Corey Day went for the Sunday drive of a lifetime in the Blue Cross NC 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Day was penalized for driving through too many pit boxes after he won Stage 1, and he responded by driving through the field en route to his fourth win of the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series season.
A stunning, three-wide pass for the lead with 10 laps to go punctuated a championship-altering rally for the 20-year-old Californian. Day's second consecutive O'Reilly triumph moved the driver of the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports entry to within seven points of championship leader Sheldon Creed — who finished third to Day and Jesse Love on Sunday. Love's runner-up finish kept him second in the series standings.
Love's bid for a second straight NORAPS title received a solid boost on Sunday, but it could've been even better. The Richard Childress Racing driver was poised for victory after he passed Justin Allgaier for the lead with 17 laps to go, but Brent Crews' crash on Lap 185 bunched up the field and provided Day with the opportunity he needed.
Day restarted on the outside lane of the front row and soared into the lead after Allgaier and Love fought tooth-and-nail for the top spot and both lost out. Once Day cleared Allgaier on the bottom lane entering Turn 1, the race's top honors were effectively spoken for.
Allgaier followed Day, Love and Creed home in fourth place after leading 54 laps — third most to Day's 55 and Love's race-high 80.
Carson Brown rounded out the top five with Brandon Jones sixth, Austin Hill seventh, Anthony Alfredo eighth, Taylor Gray ninth and Brennan Poole 10th.
Creed left Sunday clinging to a two-point lead over Love in the Chase presented by Mobil 1 standings with four races left in the season. Creed's third-place finish masked a frustrating night that saw Day beat him by only two spots — but Day took 34 points out of Creed's points lead by virtue of winning Stage 1 and finishing seventh in Stage 2.
The race was originally scheduled for Saturday before being postponed due to inclement weather.
COREY DAY, NO. 17 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET (RACE WINNER): "I kind of knew it was going to be a struggle restarting in the top lane (on the final restart). There's actually a big difference in restarting on the top versus the bottom. I was able to get through the gears good enough, I just had a really good car firing off and was almost completely flat-out going into Turn 1. I could see (Allgaier) and (Love) didn't have a great corner and I got to them pretty quick.
"(Winning is) a whole team deal. I can't be good and my team not be good, and my team can't be good without me being good. Right now, we're just firing on all eight cylinders as a team. I'm not really thinking about the championship right now. I'm just focused on having good runs these next four races and being consistent. If we run well enough, the points will take care of themselves."
JESSE LOVE, NO. 2 RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING CHEVROLET (RUNNER-UP): "I feel like I ran a good race, did a lot of things right then made a mistake on the restart and kind of washed up there. My car kind of only worked in one lane and when (Day) took it away from me it was pretty hard. It is what it is. If I could re-do it, I would. I'm kind of thinking what-if, if I'd have won the race I'd have had a better points day, but I can't fix that now. I can learn from it, but I can't fix it."
SHELDON CREED, NO. 00 HAAS FACTORY TEAM CHEVROLET (THIRD-PLACE FINISHER): "It was tough. We didn't start very good at all. I was on the splitter, I was loose. I just didn't have a lot of grip to start the night. We got a little bit better and a little bit better every time we came down pit road. It was probably nice to see that (last) restart there and I fired off the best I'd been all night. I just kept working on the 7 (Allgaier) and was able to get back by him at the end. We'll go back to the shop, keep working hard and try to be better next week."
