It was the beginning of a new NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season, which means it was time for Austin Hill to remind everyone he is one of the most skilled superspeedway drivers in NASCAR.
And Hill did just that, taking the checkered flag in the United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway. It’s the fourth time in the last five years he’s won the season opener.
Even as late cautions plagued Saturday’s race (Feb. 14) and caused multiple restarts, no one could get around Hill, who was the story for most of the day. He led 78 out of 120 laps while sweeping the stages in the first race of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series era.
Hill masterfully defended a last-lap charge from runner-up Justin Allgaier, Jordan Anderson and Brennan Poole. Each time one of the challengers would attempt a pass, they would be met with the rear bumper of Hill’s No. 21 car and lose all momentum.
Ryan Sieg took home third, Anderson wound up fourth and Sammy Smith closed out the top five.
Ryan Ellis, Carson Kvapil, Blaine Perkins, Jesse Love and Rajah Caruth rounded out the top 10 as the 2026 season is now fully underway.
The Winners
Hill started off the season strong by earning the maximum number of points in a NASCAR race minus the Xfinity Fastest Lap award, which went to Caruth. This performance from Hill sets him up nicely this season, where the Chase format for the championship has returned. Dominant performances like today that come with a plethora of points could be decisive during the regular season. Remember, Hill went through a nightmare 2025 where a number of on-track incidents led to a suspension and loss of all his playoff points.
Jordan Anderson Racing also enjoyed a solid opening race for the 2026 season, with two out of the team’s three cars scoring a top-10 finish. Part-timer and team owner Anderson was the star of the show, piloting the No. 32 to a fourth-place finish and nearly winning the race. Anderson was poised to pass Hill down the backstretch on the last lap, moving to second, but a block caused him to lose momentum. Anderson’s teammate and employee Perkins drove the No. 31 to an eighth-place finish.
Many may think that an 11th-place result is not much to look at, but for Anthony Alfredo, who has had a terrible Speedweeks, it will be much appreciated. The hits kept coming the last few days for Alfredo, who was disqualified from the second Daytona Duel after racing his way into the Daytona 500 field and was thus barred from competing in the Great American Race. But it did not stop there, as on Saturday, he failed to qualify for the O’Reilly race in the No. 96 car for Viking Motorsports. Alfredo then had to buy out Caesar Bacarella‘s No. 4 car in order to compete in the event.
And if all that wasn’t enough, Alfredo was caught up in a multi-car crash before even reaching the start/finish line for Saturday’s race, as the field stacked up. Alfredo’s No. 4 car was damaged but continued on, and he survived the later wrecks in order to bring the car home in 11th. It’s a result he surely will be happy with considering the torment he had been put through this weekend.
The Losers
Joe Gibbs Racing did not start its season on the right foot, as all four of its cars in Saturday’s race did not finish. It all started with Gio Ruggiero at the end of stage one, who was making his O’Reilly debut in the No. 19 car. Ruggiero had high hopes for the race, as he had finished second Friday in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event and had won earlier Saturday in the ARCA Menards Series.
Those hopes came crashing down when Ruggiero was caught up in a wreck at the end of the first stage that saw him take a nasty, head-on hit with the wall. Ruggiero was OK, but as a result was credited with a 37th-place finish.
Brandon Jones was the next JGR car to wreck. Jones was caught up in an accident that brought out the red flag after teammates Jeb Burton and Perkins made contact in turn 1. The resulting chaos sent Jones spinning, and during the incident, he was sideways and took a big shot from Sam Mayer. Jones was credited with a 30th-place finish.
And the last two JGR cars piloted by Taylor Gray and William Sawalich saw their races end in the same incident. Sawalich was running the top line in turns 3 and 4 when he lost his car and got sideways. Sawalich then took multiple hits, and the ensuing carnage was enough to also knock Gray out of the race, who had already been damaged in a previous incident. Sawalich was scored 26th, and Gray was slotted at 28th in the final race results.
JGR’s O’Reilly program left Daytona with all four cars finishing below 20th. The good news for the team is that disasters like these are easily recoverable this early on in the season. The bad news for them is that “win and you’re in” is gone with the new Chase format, so all four will be forced to string together consistent finishes because bad days stack up in the NASCAR point system.
Fuel for Thought
If you take a look at the race results for Saturday, you are sure to notice something, and that is every driver who finished in the top 20 pilots a Chevrolet.
You have to go back to 21st place to find the first non-Chevy, and that would be Daniel Dye in the No. 52 for AM Racing. Dye was one of only three Fords in the field: the two AM cars and the No. 5 piloted by Hettinger Racing’s Luke Fenhaus.
When you see the lack of diversity in manufacturers, one can come to the conclusion that non-Chevys don’t have many friends out there on race day. That matters more in superspeedway races.
The O’Reilly Series heads to another drafting-style track next week at EchoPark Speedway. I would say to not be surprised to see a Chevy in victory lane again considering the sheer number of them in the field. Only six Toyotas and three Fords qualified for the season opener.
Paint Scheme of the Week
As the sun set and night took over at Daytona, one of the cars that stood out under the lights was the No. 28 of Kyle Sieg with Hiami Hooch sponsorship. Sieg drove the beautiful multi-colored car, easy to spot inside the draft, to a 15th-place finish Saturday.
Where to Next?
The O’Reilly Series will head to Hampton, Ga., for a second straight week of drafting-style racing at EchoPark Speedway, where the Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 will be contested. Nick Sanchez took the checkered flag the last time the series went there on June 27, 2025.
Coverage for the Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 will start at 5 p.m. ET on The CW with radio coverage on PRN.
Logan Kendall joined the Frontstretch team in 2025 as the Tuesday news writer and eventually branched out into assisting with Frontstretch's social media and video team operations as well. Outside of motorsports, he has an interest in history, meteorology, and government.