Carson Kvapil wins Martinsville, stays in title hunt

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Carson Kvapil bookended Saturday's Halloween evening at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, leading early and leading late to claim his third NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series victory of the season -- and of his career -- in the National Debt Relief 250.

It was a clutch performance for the 23-year-old North Carolinian, who won the pole position and led the most laps on the day -- 121 of 250 -- in the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to keep himself very much in the championship conversation heading to Homestead-Miami Speedway next week for the season finale.

Ultimately, Kvapil had to hold off his JRM teammate, Justin Allgaier, for the win, taking the trophy by 0.434 seconds over Allgaier, who leaves Virginia the new championship leader by 22 points over Richard Childress Racing's Jesse Love.

Hendrick Motorsports rookie Corey Day finished third, joining those three drivers atop the standings and setting up a thrilling season finale to decide the title.

Allgaier leads Love by 22 points, with Day 23 points back and Kvapil now 31 points out. Haas Factory Team driver Sheldon Creed finished sixth at Martinsville -- good enough to keep him in the championship mix. He's ranked fifth, 42 points behind Allgaier.

"It's awesome, I knew in practice we had a very fast Chevrolet," said Kvapil, who joined crew chief Rodney Childers in earning 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 just really worked out. Just super excited. Winning is always great but finally getting one at a track I feel like I'm good at is really 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 really to process, I feel like I've got a good idea of where it started to unravel and what did us in and all the bad stuff and good stuff that happened in between along the way," the reigning NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Love said.

"I'm not really going to study too much about today, it really doesn't matter. We have obviously one goal and probably for the most part only one avenue, one way to achieve that goal and it brings me a lot of clarity.

"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 were second only to his teammate Kvapil, is the defending race winner at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway where the series goes next 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," said Allgaier, noting the six cautions and a nearly 12-minute-long red flag in the final 105-lap run.

As for next week, he smiled and said, "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 the things we've been doing and execute the way we know we can we keep the points 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