NOAPS Race Recap: North Carolina Education Lottery 250

Rockingham Speedway was the host of the North Carolina Education Lottery 250 for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Corey Day and Jesse Love started the race on the front row. Parker Retzlaff and Justin Allgaier started from the second row. William Sawalich got the race going from the fourteenth position. The stage lengths were 60 laps for the first two stages, with the final stage being 130 laps.

It’s a New Day

Day got the race started and immediately took the lead into turn one. Retzlaff got loose on the exit of two and got into Allgaier. Allgaier got away with no damage, while Retzlaff fell back several spots. Cleetus McFarland fell back after getting loose in turn one.

Day pulled away from Love by over a second and a half.

Sawalich showed his speed early and passed his way into the top ten after getting by his teammate in Brent Crews.

Day caught the back of the field, but his lead began to shrink as he made his way past some lapped cars. From two seconds to one, Love used the opportunity to close the gap to the leader.

Love, Gray, Allgaier, and Kvapil caught the lapped traffic and struggled to get around them cleanly. Allgaier used a lapped car to get around Love to take second.

The first caution came out when Blake Lothian got turned around in turns one and two. McFarland narrowly avoided running into the sideways car in Lothian.

Anthony Alfredo and Taylor Gray restarted from the front row. Sammy Smith shoved Gray out front and into the lead. Day dove underneath Smith to take second, and stayed on the rear bumper of Gray.

Day powered himself on the inside of Gray into turn one, and drove out of the turn in the lead.

Corey Day stayed out front to get the green-white-checkered flag and win stage one in the North Carolina Education Lottery 250!

Day two Day

Jones and Day brought the field back to the green flag. Day dove into turn one and out of two with the lead. Jones settled in behind the leader.

Love got loose and hit the outside wall on the back stretch. He had some help from Rajah Caruth.

Jones stayed within striking distance of Day but began to lose ground.

Dean Thompson made an unscheduled pit stop due to a flat right front tire.

Jeremy Clements got loose and turned around to bring out the third caution. He kept his car off the wall and was able to keep it going.

Day and Jones restarted on the front row, but Jones spun his tires. This allowed Day to scamper away in the lead and pull away by over half a second.

Jones began to struggle. After being passed by Sawalich, he was then passed by Brent Crews and Allgaier. Sawalich found himself about a second back from Day.

Clements showed the speed in his car by passing his way back into the top ten. He was the biggest mover since the restart.

Day would take the field to another green-white-checkered flag to win stage two in the North Carolina Education Lottery 250! Sawalich closed the gap to only half a second. Allgaier, Crews, and Jones rounded out the top five.

Stage 3

Ryan Sieg and Love restarted the race out front. Crews and Sawalich pushed Love out front. Sawalich pulled alongside Love but was not able to take the spot. Love drove deeper into turn three and held onto the lead. Crews drove to the inside of Sawalich, and they made contact. Sawalich was pushed up the track but did keep it off the wall. Sieg used this chance to get to the rear bumper of Crews.

Crews caught the bumper of Love, who was on older tires. The slower car, in Love, allowed Crews, Allgaier, and Sawalich to catch up and contend for the lead. Crews drove to the inside of Love and took the lead. Allgaier used the outside line to take second.

Love made an unscheduled pit stop for a loose right front wheel. He fell to 33rd and three laps down.

Crews pulled away from Allgaier by a second and a half.

The fifth caution came out when Anthony Alfredo slowed on the front stretch. He spun around, and his left front tire blew apart, taking his entire wheel housing with it.

Crews and Allgaier took the green flag with 79 to go. Sawalich immediately drove to the inside of Crews and took the lead out of turn two. Before the field could get back up to speed, Clements got turned around again. Sieg overshot turn one and ran over Clements. Clements hit the wall with his rear bumper, which got torn up, bringing out the sixth caution.

71 to go

Sawalich and Crews restarted out front. Sawalich got a much better launch and took the lead into turn one. He immediately put half a second on the field. He took the fastest lap point and continued to build his lead.

The seventh caution came out when Cleetus McFarland spun around out of turn four. He kept it off the wall and was able to keep going.

With 38 to go, Crews and Sawalich brought the green flag back out from the front row. Sawalich got off the line to take the lead into turn one. The middle of the pack had a rough restart, but everyone was able to get back to speed.

Austin Green got into turn three with too much speed, and then cut a tire after hitting the wall. He was able to get onto pit road safely, so no caution was thrown.

Crews got into the wall with a possible tire going down. Allgaier was easily able to get around him for fourth. Gray was the next car around the ailing Crews. Kvapil followed Gray to push Crews back to seventh. He was able to get to pit road with 28 to go in the race.

Sawalich had built his lead to two seconds over Jones. He would lead the rest to get his first series win in the North Carolina Education Lottery 250! Jones, Allgaier, Rajah Caruth, and Carson Kvapil rounded out the top five.

Marvin’s Minute:

William Sawalich was fast early. He started the race in 14th and only went forward. He is in a great spot for his career in Joe Gibbs equipment. Getting his first win at a tough track like Rockingham will be something he remembers forever.

Another driver that impressed me was Corey Day. He was dominant in stages one and two, but just did not have enough to compete in the end. The future of the series, as well as the NASCAR Cup Series, is in good hands with the very young talents in both the NASCAR Craftsman Truck and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Tune in next week as the series heads to the high-banked Bristol Motor Speedway.