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Sammy Smith swept the Talladega weekend’s support races, passing teammate Carson Kvapil on the last lap to win Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race a day after winning the Truck Series race, RACER reported.
Sammy Smith’s No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet beat Kvapil by 0.084 seconds in The Progress Group 250 at Talladega Superspeedway. The final lap was the only lap Smith led. Kvapil led a race-high 67 of the 94 laps, including 31 of the last 32.
Smith ends a 53-race drought
The win snapped a 53-race winless streak in the series for Smith, who won Friday’s Love’s RV Stop 225 in overtime for his first career Truck Series win.
He is the first driver to win races in two national series in the same Talladega weekend since Dale Earnhardt Jr. in April 2003, and the first non-Cup regular to sweep a track’s Truck and O’Reilly races since Greg Biffle in 2001, according to RACER.
“Man, that was mentally draining, just thank you to everybody,” Smith said. He credited spotter Tyler Green and thanked Jesse Love for pushing him to the front.
“We had a plan going into the race to get the 1, 7 and 17 good stage points,” Smith said in his post-race news conference. “Obviously, put myself in a position there at the end to capitalize on the win.”
The 22-year-old leaves JR Motorsports after this season and will race full time in the Truck Series in 2027.
O’Reilly Series Chase stays tight
Seven Chase drivers finished in the top 10, including the top six in points, so the standings barely moved.
Defending champion and points leader Jesse Love started from the pole and finished third. “I had zero chance really to do anything,” Love said, adding that he was happy to leave with the points lead.
Justin Allgaier finished fourth, won Stage 2 and scored 18 stage points to cut his deficit from 36 points to 19. Corey Day (sixth) is third in points, 29 back. Sheldon Creed (fifth) is fourth, 50 back, and Kvapil is fifth, 59 back after gaining 20 points. Smith is seventh, 108 back.
Blaine Perkins, Dean Thompson, Brandon Jones and Anthony Alfredo completed the top 10.
Two races left
The O’Reilly Series races next at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia, and ends the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida.
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