NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Highlights | 2026 EchoPark Speedway

Front row, Sam Mayer, Carson Quapel, here we go from Atlanta. You see both lanes connected here. That's one thing that we do have different here in Atlanta as you are allowed to connect where you're not at Talladega and Daytona. So, yeah, it's going to be whoever can kind of stay connected the longest and who gets that good side draft. And it's about having the momentum down into turn three. That's what won Brandon Jones the race last weekend was he had the momentum at the right time. As you see, Carson Quapel in what looks like the preferred position, but Mayer's fighting back on the inside. That car being able to stuck right to the bottom of the racetrack. This first stage is going to be a really good test for the 41 because this is the worst his car is going to drive. They mentioned in pre-race how they trim their car out to get a pit selection next week. And, you know, so this is going to be the worst at the 41 handles. If he can stay up front during this stage, I think he's going to be tough to beat the rest of night. Wheel and caution lights are on. It happens early. We've seen that way a decent amount this year in the O'Reilly auto parts series. Joey Gase in the 55. It's like he maybe has leaked a little bit of fluid on the racetrack. We'll see how much of a cleanup that is. And Austin Hill did make a pit stop. We talked about some of the things they were fighting. You guys watch the pit stop there during the break and we'll replay it here now. Well, they went under the hood. You saw the guy kind of working the throttle linkage. See this guy falling on the side of the car and they didn't see anything. The only thing that they were able to do is just move it up a little bit. And maybe maybe it was dry. You know, you wouldn't think that from the shot, but it feels better so far. That's a good sign. There you go. Little loop goes a long ways, Adam. Cash, both those first two rows have done such a good job of getting hooked together. Some push all the way through turns one and two last time. They're still hooked together right here. Coming off a two. See Austin Hill way back in the pack. They're going three wide. He wants to get to the front as soon as possible. I'd set the over under the position inside the top 15. Mayer gets a shove in that outside lane, takes over control of the race. See, Jesse Love going to do a little side draft right here on the one car. I thought he might slide up behind him as we get a look at Austin Hill on the left hand side of your screen. Driving through all the kitty litter there into turn one. Score 27th that last time around. Got Brennan Poole in front of him. Harrison Burton as well. Mayer's finally got a little bit of a comfortable position right here with those guys being too wide behind him. You see him manipulating both lane. Oh, look at how loose the two car was right there. Like you hit that bump. Got out from underneath him. Didn't really lose that much momentum. You see he's going to slide up now, get in behind Quapel. He tried to regroup right here. So the challenge for the 41 car is not going to be when he's out front. It's if he gets shuffled somewhere outside the top five. That's when it's going to be a challenge for him to drive his car in these conditions. But if you qualify on the pole and say, you know what? I'm just going to leave the entire first stage until it does go dark. Then that's a pretty good strategy. You're him having to roll out of the throttle just a little bit on entry. Those guys too wide. Oh, really got slow. Look how loose that car is. We got a wall. You down, stay down, stay down, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up. Wheel and caution lights are on for a second time. Leland Honeyman Jr. Had to get away from him in the 92. You take a look at Leland Honeyman right here. It's like he got loose right there. Look at that. No, no contact. You see the tires blowing out. Say what to spin it, Atlanta. Only need four tires. That's a win. Well, I mean, look at those guys going by right there, dodging and diving and trying to stay out of trouble. Jake Finch, we talked about him. Ryan Seig, Kyle Seig, all dancing around the 92. 19 to go. Stage one. Leaders coming through the Echo Park restart zone. That's Sammy Smith down to the inside of Sam Mayer. It almost looked like the eight got a little loose when he initially got on the throttle, but the mistake's going to pay off. He's actually going to have the momentum. It looks like on their side. Does it shift those? They go down the backstretch like Creed's also going to get connected. See those guys side drafted all the way down the backstretch. Look at the one just shoving Sam Mayer down the backstretch. This is actually a vulnerable spot for the inside line. That's typically why you'll see people migrate up to the top lane, then get single file is that it's really hard to keep your car down the bottom as you enter turn three. He goes back to the 32 next week. Oh, look at the battle for the lead. His teammate. I'll tell you what. There you go. Oh, and he made it look easy. Went to the inside. It didn't really look like Mayer was able to challenge him. Just the shorter distance around the bottom of turns one and two. Somewhere Carla Metz is smiling. She picked him free race. That's right. That's an impressive move. No doubt about it. Usually you can time a run out, especially at this racetrack. We talked about how narrow it is. The runs become big here, and they're actually at the end of the straightaway on the front stretch. For whatever reason, the bend in that straightaway there just creates huge runs. And you'll see it a lot tomorrow in the cup race as well. You shoot down to the bottom. You usually can get yourself back up. Interesting to see if Mayer counters. Does he try to get back to the lead? Oh, look how loose that car is. Hang on. Oh, my God, Sam Mayer, a kiss to the wall. This is what a ride. This is what we talked about. That car is vulnerable in these type of conditions. He's got a flat. Well, this is deja vu, right? I mean, he's coming inside in the spring, starts on the pole, has an issue, has to make an unscheduled pit stop, lost three laps, eventually got back on the lead lap, finished top ten, but given up a lot of points here when he had a great opportunity to capitalize. And this isn't going to bring a caution out. He's going to be able to get to pit road unless that tire comes off. That was pretty big contact he had on the exit of turn four to knock that tire down. I think you said it, Denny. You get back in a little bit of dirty air. It's gosh, he chased it forever. Look at the run that Sammy Smith's going to have behind. What does he end up doing? Is he trying to take the run right here? Love's going to time it out. He does go to the inside. It looks to you. Oh, he is. He's going to get him cleared right here. Great move by Jesse Love. Just textbook pass. It's exactly what we saw Carson do to Sam Mayer. Oh, he's got to block him now. Waffle back to the inside. Yeah, I don't want to go on the stage. If he can't get clear, he is going to get clear. Great job. The one car super fast tonight. Now the two is going to have a big run here because he's going to get the push from the eight. So watch the two's run here. It's just a matter of whether he gets to him before the entry of turn one. So much on the line. You want to take advantage when you're in position to get these points and everybody up there racing for something. And you see Jesse Love tried to go to the outside. You're trying to build that gap a little bit so you can have some momentum down the backstretch. But it just doesn't look to me like they were able to get the run they needed. Sammy Smith. Oh, the two car must have got tight right there behind him. Sammy Smith, great job to get back inside of him. Junior Motorsports one and two. Entertaining into the opening stage caution comes out. And it's going to be Carson Waffle that wins the opening stage. Problems for Brandon Jones. Looks like a flat right front tire. A little bit of fender damage. If you look at the damage on both sides as well. Yes. Most recent winner. And, you know, he wanted to come home and make a splash at Atlanta and some issues as we wrap up the opening stage. And as you look at these results, just put a little bit of an asterisk there. No doubt on Waffle. But because we're paying points on the final lap of a stage, you score based on where you are at the time of caution. So there could be a little movement there. We'll follow up. Let's see what happened here to Brandon Jones. So he's got a little run on his teammate. Oh, he just got up, got a little bit loose. Wow. Oh, and contact from Austin Hill. Yeah. Austin Hill into the stage 12. But maybe a little damage there. Whole lot going on in the pit lane. Look at that. Slides it in there, back around. Mention the fact that Waffle lost six spots in the pit road exchange. So they struggled to get that left rear tire off. And once it gets caulked, it's really hard to to get it pulled out. Oh, watch out. That hurt. Yeah. Two teams have been great on pit road throughout the balance of the campaign, but some problems here. Through the nice little launch. Yeah. Bringing us to the Echo Park restart zone. 19 in charge to begin stage two. And Austin Hill just did an awesome job timing that out. He's going to have all this momentum gets to the outside of a bunch of guys. They have Sieg pinned on the outside, just fading to the back with no momentum. Inside Lane wins out on the restart. Harrison Burton with a jump and right behind him. Rajah Carruth going to keep our eye on Rajah. He was really good here when we were here in February, even with this car tour. I know we've seen some of these guys with some damage, but that 88 car was tore up in February and still really fast at the end of the race. And he does a great job. Sammy Smith, three wide. He talked about kind of taking it easy in that first stage. Well, gloves are off now. Another driver up there in that mix we haven't talked about tonight. Corey Day, 17. Quiet start for the driver that won the last time we were in the draft at Talladega. Brent Cruz gets hung out now. You see those guys. I don't know if it's that he just doesn't have the grip that he needs from, you know, staying out longer on tires or if they just didn't want to deal with him at this point in the race, but going backwards. Yeah, I've been watching Corey Day. He's he's been slow, methodical towards the front. But, you know, he qualified 13th. So, you know, he's got a little bit of grip to his race car. And I think he's going to be a factor in this thing. Oh, we got a little contact from star pulling. Hang on. He's been out of control for a little bit of this race. So it's the green. Well, we stay green. Oh, we do. Yeah, he's going to get it going here. Oh, be careful. Merging back up. There's a car coming. He was 16th, having a pretty good night after qualifying 10th earlier today. I like they kept it green right there. Star Poli hadn't hit anything. He's going to be able to go on. I don't think he has any flat tires. We get a look at it right there. Just wow. Wow. Just got out from underneath him. Simply just loose right there. One to Sammy Smith, Justin Allgaier. And we saw Rajah starting to lift just a few laps ago. And now he's starting to drop back from the pack. So he might fall back actually to the Quapel and day group. And Denny mentioned earlier, we have one to go right here that he thought the 51 of Jeremy Clements might have been the best driving car. I could argue the seven right now because he has run right behind the eight the entire time. He's going to try to get a run right here. See if he can make something happen. The bottom of turns three and four. Maybe a little bit of a rehearsal for what we'll see later in the race. Allgaier looking inside his teammate. Going to get inside of age to seven inside. Wow. Eight outside. Back to the line. It's going to be a photo finish in the stage. All about it. Front row, front two rows, all junior motorsports. Allgaier Caruth get us going. Sixty five to go in Atlanta. Contact with Rajah and Justin Allgaier there right before the start. But Jesse Love three wide on the top. Got his teammate there with him. Oh, he does. But is that going to work out? You see that outside lane. Oh, they're going to be three wide, multiple rows deep. Now this is going to get sketchy for all these guys. Well, those are all RCR Alliance cars, right? You got the two of Jesse Love. Twenty one Austin Hill. Eighty seven. Nick Sanchez, who's back in it at the front. Sheldon Creed just laid in the weed. Stage one, stage two. The man that won here in February. Back on point in July. Oh, Harrison Burton. Dad, Jeff won here a couple of times. And this will produce caution. Number five was 17. So having a decent night teammate, Dean Thompson in the top 15 right now. So both those cars and Sam have had their moments. Yeah, blew up. Sheldon Creed in control outside lane. Fifty four to go. Great restart by both those first three rows, really all hooked together. See, Jesse Love going to try to make that outside work with his teammate. I just don't think outside. It's so far around on the restart. Those guys are running wide open through there. Yeah, and the gaps between the cars is going to start to get smaller now that the track is picking up grip. So it'll be a little bit more difficult when he does choose to go to the outside like right now. Oh, and his teammate fills the gas. Yeah. Sides not to go with him. Yeah. And there's no gap behind him either. And now here comes the 20. So this is where you really got to be aware and be very strategic with when you choose to take the run. Look at him. It hasn't always been easy. He's faced his fair share of problems tonight. Brandon Jones toward the fall. We got problems. Corey Day and Taylor Grand of 54. I wonder if this was not a byproduct of Brandon Jones. Just yeah, out of control, out of control. And, you know, it all takes is one group not to check up and someone doesn't see it and you got a multi car wreck. They were just outside the top 15. Caution number six. You see Taylor Gray sitting there with all that damage. He is dropped to 12. He's on the chase cut line and right now showing only 13 above the cut. This is the 15th time this year they've had some kind of an issue. See Brandon Jones right here. Slides up a little contact from Alfredo. Yeah, it's just a oh and Taylor Gray hard into the outside wall. It's the accordion effect. It's not necessarily the car that gets into the wall. It's four or five back that pays the price for that. Oh, my God, by LaVar Scott. Any line can win. It's just going to be a matter of who gets the push. Roger's got his teammate behind him in that low lane. Brent Cruz pushing Sheldon Creed outside problems back of the pack. These guys are able to get it all. It's Sam Mayer, and he just got back on the lead lap. I think he just knocked the oil cooler out. When you think about Sam, not a ton of breathing room back there. Tenth on the chase leaderboard. Oh, you see Raja. Oh, yeah, the forty one heavy damage right there. Hard to tell if that's tire smoke or if that's oil. Hopefully it's just tire smoke. He can get the pit road at just the way the damage looks. I'd get him to pit road. I mean, he's going to have a hard time seeing anyway. Just get off the track fire. Raja fighting hard, though, by himself on the right side of the screen. Yeah. Major statement by the 88 of Raja Carruth, not going. Oh, what about Jeremy Clements almost saved it. And there's the caution. I thought we might stay green. He did save it. Yeah. Seventh yellow of the night is the wheel and caution lights pop on again with just over 40 to go. Raja fighting hard on the bottom. 88 car is super fast. That's Denny's pick, you know? I mean, I mean, you guys were trying to wait to a green white checker to make your pick something. Come on. Get a look at Sam Beyer at the back of your screen. You see that lane just checks up and he had a little bit of momentum. So frustrating. Yeah. When you're starting that far back, though, just there's no hurry. I mean, honestly, you could be three car lengths back and you're going to be on the guy in front of his front bumper by the time you get to turn one. It's just the way the draft works. So, yeah, it's just back there. You just need to give yourself a little more room here. We see a little contact, maybe from Anthony Alfredo. I couldn't tell. Yeah, I saw Jeremy move down. Thirty six laps to go in Atlanta. An outside row much more connected than the inside. Austin Hill was not able to get to Brent Cruz's bumper. Look at Raja giving a big love to Sheldon Creed. Oh, a little block right there from Wapel. Nick Sanchez trying to make something happen in that outside lane, going in the wrong direction. Yeah. Jake Fitch, who talked about earlier, look at him in the outside lane. All those junior motorsports cars lined up. Jesse love making it happen down low. Yeah. Brent Cruz is trapped on the bottom right now. Dale Jr. Talked about that with with Raja Caruth under one of those red flags. Oh, Brent Cruz gets put three wide by Sammy Smith. Now, yeah, Sammy diving down to the inside. Got Austin Hill right behind him. Raja Caruth going outside of Creed. He's got his teammate behind him. They're darting around. Oh, Sammy Smith going to make it three wide. Is there going to be contact? The junior motorsports Chevy's going after Sheldon Creed. They're high. They're low. The eight trying to make it happen. It's the 88 flashing outside. Big move, Raja Caruth in the lead. On that inside row is going to drag Sheldon Creed back a little bit right here. Eighty eight, the one Allgaier three junior motorsports cars, all four junior motorsports cars in the top four. The twenty one of the two of Hill and Love. And now we get caution number eight. And we finally got a little bit of a rhythm right there. Is that where, you know, is the track? Has it picked up a lot of grip? I still see a lot of ill handling cars out there now. They're going to stay tighter, longer. But I think if this thing goes green, it's going to spread out. I think it's still going to be a little bit of a track position type race. J.R. in front row control car outside lane. Raja Caruth, 26 remaining. Austin Hill does a way better job on this restart, was able to get right to the back bumper of Justin Allgaier, almost pushed him out in front of Raja right there. Oh, Justin is just barely clear. What's he decide to do, though? Does he go up in front of his teammate or stay on the bottom? Big rally outside lane. Carson Quapel shoving Raja Caruth, the young guys outside of the old guys from the lead in Atlanta. Look at Justin. Little shorter distance around the bottom. See how long, how long can they run side by side? Denny's referenced numerous times tonight. Jesse Love darted to the outside lane. Not clear. Wow. Sammy Smith making a three wide on Sanchez. You see Finch is going to fill that gap. Three wide is going to be hard. Two rows deep. Sheldon Creed kind of back in it down their bottom lane, regaining some momentum. Drafting help from Brent Cruz and the Viking teammates. They're bright orange. Ninety six. Anthony Alfredo, look out. Jake Finch into the wall, hangs on to it. And for now, we are green. There is yellow flag number nine. I was two seconds away from telling you Jake is about to experience some error situations. He has not. He's not prepared for driver looking for his first career victory. Controlling this race outside of outside of a guy that's won here five times. Carruthen Hill, you got to wonder if that damage on the front of the twenty one will hinder him any when he's out in clean air. Look at the restart that inside row gets. They don't want to give Austin Hill control of this race because his management of leading these races is incredible. And then he mentioned it. The best at it. Oh, you see Carson tries to get this outside. Hill does an awesome job sliding up in front of him. Austin Hill in charge. Here comes Roger Carruth down low. And also what makes him so dangerous out front is this spotter, Derek Nealon. I think one of the best at this. And just the rapport they have with each other. They trust each other. Just like you saw it on the back straightaway. They're not afraid to clear him when he's six inches clear. Well, and I was getting ready to say caution. Yeah, that's the tenth caution of the night. Things got away from Jake Finch on the restart. Thirteen to go now in Atlanta. Pretty even as they head down into turn one. Justin cheating up just a little bit. One thing I'm seeing consistently, the bottom line gets launches a little better into turn one. Just about every time whoever's been on the bottom is clear. Big decision right here for Allgaier. Oh, there he goes. Great. Oh, Austin Hill tried to force it. It's going to get stuck in the middle now, though. You see Cuapo going to the outside. I don't think this is a big deal for him. His teammate is going to help him right here. Oh, my gosh. For what? I thought for a second. Oh, that's actually not a bad thing for the 88 to get in front of Austin Hill right there. Maybe get that middle lane going. I think Sammy Smith's in a tough position now. Oh, there's a crash. Brent Cruz around. Sheldon Creed, the spring winner. Jesse Love, the reigning champ. Jordan Anderson, Dean Thompson, who was on the very bottom of this, we don't have him. I lie there. He's in the number 32, apologizing, thinking there was room. See, he's four wide. And he's the one that made the decision to go four wide. I always if you're four wide, I always wonder who was the last guy in. That's who fought. That's whose fault it was. Who's the last guy that made that decision? And it looks like he hit that line down there is out of bounds. I mean, you get below the white and yellow line. You're out of bounds. He wasn't quite there, but that's another thing you got to be thinking about in those situations. All guy are in charge, seven to go. Well, they're all organized really well right there. But look at Sammy Smith all over the back. Oh, Raja moves up just a little bit as he's given that seven the push he needs. Yeah. So look at Austin Hill. He's the third car. Now the top lane is going to go because the 87 was laid back on the 88 there. Oh, Sammy makes a move to the inside. Eight drives to the inside of his teammate, Sammy Smith, winless this year, but he has won in the draft. Waffle not going away outside. Six laps to go this time around. Raja, the big loser on that restart. You see, fell back to fifth. Did a nice job getting back up into the outside line. I love Sammy Smith going for it. Justin Allgaier got an issue. Now we talked about the potential problems prior to the restart. Seven is fading. Problems for the 19 of Brent Cruz, who was involved in the earlier accident. Here comes the veteran from Winston, Georgia. Three wide for the lead. Jeremy Clements and Hill and Jeremy Clements. You said it right there in line as well. Nick Sanchez painting that line. The bottom's pretty organized. Sanchez giving a huge shove. We talked about the alliance of RCR. Oh, look at Austin Hill up the track guys into the wall. And there goes Austin Hill around. I tell you, he was out. He was out of shape a lap or two before that. Hadn't had an overtime all year. We're going to get extra racing two weeks in a row. The storyline that could come out of this race, depending on who is able to get it done. Watch right here. Austin Hill makes it three wide, going for the lead, not able to get clear. That's going to stack all these cars up. And the car to keep your eye on is that yellow 87, who's right behind third that third row back on the inside. They're going to get organized down the backstretch. Sanchez gets to the inside of Jeremy Clements. Gives Austin Hill big shove down here. Then watch. I think there's even no, there's contact right there from the 80s, right on his bumper, though. Maybe got him a little arrow loose at the racetrack. I just am really surprised. Sammy Smith did not stay behind. Quabble like I hear you, but that's what caused all this chaos and essentially kind of took out two junior motorsports cars was that, you know, they ended up in a three wide situation because, you know, they were clear. You know, you're second. That's actually the optimum spot to be in these cars at the end of the race. And just he took the run three wide. And then here we go. Quabble Sanchez on the front row. Ready, ready, green. Oh, that's second row. Jeremy Clements. Clements is turned. We get a crash. We get a caution. I was anti-climatic. And yeah, there's the 20 laying back. I saw that. I just think the seven got a hold of him and he just never could let him go. Yeah, the seven at that time, the seven's already, you know, he's getting pushed by the 20 because the 20 caught up. So just a chain reaction of once the 51 breaks traction here. It's your everyone's getting shoved. So there's just no getting off of him at that point. Two lap shootout, double overtime. But did he mention the third car in line? I look at the bottom to Allgaier, saw how good he was on this last restart, was able to get hooked up. What can they do here? Great, great, great. See if we can finish it this time. See, you got a line. Oh, that's a lot of fuel, right? Wow. Look at that. Nick Sanchez, big push, low lane from Brennan Poole. Allgaier. Allgaier's dragging something right there, maybe contacting that wreck earlier. Look at Retzlaff coming through. Look at Brennan Poole to the lead. Brennan Poole pushing through inside lane 44 for Alpha Prime. Wow. Allgaier helps him go through. They're both going to clear Sanchez. It looks right here. Tommy Joe Martin's going to be losing his mind as we come back to the white flag. And once we get the white flag, the next flag will end at Brennan Poole leads. Brennan's got to defend right here from Sanchez. Oh, Sanchez to the inside. There's contact. Sanchez into the wall. Allgaier is leading. We stay green for now. Look at Allgaier's car dragging all the way around the track. That's Parker Retzlaff behind him. Yeah, I'd love to get his first career victory. Yeah, without some help. I don't see Parker getting there, but Carson is coming with a big run here. Here's Allgaier coming off the corner, trying to get his second Atlanta win. Kroppel is there. But it's Allgaier who delivers his sixth victory of the campaign. Oh, my goodness.