The road course dominance continued on Saturday afternoon as Shane van Gisbergen led 31 laps on his way to victory in the Focused Health 250 at the Circuit of the Americas in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
Van Gisbergen took the lead on the final restart as Nick Sanchez, who stayed out, Sammy Smith, and Sam Mayer all overdrove the first corner, allowing SVG to slip by. It is his fifth career O’Reilly win and his first-ever win at COTA in a NASCAR race.
“We had an awesome day, the strategy worked out well,” van Gisbergen told The CW broadcast on the frontstretch.
Austin Hill finished second, Smith finished third, while Jesse Love and Corey Day rounded out the top five. Brent Crews finished sixth in his series debut in the No. 19 car for Joe Gibbs Racing. William Sawalich, Justin Allgaier, Ross Chastain, and Brennan Poole finished in the seventh through 10th positions.
The other favorite going into the day, Connor Zilisch, got around SVG early in the race but faded toward the middle part due to brake issues. Once those issues were resolved, Zilisch worked his way back into the top five before he was spun out by Day with only three laps to go, as he ended up finishing 21st.
“I hate that it ended that way for us because we were going to finish top five there,” said Zilisch on pit road to the CW broadcast. “Same guy every week that does this so hopefully he can figure it out.”
Day explained the contact “wasn’t intentional.”
“He got right in front of me there and as soon as he crossed over my nose, I lost a little bit of what I had left,” Day told the CW broadcast on pit road. “I am going to get no sympathy for that off my track record.”
Zilisch also said that he wants an apology from Day.
“I got no problem going over there and talking to him, it was my mistake whether I had a broken race car or not,” Day responded. “I’ll own up to it and I’ll apologize, no problem.”
Hill retains the points lead after his runner-up finish, which included the stage one win. Mayer won the second stage but finished 14th after making contact with the wall with four laps left. Carson Kvapil and Rajah Caruth were also involved, and they finished 19th and 31st, respectively.
COTA O’Reilly Race Results
The NASCAR O’Reilly Series will be back in action next Saturday (March 7) at Phoenix Raceway at 7:30 p.m. ET for the fourth race of the season. Coverage of this race will be broadcast on your local CW Network.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.