Corey Day Steals One at the Monster Mile!
- gridfuelmedia
- May 16
- 2 min read
Corey Day captured his second win of the season in dramatic fashion at Dover Motor Speedway, winning in his first-ever start at the Monster Mile.
Stage 1
Brandon Jones (#20) took the Stage 1 victory over Ross Chastain (#9). The only caution of the stage came on lap 12, when Crews (#19) bounced off the wall, triggering a domino effect that left both Jeb Burton (#27) and Retzlaff (#99) with heavily damaged cars.
Jones grabbed the lead on the restart and controlled the remainder of the stage, with Chastain staying close behind.
Top 5 From Stage 1
Stage 2
Ross Chastain dominated Stage 2 despite a late charge from Rajah Caruth (#88). The only caution in the stage involved Perkins (#31), whose car was destroyed after contact from another driver.
Caruth appeared to have the faster car but couldn’t complete the pass while working through lap traffic. Once again, Dover proved to be a track-position race. Brandon Jones, despite winning Stage 1, failed to score any stage points after a slow pit stop shuffled him back in the field.
Top 5 From Stage 2
Final Stage
Jesse Love (#2) and Rajah Caruth (#88) led the field back to green, but trouble struck immediately when Caruth got loose underneath Love and sent both cars into the outside wall. It marked the third incident between the two drivers this season.
After the next restart, the #88 was involved again when Caruth got loose underneath Harrison Burton (#24) following contact from teammate Sammy Smith (#8).
Chastain led the field back to green with 82 laps to go, but another battle for the lead ended in contact when the #54 got into the #9, sending Chastain’s Toyota nose-first into the inside wall. Despite the hit, Chastain escaped with minimal damage.
The race settled down until lap 160, when Garrett Smithley’s #0 spun down the frontstretch after a blown right-rear tire.
Justin Allgaier (#7) led William Sawalich (#18) and the field back to green with 33 laps remaining. Allgaier cleared for the lead, but the #7 team wasn’t sure they could make it to the finish on fuel.
As the run continued, Corey Day (#17) began reeling in Allgaier, cutting the gap to under a second with 10 laps to go while navigating lap traffic.
With fewer than five laps remaining, Day hounded Allgaier as they approached the lap car of Blake Lothian (#55). Lothian ran the middle groove, allowing Day to rip the outside lane and take the lead away from the #7.
Day crossed the line less than half a second ahead of Allgaier to steal the win at Dover.
The victory capped off a massive 62-point day for the #17 team, while William Sawalich earned the fastest lap bonus point.
Top 10 From Dover
The O'Reilly Series returns next week at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Charbroil 300 on The CW!
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