Kvapil claims second straight O’Reilly Series win in overtime at Iowa

The “new” Carson Kvapil is now two-for-two.

In his first NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race since claiming his first career victory July 25 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Kvapil once again found his way to Victory Lane, this time in two overtimes at Iowa Speedway.

Grabbing the lead from Ross Chastain on the first overtime restart in Saturday’s Hy-Vee Perks 250 at the 0.875-mile short track, Kvapil held the top spot through the second extra period after an eight-car wreck in Turn 2 on lap 252 wiped out a handful of potential contenders.

Winless in his first 63 O’Reilly Series starts, Kvapil has now remade himself as a pretender to the series title with just one race remaining in the regular season.

The driver of the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet heads to the Aug. 28 race at Daytona International Speedway second in the standings with a 28-point advantage over third-place Sheldon Creed, who finished fifth on Saturday.

In a race that went 10 laps beyond its scheduled distance of 250 laps, Kvapil crossed the finished line 0.343s ahead of runner-up Rajah Caruth, who took advantage of the top lane on the final restart on lap 259 to surge into second place.

William Sawalich ran third, followed by Chastain and Creed. Nick Sanchez, Taylor Gray, Dean Thompson, Harrison Burton and Brennan Poole completed the top 10.

For practical purposes, it was the penultimate restart that decided the issue. Chastain, leading in the top lane, spun his tires on the restart and surrendered the lead to Kvapil. Behind them, the Toyota of rookie Brent Crews washed up the track and sideswiped the No. 39 Chevrolet of pole winner Ryan Sieg, launching Sieg’s car into the outside wall.

Crews’ Supra then collected the No. 7 Chevrolet of Justin Allgaier, who had charged from 24th to third after pitting for fresh tires on lap 185. The ensuing caution was the 12th of the afternoon, tying the race record.

“I knew we had a really fast car,” Kvapil said of the restart on lap 252. “I knew the 7 [Allgaier] was on fresher tires, so that was my biggest concern there… It all worked out. We had the restart we needed, and we got the win.”

With Kvapil in pursuit, Chastain was cruising toward his second victory of the season when Jeb Burton spun in Turn 2 to cause the 11th caution and send the race to overtime.

“I think the 9 [Chastain] probably had it [before] the yellow came out there at the end,” said Kvapil, the ninth driver to earn his first two O’Reilly victories consecutively. “We were fast running him down there—we just didn’t have enough to fill the gap.”

Three JR Motorsports drivers — Kvapil, Caruth and Chastain — finished in the top four, marking the 80th straight race at least one JRM driver has finished in the top 10 and breaking a tie for the series record with RFK Racing (2008-2010).

The race also tightened the battle for the final spots in the Chase. Crews and Sawalich are tied for 11th and 12th in the standings, the last two Chase-eligible positions. Their Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Taylor Gray, is one point back in 13th.

Caruth in 14th trails Crews and Sawalich by 15 points heading to the regular-season finale at Daytona.

Notes: Sieg won the first stage wire-to-wire but never recovered from a slow pit stop that cost him six positions at the stage break. Allgaier won the second stage and proceeded to lead a race-high 83 laps but stayed on the track when most other contenders pitted on lap 161, only to have his strategy spoiled by a rash of cautions. Carson Brown and Derek Lemke finished 15th and 26th in their respective O’Reilly Series debuts.

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