NASCAR O Reilly Auto Parts Series Highlights _ 2026 Las Vegas Motor Speedway

We're ready for a 300-mile drive to the pay window in Vegas. Put the green flag in the air and turn them loose here in sin city. Bad start for Kyle Larson there. Spun the tires. Just didn't get going. Maybe he didn't get through the gears. Remember, way different transmissions than what he's used to on Sundays in the cup car. Really stacked up that top lane. Last September, the side draft was really aggressive. Saw guys using it more here than anywhere as they fan out down the front stretch. Everybody's searching for some clean air. Brandon Jones in the third position. Really, really good. A mile and a half. Hang on to it. Jeremy Clements, 51, going for a ride. That started. I could see Connor Zilch just had an entry speed into one. You see Jeremy Clements on the outside. Watch the speed that he carries in. Gosh, I'm with you, Parker. It almost looks like something wasn't right on that car as it washed up the racetrack. Not even close to staying on the bottom. It shot up. He was struggling to hit the splitter in practice. He gets loose there because he's got no side force there when he turns in and just chased the car up. It snapped on him. When he was catching it going up the hill, Jeremy just happened to be the right place at the wrong time. As the field makes its way to the Echo Park restart zone, Echo Park automotive where car buying is easier, better and happier. Sammier getting a big push there for Brandon Jones. Got real squirrely. He does. And if you look in that second row, the red and white number two car, that was kind of the talk of the garage today. We felt like in practice he might have had the best car. See what he's able to do here on this restart. See him going down to the bottom through one and two, but he has made hay on the restarts. And if you watch his wheel, that car is the same way in practice. It was nervous. A lot of movement in the wheel back and forth as you see then goes back to the top. He feels really comfortable down there making good speed, but you got to be careful using that top way too early. You can damage the tires, especially the right front. If you're one of the first up there when the track still not have doesn't have a ton of rubber up there, the amount of fall off in the tires that we see here almost two seconds over the course of a run that we would see guys get to the top, but it just seems like most of them are committing to the bottom right now. Let's give it some time. This place goes to a lot of changes and transitions throughout the race for every reason. Doesn't matter if it's just a sunny day like this and hot for every reason. We've got to caution out yellow today. Cole Custer won the championship in two thousand twenty three. Oh, he just got loose underneath. Who is that? That Raja thirty two. Yes, that was Raja. He was underneath. You can see the doughnut on the right side. It looks like Austin Green may have just got helped around trying to slow up for this, but very similar to kind of what we saw from Connor Zillich. These cup drivers don't have to deal with side force in the cup car. Second caution of the day. Fourteen laps in Las Vegas, about halfway through the opening stage. Time to find our rhythm. Leaders come into the Echo Park restart zone. Mayor Creed front row. And there's another great restart. Just vaulted away from the field, has a gap to both the two and his teammate behind him. Didn't have to clear them down. The one he was gone. A two's really tight. The two is tight. Tell you what? Briscoe's getting after it. Gonna be racing his teammate for four. Taylor Gray in the fifty four. If he can get around Jesse Love. Two not giving up in that outside lane. And we've had three or four restarts, one after another, and he's been able to get two or three cars. Don't tell you what. He's he's going now. I didn't think his car looked that good when the when the race was kind of settled out a few laps ago, but it has come to him right now. Yeah, but look how he's doing it right. Using it outside lane. First one up there. Ton of grip. Briscoe's a dirt guy from Indiana. Dylan's a dirt guy from Indiana. You can tell he called him the hard charger, and that's what he is. Plus nineteen early. All Geyer looks good as well. Qualified ninth. Trying to get second away from Sheldon Creed. The exact opposite approach of what we've seen from Chase Briscoe is just an all Geyer being super disciplined, running that white line, getting the left front there, getting the car to rotate shortest distance around this track and through the corners. And this is what one just in this race last year. He was so good. Here he is dancing around Sam Mayer. And staring right in the eyes. Stage win number five at this place. He's already the all time leader at Las Vegas, and this battle won't go away. The two sprint car drivers from California just trading blows. Eighty eight is Larson. Seventeen is day. We have a battle going on between these two Briscoe did a little bit of a slider on Sheldon Creed. Sheldon crossed him back over. I think Sheldon's bleeding right now, just wanting to get to the end of this and just an all guy. Just amazing. Here in Las Vegas. Been incredible this year. In stages. Top five. Every stage so far in two thousand twenty six. But this will be his first stage victory. Number five here in Sin City for driver seven who won this race a season ago. Mayor getting stage points for the third time this year by that much creed in front of love for fifth in the stage. Yeah. And his crew chief, Andrew Overstreet, reminding him to be a little bit conservative because we see speeding penalties often here. He's going to land in the box. He said the ride quality is great. Just need a little entry security, but he doesn't want to tighten it up too much in the center. He just needs it to turn. So they'll just make an air pressure adjustment on those four fresh Goodyear tires. week had to come from behind, finish top five, and it felt like maybe today they were going to put it all together. Qualifies on the pole, leading all those laps early. And now this all guy who won the stage restarts in row to front row, love taking the inside control car to his right. Taylor Gray. They're through the Echo Park restart zone and we're underway in the second stage. Can't wait to see what Briscoe does here. He's got his teammate in front of him. Does he? There he goes. He's already moved to the top. Was there any? Yeah. But look at Larson. Larson fills that hole that they did earlier today when the track was cooler. He missed the bottom again. Taylor's gonna work the inside. See what all guy decides to do. Who's he go with here? Maybe neither. Make it three wide. What maybe now he crosses over to the bottom side by side for the lead. caution lights are on. Another problem for Jeremy Clements, 51. There you see it. Coming off of four. Right at the entry of pit road. Had a tire going down is the report that we got. And we'll analyze who was leading the race when the caution came out after the break. What an eventful day for this 51 team. You have the problems lap two. You get turned around. Eventually get the free pass. Get back on the lead lap. Worked his way back close to the top 15, even though they were out of balance on tires. And now you have another problem here. Loving gray on the front row. 27 ago. Stage two. Sure does seem like that outside row has struggled to get the power down. We've had multiple guys out there. Briscoe trying to make it three wide again. All got to the top side. The three wide behind them. Just Justin. Get to the right corner. Penalty. Love. So while it's going outside as well, it's just an all guy does the same here to Jesse Love. He's gotten to that quarter pound. Use a bit of side draft. Try to take that momentum into one. No, and it's so frustrating when they get to your right recorder. Not only gets your car loose, it bogs your car down. Justin rolling in that second lane. Breed gets out of line. Hang on. Hang on to that thing. Wow. Look, slide for the 17. That was wild. Creed had a huge amount of momentum. He threw down to the inside. He got there and then suddenly got really loose. These guys are having right now. Racing. You see Creed getting super loose, hanging on to it right there. Listen, they are having a blast out there, working each of these lanes, trying to get by each other. One passes one corner. The next goes by the next. It's awesome. Well, he's packing air on him right now, getting loose again. Hang on. Here I come. Zero sympathy. 88 coming through. Larson up to sixth. Carson kwoppel trying to get some stage points here. He and Brandon Jones racing for tenth with the green and white checkered flag in the offing. I was right. Clemens is in the free pass position. He would get the free pass here. As they come off of turn four, Allgaier going to stay behind the 42 and complete the sweep. Justin Allgaier wins stage two. Briscoe second behind him. Gray, love and Larson wrap the top five. Justin Allgaier sweeping those stages. That last adjustment didn't help on the tight condition. Still tight center. Slight vibration on the left side. Needed more rear security. Crew chief Andrew Overseet is going to make a small air pressure adjustment to get the front turning a little bit better for this next run. Four tires fueled. Chase Briscoe said he was super loose into one and tight landing into three which they thought might be due to the wind. Chase's only request was to not tighten him up. Just wanted to be a touch better if they can. They'll make a small adjustment there. For the 54, Taylor Gray at the bottom said he started to build front grip too late but can't be any more laterally free. Leaders heading to the Echo Park automotive restart zone. Closing on halfway at Vegas. That's the best job we've seen all day long by the outside. Allgaier didn't really spin the wheels. Hanging on the 2's quarter panel. Can Jesse clear Justin Allgaier there using the bottom? He does. Gets up in front of him to cover down the back straightaway. Make sure he doesn't have big momentum. He's got both lanes covered right now. Back to the bottom in three. See, you listen to the throttle that they can use. Just less distance. Off the hill. Slides out in front of Zilich there in a blue and white 21. Haven't talked a lot about him today. Came in third in points. Top ten in every mile and a half race a year ago. Looks like he might have. There he goes to the top once again. Jamie, I disagree. Oh, there it is. The 19 into the wall. That time. Basically looks like. So I think it has less grip up there. Trying to make something happen. There it is on the replay. Into the wall. Turn four for Briscoe. Yeah, that was pretty good contact right there as well. Body will pop back out. But did he bend any of the suspension? The rear? Hopefully okay. In a really good lap the last time through, but the seven still just has a little more front grip trying to work to his inside. Now it's going to be in the preferred position down here. All guys passing. It's so frustrating. Got him on the outside the last time. Love countered. Now he's going to get him on the inside. Some question marks about where he was going to land in his career, but comes to junior motorsports doing a great job. And here we are for the lead. Love didn't go away to the inside. Two returns the favor. The reigning champ is leading once again. Almost seeing the vulnerability out of the seven car right there. He seems to slide in the back now. Yeah, he didn't get to the... Looks like he got loose. Yeah, early. And then just he couldn't get the momentum on the exit. He didn't get to the white line and you get stuck in almost no man's land at that point if you don't commit and get to that white line. We saw Jesse do that earlier. Then learned from it. Run to the bottom. The middle. High. He's just trying to find some grip. That balance being way too free right now for the seven. And there's a caution. Number six today. And the fourth for an incident on track. 26, Dean Thompson. Assuming you pit here, you get a set, you'll have to come one more time. This is a little bit later into the spin here with Dean Thompson, Patrick Starpoli. But if we look there, top right of your screen, you can see they're both going around. That's kind of an indication of what we saw earlier in the race. Remember, Connor Zilich had that moment with Jeremy Clements beginning in lap two. You had the same of Cole Custer getting loose through there. He told Danny Stockman, if you think it's going to keep doing that, give me some lateral grip. They'll take a half round out of the right rear to do that. Taylor Gray hasn't said much on the radio this run. Think they've been pretty happy with their race car. Right. So here they are on pit lane. But take a look at the top of your screen. That's Danny Stockman falls over the wall trying to catch the tire, Dylan. But was he supposed to be there? So that that's the kind of other layer to this story. They had a pit crew member who was late getting out here, had some flight issues, from what I understand. And Danny was kind of called into the last minute to try to catch that tire. So hey, by the way, Briscoe takes the wave around. He's back on the lead lap. Sam Mayer takes the wave around. He's now four laps down. Gray in control on the restart. Fifty four jumps away. And Connor Zillich right in the game. Had the problems lap two, but he's fought his way back to second. That's Creed in third. Larson and day up there, fourth and fifth. Creed solid on a mile and a half a year ago. Flexing his muscles here, waiting for his opportunity. Goes outside of Zillich for second. And he's all clear. Double zero to the runner up spot behind Taylor Gray. Pretty methodical. You see right here with a couple of his teammates. Larson on his inside. Zillich has been able to continue even with that damage on the right front, but no damage on the nine car. He's had a solid day. It's been a great year for him. Caution is out. Seventh of the day. As we look here off of four, Bielicki just got into his left rear, came up the racetrack. Was listening to the two radio, and there was a lot of discussion between Jesse and Danny Stockman about what the right move was. They are very, very close. They feel like to be being able to make it from here on fuel. So that is what they're going to do. Fuel only. They'll save their last set of tires that inside just gets such a good launch. I think all guys all over the back of Corey Day. They are. They're connected right here. You can make that outside work at all. But Sheldon did not get a good launch. He was not in the rear bumper there. Taylor Gray, 17 Corey Day, a big run down the back. Now the side draft into three. We'll see who comes out on top. Restart. Time to make. Hey. Yeah. Corey did a great job. Recovered sideways. Hang on. Yeah, he does. How about that? Well done, Jeremy. He's not timing the deceleration perfectly to get to the white line, and therefore you get caught in almost like a no man's land a little bit. It gave the 54 a big run to get pushed back 54 trying to hang on gray into the wall. Caution is out number eight today, and I get what Sheldon saying right there, but I don't know that hitting somebody on corner entry is the could have gotten both of those guys. That's a serious message. You know, that's not a slight tap at a short track movie out of the way. Yeah. And Corey Day leading his first laps in the series period here today. Very impressive that he was tight getting to the line. You see that chassis adjustment. Justin Algar. They're in the center. They're gonna take fresh tires. They're gonna take fresh Sunoco fuel. And then finally, Sheldon Creed, that missed audio that you didn't hear. He said, Man, that was my fault that you could only block a guy so many times. Here we are once again in the Echo Park Restart Zone, Echo Park Automotive, where car buying is easier, better and happier. The top line didn't get going at all, and they really struggled. Well, you see day pushing creed there. Look at the outside run on the tires, and he's going for the lead. How about it? Eighty eight trying to dance to the front. See Kyle Larson on this restart. Parker mentioned the outside, not having the momentum. Look at Kyle. Gets a little contact right there with Alfredo. Never checks up. Has the momentum on the outside. Brandon Jones held that inside line up just a little bit. Just perfect scenario for Kyle Larson right there. He's got another problem here in just a pretty quickly. yourself. You're able to use it to have a ton of speed. But the second someone goes up there as he tried to fight back to the outside of Allgaier, it just kills all your momentum. When someone moves up in front of you like Sheldon has, because it just takes away that clean lane. You can't quite run the wall as well, and you don't have the same lap time that you had before. Yeah, all tires. Just fine with him running. Right in front of Corey Day, LaVar Scott there, got the wall. He's still rolling. Oh, no. Dean Thompson here. That'll bring it out. No yellow yet. Five races in 2026. Going to be five different winners. Three victories in a row for Junior Motorsports. Today belongs to Kyle Larson. He wins at Vegas. Kyle Larson.