Taylor Gray won the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Kansas, marking his second victory. He successfully defended against Sheldon Creed, finishing ahead in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Key points
Taylor Gray won the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race
This is Gray's second victory in the series
He drove the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Sheldon Creed finished second in the No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet
Justin Allgaier finished third
Taylor GraySheldon CreedJustin AllgaierJesse Love
Motorsport photo
Motorsport photo
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. 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."
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.
Q&A
Who won the NASCAR O'Reilly race at Kansas?
Taylor Gray won the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Kansas.
What position did Sheldon Creed finish in the Kansas race?
Sheldon Creed finished in second place in the Kansas race.
How many race wins does Taylor Gray have in the NASCAR O'Reilly Series?
Taylor Gray now has two race wins in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.
Who were the top five finishers in the Kansas NASCAR race?
The top five finishers were Taylor Gray, Sheldon Creed, Justin Allgaier, Jesse Love, and Brent Crews.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
