Deadspin | Carson Kvapil wins Martinsville, stays in title hunt

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Carson Kvapil bookended Saturday’s Halloween night at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, main early and main late to say his third NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory of the season — and of his profession — within the National Debt Relief 250.

It was a clutch efficiency for the 23-year-old North Carolinian, who received the pole place and led probably the most laps on the day — 121 of 250 — within the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to maintain himself very a lot within the championship dialog heading to Homestead-Miami Speedway subsequent week for the season finale.

Ultimately, Kvapil needed to maintain off his JRM teammate, Justin Allgaier, for the win, taking the trophy by 0.434 seconds over Allgaier, who leaves Virginia the brand new championship chief by 22 factors over Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love.

Hendrick Motorsports rookie Corey Day completed third, becoming a member of these three drivers atop the standings and establishing an exhilarating season finale to resolve the title.

Allgaier leads Love by 22 factors, with Day 23 factors again and Kvapil now 31 factors out. Haas Factory Team driver Sheldon Creed completed sixth at Martinsville — adequate to maintain him within the championship combine. He’s ranked fifth, 42 factors behind Allgaier.

“It’s awesome, I knew in practice we had a very fast Chevrolet,” mentioned Kvapil, who joined crew chief Rodney Childers in incomes his first Martinsville victory. “Able to qualify on pole but just kinda had a rough race between the end of stage one and the end of the race there, just kept getting shuffled back.

“But it simply actually labored out. Just tremendous excited. Winning is all the time nice however lastly getting one at a observe I really feel like I’m good at is basically cool.”

Love, who entered the race as the championship leader, endured a difficult night. He lost positions when he became trapped behind Daniel Dye on pit road, then battled a right-front tire rub and finished 22nd in Stage 2. Brake failure sent his car into the outside wall in Turn 1 with 31 laps remaining, bringing out the race’s 12th and final caution. Love finished 30th and dropped to second in the standings.

“Nothing actually to course of, I really feel like I’ve acquired a good suggestion of the place it began to unravel and what did us in and all of the dangerous stuff and great things that occurred in between alongside the best way,” the reigning NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Love said.

“I’m probably not going to check an excessive amount of about at present, it actually would not matter. We have clearly one objective and doubtless for probably the most half just one avenue, one method to obtain that objective and it brings me plenty of readability.

“It means unless the (number) seven (Allgaier) has a DNF at Homestead, we’ve got to go and win the race. Obviously, that’s where we do our best work in moments like that.”

Allgaier, whose 52 laps led Saturday have been second solely to his teammate Kvapil, is the defending race winner on the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway the place the collection goes subsequent weekend to settle the championship.

“I think that last set of tires we had to push really hard to get through the field and those cautions didn’t help us out,” mentioned Allgaier, noting the six cautions and an almost 12-minute-long pink flag within the ultimate 105-lap run.

As for subsequent week, he smiled and mentioned, “I love the fact we have five (cars) going into Homestead with a shot to be champion. It’s going to make for a great battle. I feel like our team does a really great job. We won there last year. We know how to get around the racetrack and we know we’ll have speed, we just have to execute.

“If we do all of the issues we have been doing and execute the best way we all know we will we maintain the factors lead.”

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brandon Jones finished fourth followed by Haas Factory teammates Sam Mayer and Creed. JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith was seventh with Joe Gibbs Racing’s William Sawalich, Brent Crews and Taylor Gray rounding out the top-10.

The series heads south to Homestead-Miami Speedway next Saturday for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Championship Race (5 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Race — National Debt Relief 250

Martinsville Speedway

Martinsville, Virginia

Saturday, October 31, 2026

1. (1) Carson Kvapil (C), Chevrolet, 250.

2. (3) Justin Allgaier (C), Chevrolet, 250.

3. (9) Corey Day (C), Chevrolet, 250.

4. (12) Brandon Jones (C), Toyota, 250.

5. (14) Sam Mayer (C), Chevrolet, 250.

6. (7) Sheldon Creed (C), Chevrolet, 250.

7. (6) Sammy Smith (C), Chevrolet, 250.

8. (5) William Sawalich, Toyota, 250.

9. (13) Brent Crews # (C), Toyota, 250.

10. (10) Taylor Gray (C), Toyota, 250.

11. (19) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 250.

12. (17) Harrison Burton, Toyota, 250.

13. (18) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 250.

14. (37) Lee Pulliam, Chevrolet, 250.

15. (4) Parker Retzlaff (C), Chevrolet, 250.

16. (2) Rajah Caruth (C), Chevrolet, 250.

17. (11) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 250.

18. (32) Lavar Scott #, Chevrolet, 250.

19. (26) Patrick Staropoli #, Chevrolet, 250.

20. (25) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 250.

21. (22) Kyle Sieg, Chevrolet, 250.

22. (23) Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, 250.

23. (27) Carson Ware, Chevrolet, 250.

24. (36) Josh Bilicki, Chevrolet, 250.

25. (33) Joey Gase, Ford, 250.

26. (30) Justin Carroll(i), Chevrolet, 250.

27. (38) Baltazar Leguizamon, Chevrolet, 250.

28. (28) Dawson Cram, Chevrolet, 250.

29. (20) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 244.

30. (8) Jesse Love (C), Chevrolet, 241.

31. (21) Austin Hill (C), Chevrolet, 241.

32. (15) Dean Thompson, Toyota, 235.

33. (16) Blaine Perkins, Chevrolet, Oil Leak, 223.

34. (34) Daniel Dye(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 174.

35. (35) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, Accident, 161.

36. (31) Mason Maggio, Chevrolet, Accident, 161.

37. (24) Patrick Emerling(i), Ford, Accident, 161.

38. (29) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, Water Pump, 60.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 57.084 mph.

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 18 Mins, 13 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.434 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 12 for 90 laps.

Lead Changes: 9 among 5 drivers.

Lap Leaders: C. Kvapil (C) 1-53;J. Allgaier (C) 54-63;S. Mayer (C) 64-99;C. Day (C) 100-106;A. Alfredo 107;C. Day (C) 108-109;A. Alfredo 110-125;J. Allgaier (C) 126-167;C. Day (C) 168-182;C. Kvapil (C) 183-250.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Carson Kvapil (C) 2 times for 121 laps; Justin Allgaier (C) 2 times for 52 laps; Sam Mayer (C) 1 time for 36 laps; Corey Day (C) 3 times for 24 laps; Anthony Alfredo 2 times for 17 laps.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 7,00,20,1,2,27,99,96,41,18

Stage #2 Top Ten: 96,7,19,17,8,18,54,00,44,88

–Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service