ending began behind them. Contact in the pack sent cars sideways through Turns 3 and 4. The yellow flew. Race over.
For Day — five career O'Reilly Series starts in — that's the kind of finish that puts your name on the radar. For Love, who led more than a third of the race and faded to seventh, it's the kind of result that stings.
Final Top 10
| Pos | # | Driver | Start | Led | FJ Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 | Corey Day | 3 | 1 | 45.1 |
| 2 | 19 | Brent Crews | 18 | 0 | 41.0 |
| 3 | 00 | Sheldon Creed | 5 | 7 | 40.7 |
| 4 | 8 | Sammy Smith | 13 | 6 | 39.6 |
| 5 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | 15 | 0 | 38.0 |
| 6 | 26 | Dean Thompson | 17 | 0 | 36.0 |
| 7 | 2 | Jesse Love | 1 | 37 | 38.7 |
| 8 | 20 | Brandon Jones | 22 | 0 | 34.0 |
| 9 | 99 | Parker Retzlaff | 19 | 0 | 33.0 |
| 10 | 87 | Austin Green | 31 | 5 | 32.5 |
Key Takeaways
Corey Day arrives at twenty-one
Day's background is dirt — sprint cars, a lineage of chassis-feel that teaches a young driver when to commit and when to wait. Every superspeedway veteran will tell you that's the mindset that works at Talladega in the closing laps. You pick a lane, you draft, you trust the run. Day picked the right one on the white-flag lap and didn't flinch.
What's notable isn't just the win — it's how he won. He didn't lead from caution, didn't inherit it from a wreck up front. He drove past Brent Crews on a green-flag pass with one corner left in the race. For a driver this early in his Cup-track education, that's the kind of finish you build a career on.
Sheldon Creed banks the $100,000
The Dash 4 Cash storyline broke clean. Creed, Allgaier, Love, and Gray went into the race as the four eligibles — top finishers among series regulars at Kansas — and Creed locked the $100,000 bonus down by stringing together a top-three all afternoon. Stage 1 third. Stage 2 third. Finished third. The check made the loss of the win sting a little less; Creed's three rivals finished P7 (Love), P23 (Allgaier), and P29 (Gray).
That's now back-to-back Dash 4 Cash bonuses for Richard Childress Racing's stable of contenders, and Creed walked out of Talladega with both the bonus and a 0-1 record on near-misses for the win.
Jesse Love led the most, finished seventh, and that's superspeedway racing
Love took the pole and led 37 laps — more than the next three drivers combined. He spent two stages near the front, picked his lanes intelligently, and was sitting third with five laps to go. Then the back of the pack pushed up the leaders, the lanes shuffled, and a guy who had never won at this level passed him on the final lap.
Nothing Love did wrong. That's just how the Talladega afternoon goes — you can lead 80% of the race and still lose to someone who needed to lead exactly one lap.
Fantasy Recap
Day was the value play of the slate at his $14 FantasyJolt salary — projected for top-five production, delivered the win. Anyone who paired him with Sheldon Creed ($14) and Brent Crews ($12) at the top of the lineup walked away with a near-perfect cash card.
Big Winners
- #17 Corey Day — $14 salary, 45.1 actual FJ points. Best dollar-per-point return on the slate.
- #00 Sheldon Creed — $14, 40.7 points, plus the storyline of a $100K bonus. Anchor-tier production at the right price.
- #19 Brent Crews — $12 salary, 41.0 points. The kind of price discrepancy that wins contests.
- #87 Austin Green — $5 punt, 32.5 points after starting P31. Don't sleep on garage drivers at superspeedways.
Disappointments
- #7 Justin Allgaier — won Stage 2 (10 stage points) but couldn't survive the late mayhem; finished P23. Anchored a lot of lineups for nothing.
- #21 Austin Hill — qualified second, ran near the front early, swept up in the final-lap wreck.
- #54 Taylor Gray — Joe Gibbs Racing's defending Talladega winner, never got into the conversation; finished P29.
Looking Ahead
The O'Reilly Series rolls to Texas Motor Speedway next weekend for the Andy's Frozen Custard 340 — a 1.5-mile intermediate where the dynamics flip completely. Talladega rewards survival; Texas rewards long-run pace. Expect Allgaier, Gray, and Sammy Smith to be back at the top of the lineup conversation, and expect the Dash 4 Cash field of four to reset. Day's win will get him noticed at the next race; whether he backs it up depends on whether the No. 17 has the same speed at a track where lane choice matters less and pure car balance matters more.
By the Numbers
- Race distance: 113 laps · 300.58 miles
- Average speed: 152.128 mph
- Total race time: 1:58:33
- Margin of victory: Under caution
- Cautions: 4 (15 laps under yellow)
- Lead changes: 38 among 16 different drivers
- Most laps led: Jesse Love, 37
- Day's laps led: 1 (the last one)
- Fastest lap: #51 Jeremy Clements, 49.65 sec
- Stage 1 winner: #1 Carson Kvapil (Sammy Smith 2, Sheldon Creed 3)
- Stage 2 winner: #7 Justin Allgaier (Ryan Sieg 2, Sheldon Creed 3)
- Pole sitter: #2 Jesse Love
- Dash 4 Cash $100,000 winner: #00 Sheldon Creed (P3)