NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Highlights | 2026 Indianapolis Motor Speedway

100 laps at one of the great venues in all of motor sports. We are green at Indianapolis. Green, green, green. Looks to me like both of those first two rows are locked together and outside might be a better place to be if it can keep the momentum off of turn two. We always talk about the first lap or two is beneficial, somewhat beneficial for the top, but then after that you want to get down in line and in the preferred groove. Creed did a great job clearing Karson Kwopal. You see now Mayer side drafting him. Karson will be stuck on the outside and hope he can get down sooner than later before he loses too many spots here. This is the part of the track I love. Into turn three. You see everybody fan out down the back straightaway. A lot of jockeying for position into the corner there. One, two, Haas factory team. Creed and Kwopal. Look how far they sit right out there. That is not what we saw last year at all. I can't believe the gap between those first three cars. We're live at Indianapolis motor speedway. It's the O'Reilly auto parts series. Sheldon Creed leading the first 23 laps. But there he goes. Jeremy Clements driving by. Takes over the top spot. Mayer gets inside of him. Here comes the nine of Ross Chastain. Sheldon is struggling. He went from the leader. He's going to fall all the way back to fourth. One straightaway. Two second advantage. Had some lap traffic kind of impede his progress and now this. You have to think, like, you're talking during break, like he had to. So we see here in the replay the 47 of David Starr is holding up Sheldon. I think Sheldon's balance is going away before this just enough to where David Starr became a bigger star in his factor of losing that lead that he had. So two second lead now erased and now back to fourth. Let's go to Sheldon Creed's radio here. This is going to be good. Get this mother out of the way. Get those mother out of the way. I'm going to definitely work on it for now. You know what I love is that we go tell the spotter, go do this. Do you think they ever do it? They don't ever do it. I guarantee you. I got them all over it. That's what they say. Career start 552 for Jeremy Clements. And here he is for the green and white checkered flag, 41 from Spartanburg, South Carolina. He wins the opening stage at Indianapolis. Second career stage win. Restart to begin stage two. 9 of Ross Chastain. To his right, William Swalich. We talked about how fast the 18 was at the end of that run. Had a great pit stop. Finds himself on the front row. See what he can do on this restart now. They're already three wide into one. Really good pushes from the outside group here. This turn two is always touchy, though. Those guys on the inside, Ross Chastain, Carson Kwaple, it's like everybody gave him room. Outside row four, Jeremy Clements lost those positions on the exchange on pit road trying to get some back there. Look at Swalich chasing Chastain down near the grass. He's got the draft with Creed pushing him off into turn three, into the clear right here with the 18. Battle for the lead right here. Chastain getting underneath the 18 of William Swalich. William not giving it up, though. Look at that. Oh, he put it on his corner. Did he get loose here? This is where the experience versus inexperience comes in, right? Ross knew what his car was going to do. William is only thinking about track position here, and it cost him. Look, now he's going to fall to at least fourth, fifth, sixth here. Look at Kwaple's move. Allgaier's there, mixing it up at the front. Just remarkable racing here, early stage two at Indy. I cannot believe Carson went to the outside. They were going to be three wide getting into turn three and was able to get back down. You see these guys, everybody's taking every run they get at this point. Everybody mixes it up, and Allgaier says, thank you very much. Driver seven up to third. Look at the blocking back behind him as Creed is now managing the front behind Chastain. Second yellow of the day. The first natural caution comes out for Garrett Smithley going for a slide a couple of weeks ago. Got his best run of the year at Atlanta when he finished sixth. Take a quick look here. He's right behind Blaine Perkins entering turn one. Let's see if he just got in some of that dirty air, maybe got a little low on the apron. Looks like he got a little bit of the apron there, that concrete upset the car just enough. But doesn't hit anything here. You see those tire right side tires blow out. This is a long slide. I can tell you inside the car. This is a moment right here that walls approaching. There's a window of sadness, and then it's like, oh, yeah, I got it. That's right. You know, this caution comes out at a really interesting time as we watch one more time to zero stepping out because the fuel window, you know, we're almost right on top of it, maybe just outside of it. But you would think here about coming down, flipping the stage. I mean, you could probably pit here and with the caution laps in the exchange, make it to the end of the race. So I'm real curious to see how everybody balances this. I want a little in the bank at Indy. It seems like we always go to overtime here. Those overtimes. Yeah. And I just I mean, I guess you can take a chance if you're like all guy or got six wins this year. Yeah. A little fake out right here. We're going to find out. Look at this. Either we got a lot of shot fakes or we got a lot of guys coming to pit road. Adam for crew chief. Chastain leading them down. They're on the progressive pit lane. Dylan. Yeah. And the nine can go for it because they're not running for full season points. So they maybe forced everybody's hand here by just trying to go for this and keep some track position. Ross reported that he was two numbers looser than he was in stage one. So he went from a three loose to a five loose, going to go back on the air pressure adjustment that they made at the end of stage one. Sheldon Creed said he was better that run. He was also a little bit free, but was building tight on the double zero, Kim. And for Carson. Same story as the first run. Pretty good balance. Just the same complaint. Snug on exit. Pushes the nose. Then just gets a little bit free. They will take four fresh Goodyear tires, do a little tape adjustment on the front as well as fuel the race off progressive pit road. Looks like at 19 is going to hold serve. Jumps out in front of Sheldon Creed. Same top four. Stay the same. Top six. Top five. Rather. Plus two for Brandon Jones. Brent Cruz was up in the top ten, but they had a problem. They're going to go around. Jack this left side up. And when it goes up, watch right. Well, he tried to go and rolled off the jack like they must have been slow on one of those left side tires. about it. There's going to be three to go in a stage. They basically forfeit stage points here. Two drivers did stay out in this cycle. Dean Thompson, Rajah Carruth. This restart could be huge for Rajah trying to go get stage points. Look how loose all those guys are that stayed out trying to accelerate and get the power down. See the second row, giving him a big show, but you got to be careful because they're not going to have Dean is loose. He is super loose on the bottom. Oh, look what that does to Castane. That car was dancing around. All guy are up to second on their three wide right here. Carson Kwop on the outside of the run. The inside lane is going to have here. Rajah needs to be smart here. Know that he's at a deficit on tires and not cost himself. Maybe let the seven go if he gets there, but don't cost himself five extra spots trying to hold off. Make the most of your situation. Just manage this. We've seen multiple guys lose five or six spots in one corner. They're three wide getting into turn four. Racing really good. Back part of the top ten. Brandon Jones is there. Look at the inside. Chase Elliott with a big rally in the 88. Parker Retzelhoff right behind him and Taylor Gray who had the penalties in that mix. Look at the draft just blow by Corey Day right there. He was all by himself on the top. Look at that. I bet eight cars went by him on that one straightaway. Wow. These restarts are incredible. Going to be a lap and a half to go. Stage two. Rajah's still out front. Rajah's in a great position. They've driven away just a little bit. As you mentioned, Bubba, even if he has to let all guy go, but I think all guy is going to kind of be a friend here. Push him for just a little bit until he can get the right run that he needs. We talk about how the gap just closed right back up, so all four cars under a blanket here. The top four. But still, when you know you're on the cut line, every point matters. It's like I have to win this stage or else. You got to look at the bigger picture. We got to make the most of the day. The battle for tenth won't quit. They're just fighting like crazy back there. I'm telling you, I'm impressed with the 32 again able to stay out in front. And Dean Thompson, who lost the clean air, is in third. Those guys able to hang on really well right here. I think I'll call the finish to the stage and then close my eyes because I'm not sure what's going to happen behind him. Chastain drives around Dean Thompson for third. Down the back straightaway. Final time, stage two. Rajah hanging on. These ten points would be huge for him. He's in a great position. Even if Allgaier gets inside of him, he's not going to lose but a couple of spots at the most going down the front stretch right here. But I just don't see the 7 being able to get the run that he needs. Great execution from the 32 team there. That was impressive. That's a win. Absolutely. To your point, I think the 7 did play nice there. Maybe he knew the scenario. He was like, let's help each other out. That's nice. Rajah in the 88 the rest of the year. Last run in the 32. Great checker. Good job. And he makes it happen in this second stage. And the man that's in control from the outside lane, Justin Allgaier, has won six times in 2026. And he also won right here in Indianapolis 2018. The only driver in the field that's won here in the past. Sheldon Creed, who's going to line up behind Allgaier, I think one of the best pushers in the entire series. I'd love to have him behind me if I'm leading this. Carson Kuopel in the 1. Looking for his first career victory. Final stage. Underway at Indy. A lot more organized on the bottom. Oh! Sam Mayer here going bottom three wide. That's going to stall that inside lane out. Three wide. I mean, he goes down there and makes it happen. Poor William Suwalich gets the raw end of the deal. He's going to be on the outside now of turn two as well. Can he get down in front of Brandon Jones? He does. Side by side for the lead off of two. Allgaier can't get away. Mixing it up for third. How good is this coming down the back straightaway to turn three? Look at the run the 1 has here. He's just defending. Okay. Allgaier in a vulnerable position being on the outside of turn three. Outside of turn two, you can have that momentum, but it's so fast on the entry to three being able to commit to that. You see now his other teammate, Carson Kuopel, is going to get to his inside. Sam Mayer was really aggressive on that restart, but look how much it's paid off for him. Now he's going to make it three wide again inside of Kuopel. Chastain to the lead. Three wide for second. Look at Mayer dicing down there, and those angles are so bad for the spotters. You have to do the... Oh, he got tight right here. Contact with one. Oh, Kuopel fights back. Egos are starting to set in here. So good. Kuopel going to win out on that battle. Now Allgaier coming low. Allgaier packed air on that left rear quarter of the 41 of Mayer. Now Mayer's teammate, Creed, is going to help push him by. Look, us race car drivers in this moment, it's like, come on, man, quit putting us three wide. And so Allgaier's like, I'm just going to pack air and make it hell for you. How about this? Austin Hill right there, a part of the equation. Riding with William Suwalich, who's trying to find his spot above that chase cut line. He has a fast car. He came out on the short end of the deal on that restart, getting put in three wide because he was in the outside lane, but done a great job here fighting back. Now has his teammate Brandon Jones behind him trying to push him through. Chase Elliott. Welcome to the party. He's right in this mix. They're up to two and a half seconds here. Here goes Carson off turn two here. Got in the lead. Out the corner. Down the back straightaway at Indianapolis, using all the racetrack. Carson Kuopel leads in front of Ross Chastain. And I think the way his car is handling here, he might drive away right here. Rodney's hoping the nine can hold him up a little bit. We'll see what kind of run. Can Allgaier get just a little bit inside here of the nine? He's so much faster right now. Oh, yeah. It's going to have the run right here. Got the momentum. Nine will not. Oh, he can't. Oh, he lost a little bit. Wow. I thought he had the run. It was just enough to where when he pulled out, he stalled himself. And so now he has to regroup that. That's a lot of time lost right there. So I imagine here if he can get a good run off of turn four here and set himself up to pack air because he's at the point where he can waste that time. We're down to eight laps to go. Seven coming by this next time. He's got to pack air here. Get the nine out of the way and march forward. A little bit of a tow here down into turn one. It just looked to me like he was way better through turn two than what the nine was. Oh, the nine down the pipes right there. Yeah. Lifted. Here comes Allgaier for second. Oh, yeah. No problem. He's going to raise the margin. He did not. It's over. Yeah. All right. Here we go. What did you say about the Jaws music? He makes the pass. He's a second back. We'll see what Allgaier can do from here. Heartbreak for the 51 on the right. You see issues there on pit road. Maybe a battery doing something there to the left rear. Sounds like maybe they're having to change the batteries. The nerves that must be happening behind the wheel. Five miles to career win number one. This is bringing back memories for me from last year. You know, the double overtime. Two laps here. It's all about hitting your marks. And you're just mirror driving at this point because for us, it's a little different. You can see the runs kind of happening and forming. But yeah, you're just wondering where that car is behind you, making sure that you seal off all the air to not allow them to advance on you in the corners. But nerve wracking last two laps. Justin is going to get there on the last lap. It's going to be really close. He was two tenths quicker again right here. Look, he's getting a little bit of tow right now. And you mentioned it. The thing about driving out of the mirror is that you could miss your marks if you're the one car at Carson. So focus ahead. It just seems to me like the 7 is going to, by this point next time by, I think they're going to be right on each other. Off of turn four. Here we go. We'll see the white flag this time by one lap to go. Sponsored by credit one bank for what's ahead. Hopefully those lap cars don't play a factor in this, but Justin's getting a little bit of a draft right here. Five races this year ended with a last lap pass. Here's Allgaier. Allgaier is going to be there. He's been so good in turn two. Carson's got to hit his marks just right. Get that exit that he needs. Just got to focus here. Tight. I think that's good for the win. That stalled all the momentum there. Down the back straightaway for the final time. A little bit of a gap for Quapel here over Allgaier. Lap car out ahead. Into turn three. Oh, Justin sent it out. Sent it down in there. Didn't close the gap up enough. Across the short chute. Off of turn four. Here comes Carson Quapel. Welcome to the club. Carson Quapel, you are a winner in the O'Reilly auto parts series. He does it at Indianapolis. Thank you, guys. Thank you.