Saturday’s (Aug 8) HyVee Perks 250 at Iowa Speedway for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series was filled to the brim with chaos, as it tied the record high amount of cautions in a race at the track for the series at 12. When it was all over, Carson Kvapil emerged victorious after an overtime battle with his JR Motorsports teammates Ross Chastain and Rajah Caruth.
“Just super exciting, just goes to show what this No. 1 group has and what they bring to the racetrack,” Kvapil said to CW Sports post-race. “I felt like we were not the greatest in the first two stages and Rodney [Childers] did his touches to it and it turned us into a race-winning car.”
Kvapil didn’t have the fastest car of the weekend but was there by the end when it mattered most. Two of the best cars of the weekend belonged to the two stage winners of the race Ryan Sieg and Justin Allgaier. Unfortunately, both Sieg and Allgaier found themselves as a part of the final caution and weren’t able to collect finishes that matched their speed.
After the race Allgaier went over to Brent Crews, whose contact with Sieg sparked the accident, and had a conversation with him about the contact.
“It was a good conversation, I have a lot of respect for his whole team and himself,” Crews said. “Obviously, he’s really good at what he does, so always good to be able to talk to someone like that and continue to learn.”
Kvapil’s crew chief Childers praised his ability after the race and talked about how confident he was that they could score victories together.
“I knew if he could ever get one he’d have a lot more confidence,” Childers said.
Caruth gave Kvapil the push he needed to get ahead on the final restart, and he hung on to the second position to score his career-best finishing result. William Sawalich stole third away from fourth-place finisher Chastain, and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top five.
Nick Sanchez and Taylor Gray ended the day insixth and seventh, respectively. The Sam Hunt Racing duo of Dean Thompson and Harrison Burton finished eighth and ninth, while Brennan Poole closed out the top 10.
Sammy Smith has now clinched a Chase spot before the final race of of the regular season after he scored a 17th place result.
Parker Retzlaff has a good cushion above the cut line with a 46-point buffer, while Sam Mayer has a 19-point gap on the bubble.
The Joe Gibbs Racing drivers all find themselves in the mix for the final two spots, all seperated by just one point heading into Daytona. Sawalich and Crews are tied holding the 11th and 12th points positions, while Taylor Gray sits a point behind them as the first driver out.
Caruth has to overcome a 15-point deficit to make it into The Chase and is the last person with a mathematical chance to make the post-season lineup.
O’Reilly Iowa Results
The series will take two weeks off before heading to Daytona International Speedway for the Wawa 250. The final race before The Chase will take place on Friday, Aug. 28, at 7:30 p.m. ET. You can catch all O’Reilly Series action on The CW.
The driver of the 48 should be suspended for spinning out 2 cars to bring out caution flags. There were over 80 laps of caution.