by Holly Cain – NASCAR Wire Service
Ryan Sieg gets his first NASCAR O’Reilly Series win at Daytona International Speedway; Rajah Caruth grabs the last Chase spot in the Winn-Dixie 250
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After 424 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series starts – earning five runner-up finishes – Georgia owner-driver Ryan Sieg hoisted his first career trophy Friday night at Daytona International Speedway in a dramatic overtime victory in the Winn-Dixie 250 Powered by Coca-Cola.
Ryan Sieg Win at Daytona
A favorite in the garage and the grandstands, the 39-year-old from Tucker, Ga., benefited from a two-tire late-race pit stop to get inside the top five and was running fourth when a caution flew with a single lap of regulation remaining.
Restarting the two-lap overtime period from the outside lane on the second row, Sieg raced around front-row starting JR Motorsports teammates Carson Kvapil and Justin Allgaier immediately and then drove away. His No. 38 Ryan Sieg Racing Chevrolet ultimately took the checkered flag by 0.149 second over Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill.
In the closing yards to the finish line, Sieg conceded he just kept thinking, “don’t mess up.”
He did not.
“This is incredible, unbelievable, especially doing it here at Daytona,” said a grinning Sieg as he received a hug from his brother Kyle and a kiss from his girlfriend. “I’ve been coming here since I was a baby; we’ve come here every summer race.
“To do it right now and the way we did it, that’s amazing, and to get the pole last [race], just want to thank everybody that helped us out to get here. My mom and dad, my girlfriend, all the support from the whole team, everybody.
“This has been a long time coming. Last race got the pole and [now] we came back to Daytona where I really wanted to win and we freaking did it.”
An ‘Almost’ Finish for Carson Kvapil
For so much of the race, it looked like Kvapil may earn his third consecutive win – that last-lap caution flag cutting short his bid to become the first driver in series history to claim his first three career wins consecutively. His 50 laps out front in the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet were the most on the night.
The Winn-Dixie 250 Results
Viking Motorsports driver Anthony Alfredo and newly re-signed Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brandon Jones rounded out the top five. Allgaier rallied to a sixth-place finish in the typically frenzied final laps.
The extra time – a two-lap overtime period was necessary after Allgaier and another of his JR Motorsports teammates touched with a lap remaining – the contact from behind sending pole-winner Rajah Caruth’s No. 88 Chevrolet spinning.
The NASCAR O’Reilly Series Point Standings
Fortunately for Caruth, the bad luck didn’t end up ruining such a successful night when he put himself inside the 12-driver Chase field that will now go on to challenge for the 2026 title.
Caruth finished 32nd, but the greater misfortune of two other competitors put the 24-year-old into the Chase in his first full-time season in the series. Similarly, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Taylor Gray moved from outside Chase contention to the 12th and final eligible position, his 26th-place finish at Daytona good enough to move him forward after two of his teammates suffered a heartbreaking night
The Chase standings took a dramatic turn mid-race with a pair of accidents – both near the front of the field – ending JGR teammates Brent Crews’ and William Sawalich’s hopes of contending for a title. Both had been running top-ten when separate incidents derailed their quests.
Crews’ No. 19 JGR Toyota suffered a lot of damage, collected in a five-car accident in the third turn on lap 28, and had to go to the garage for lengthy repairs. Only 19 laps later, Sawalich was an innocent victim in another five-car incident, the damage to his No. 18 JGR Toyota proving too much to return to the race competitively.
Crews did come back on track with 42 laps remaining but was 31 laps down to the field.
“We did all we could but just got taken out and it sucks,” said a disappointed Sawalich, who won at Rockingham, N.C. this year and had made up 45 points to become Chase eligible in just the last few weeks.
2026 Drivers in the Chase
After the points reset for this Chase run, the season’s most dominant driver, six-race winner Allgaier, will take a 25-point lead into the ten-race trophy run that begins next week. His teammate Kvapil is seeded second, followed by Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed, defending series champion Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love and his teammate Hill, Jones, Hendrick Motorsports’ rookie Corey Day, and JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith.
Viking Motorsports’ Parker Retzlaff will make his Chase debut, with Haas driver Sam Mayer, Gray and Caruth rounding out the Chase field.
Up Next
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action next week at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway – the nine-race Chase to decide the 2026 series champion beginning with the Fleetio 200. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. ET on CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. NASCAR Cup Series regular Christopher Bell won the last Fall race at Darlington in 2024. Allgaier won at the track this March.
