Taylor Gray is now a two-time race winner in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Driving the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, he held off a charging Sheldon Creed in the No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet as Kansas Speedway.
“First of all, thank you to everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing,” said Gray in Victory Lane. “How about (crew chief) Jason Ratcliffe? That pit call was awesome. I knew we had a car capable of winning. I thought the No. 20 (Jones) was a little better than us before the green-flag cycle, but you just have to stay locked in.
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“Jason made a really good adjustment on the car, a really good pit call, and got us the clean air. I can’t thank everybody enough. It’s been a long start to the year, man. Not that we’re not bringing speed to the race track, but things just haven’t gone our way. So it’s nice to finally be able to close one out.”
Justin Allgaier finished third, Jesse Love fourth, and Brent Crews fifth. William Byron, Cole Custer, Brandon Jones, Sam Mayer, and Ryan Sieg filled out the remainder of the top ten.
While he missed out on the win, Creed did earn the $100,000 Dash4Cash bonus, beating Allgaier, Crews, and Carson Kvapil for that prize. However, Allgaier now leads Creed by 131 points in the championship standings.
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Stage 1
Kvapil led the race from pole position, but Day quickly moved into the race lead. While battling in the middle of a three-wide situation on the third lap, Kvapil got hit by teammate William Byron. He slammed the wall and went airborne, tumbling down the backstretch in a dramatic rollover crash.
The incident triggered a 12-minute red flag. After racing resumed, Day barely held on against Allgaier as they raced to the a competition caution. Luke Baldwin’s race was also over after a separate incident that happened just as the Kvapil crash was unfolding.
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Jones took over the lead on pit road, and held it through the ensuing restart. Battling for a spot inside the top ten, things got messy between RCR teammates. Hill was to the inside of Love and ended up spinning sideways after being put in a bad aero spot. William Sawalich then slammed into Hill, severely damaging both cars. Hill was none too pleased with Love, saying as much after being released from the infield care center.
This caution came just before the end of the stage, so there was a split strategy with Love leading one group of cars onto pit road after the run-in with his teammate.
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Jones held on to win Stage 1 over Day, Allgaier, Love, Alfredo, Tay. Gray, Creed, Crews, J. Burton, and Byron.
Stage 2
There was a new group of cars at the front as multiple strategies played out with Alfredo leading the way. After a chaotic restart, Byron took the lead, but Jones was already right with him despite restarting back around seventh. He immediately went to the inside of Byron, and was able to clear him within a lap.
The next caution was for Alfredo, who cut a right-front tire down and hit the wall. During the yellow, both Austin Green and Blake Lothian fell out of the race with mechanical issues.
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Jones went on to sweep the stages, winning Stage 2 over Creed, Allgaier, Love, Day, S. Smith, Tay. Gray, H. Burton, Mayer, and Thompson.
Stage 3
On the restart, Creed and Tay. Gray took Jones three-wide for the lead, but were unable to complete the pass.
Back in the pack, Day got into Smith, triggering an accident that damaged both cars. On the following restart, Creed actually did manage to take the lead from Jones.
What followed was the longest green-flag run of the day, with a round of green-flag stops kicking off with about 55 laps to go.
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Gray, who opted to short-pit, jumped both Creed and Jones through that cycle of stops. Unfortunately for Jones, his incredible day went awry as the team was handed a pass-through penalty for an uncontrolled tire during their stop.
Gray held a three-second advantage over Creed after pitting four laps earlier than the Haas driver.
However, Creed steadily closed the gap, and got to within half-a-second at one point as they battled through traffic, but he never quite got close enough.
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Read Also:
NASCAR red flags race as Carson Kvapil flips wildly in violent Kansas crash
NASCAR O’Reilly Kansas results
|
1 |
54 |
Taylor Gray |
Toyota |
200 |
2:33’54.897 |
|
48 |
|
|
2 |
00 |
Sheldon Creed |
Chevrolet |
200 |
2:33’55.615 |
0.718 |
48 |
|
|
3 |
7 |
Justin Allgaier |
Chevrolet |
200 |
2:33’56.751 |
1.854 |
|
|
|
4 |
2 |
Jesse Love |
Chevrolet |
200 |
2:34’05.004 |
10.107 |
1 |
|
|
5 |
19 |
Brent Crews |
Toyota |
200 |
2:34’06.060 |
11.163 |
|
|
|
6 |
88 |
William Byron |
Chevrolet |
200 |
2:34’13.063 |
18.166 |
1 |
|
|
7 |
0 |
Cole Custer |
Chevrolet |
200 |
2:34’15.605 |
20.708 |
|
|
|
8 |
20 |
Brandon Jones |
Toyota |
200 |
2:34’17.082 |
22.185 |
67 |
|
|
9 |
41 |
Sam Mayer |
Chevrolet |
200 |
2:34’20.641 |
25.744 |
|
|
|
10 |
39 |
Ryan Sieg |
Chevrolet |
200 |
2:34’26.679 |
31.782 |
3 |
|
|
11 |
26 |
Dean Thompson |
Toyota |
199 |
2:34’01.176 |
1 Lap |
|
|
|
12 |
17 |
Corey Day |
Chevrolet |
199 |
2:34’09.593 |
1 Lap |
26 |
|
|
13 |
27 |
Jeb Burton |
Chevrolet |
199 |
2:34’10.779 |
1 Lap |
|
|
|
14 |
48 |
Patrick Staropoli |
Chevrolet |
199 |
2:34’11.033 |
1 Lap |
|
|
|
15 |
51 |
Jeremy Clements |
Chevrolet |
199 |
2:34’14.582 |
1 Lap |
|
|
|
16 |
8 |
Sammy Smith |
Chevrolet |
199 |
2:34’26.520 |
1 Lap |
|
|
|
17 |
92 |
Josh Williams |
Chevrolet |
199 |
2:34’29.134 |
1 Lap |
|
|
|
18 |
45 |
Lavar Scott |
Chevrolet |
198 |
2:33’57.553 |
2 Laps |
|
|
|
19 |
44 |
Brennan Poole |
Chevrolet |
198 |
2:33’58.511 |
2 Laps |
|
|
|
20 |
18 |
William Sawalich |
Toyota |
198 |
2:34’06.964 |
2 Laps |
|
|
|
21 |
32 |
Rajah Caruth |
Chevrolet |
198 |
2:34’08.168 |
2 Laps |
|
|
|
22 |
02 |
Ryan Ellis |
Chevrolet |
198 |
2:34’08.630 |
2 Laps |
|
|
|
23 |
31 |
Blaine Perkins |
Chevrolet |
198 |
2:34’28.787 |
2 Laps |
|
|
|
24 |
42 |
Nathan Byrd |
Chevrolet |
197 |
2:33’57.828 |
3 Laps |
|
|
|
25 |
28 |
Kyle Sieg |
Chevrolet |
197 |
2:34’16.739 |
3 Laps |
|
|
|
26 |
07 |
Josh Bilicki |
Chevrolet |
196 |
2:34’24.311 |
4 Laps |
|
|
|
27 |
55 |
Joey Gase |
Chevrolet |
194 |
2:32’37.659 |
6 Laps |
|
|
|
28 |
24 |
Harrison Burton |
Toyota |
190 |
2:34’21.162 |
10 Laps |
|
|
|
29 |
74 |
Dawson Cram |
Chevrolet |
120 |
1:50’01.045 |
80 Laps |
|
Engine |
|
30 |
96 |
Anthony Alfredo |
Chevrolet |
65 |
1:01’17.200 |
135 Laps |
6 |
Accident |
|
31 |
35 |
Blake Lothian |
Chevrolet |
62 |
57’38.745 |
138 Laps |
|
Brakes |
|
32 |
87 |
Austin Green |
Chevrolet |
61 |
56’57.782 |
139 Laps |
|
Engine |
|
33 |
91 |
Mason Maggio |
Chevrolet |
51 |
50’14.980 |
149 Laps |
|
Engine |
|
34 |
21 |
Austin Hill |
Chevrolet |
37 |
31’26.694 |
163 Laps |
|
Accident |
|
35 |
5 |
Luke Baldwin |
Ford |
4 |
10’32.026 |
196 Laps |
|
Suspension |
|
36 |
99 |
Parker Retzlaff |
Chevrolet |
2 |
1’30.255 |
198 Laps |
|
Accident |
|
37 |
1 |
Carson Kvapil |
Chevrolet |
1 |
33.409 |
199 Laps |
|
Accident |
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