Carson Kvapil chose the perfect time to claim his first victory in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
Kvapil’s emotional victory in Saturday’s Pennzoil 250 presented by Take 5 Oil Change at Indianapolis Motor Speedway—one of the biggest stages in motorsports—had the driver shedding tears and team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. temporarily at a loss for words.
It was a day of milestones. With Justin Allgaier, Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott in positions two through four, respectively, JR Motorsports scored the first four-driver sweep of an event in series history.
The victory was the 14th of the season for JRM with six different drivers, the latter number tying the record the organization set last year. For the 79th straight race, JR Motorsports placed at least one driver in the top 10, tying the record set by RFK Racing from 2008-2010.
“It means the world to me,” Kvapil said, as his No. 1 Chevrolet team climbed the frontstretch catchfence in celebration of the victory. “It’s very emotional. I rode around on that lap backwards (after taking the checkered flag), and I sat there just thinking about all the hard work I’ve put in—me and my dad Travis—to get to this point.
“And the faith (team principals) Dale Jr., L.W. Miller and Kelley Miller put behind me to give me this opportunity—a second chance, I guess you could say, to come back at it this year…. I’m going to try not to cry too much. I’ve already shed a few tears—just trying to hold it together right now.”
In an event that featured just one caution for an on-track incident, Kvapil passed Chastain on Lap 79 of 100 and held it the rest of the way. Allgaier powered past Chastain into second place on Lap 94 and closed his deficit to Kvapil to less than a car-length on the white-flag lap.
Crossing the Yard of Bricks with one lap left, Allgaier trailed by a scant 0.283 seconds, but his efforts to shrink the distance on the final circuit proved fruitless, and Kvapil crossed the stripe with a 0.643 second advantage to score his first victory.
Kvapil accomplished more than just a win. He moved into second place in the series standings, 265 points behind Allgaier, who already has clinched the already clinched the top Chase seed.
Kvapil also joined Allgaier and Jesse Love in the Chase with two regular-season races left—as did Sheldon Creed (eighth Saturday), Corey Day (seventh), Brandon Jones (ninth) and Austin Hill (10th).
Allgaier, a six-time winner this season, felt the race slipped away from him when his No. 7 Chevrolet fell from first to fourth after the Lap 67 start of the final stage.
“That was kind the difference maker for us, I feel like, over the day,” Allgaier said. “I guess, in some ways, we kind of set up to be good on long runs, and it showed through. That’s why we were able to be really good at the end of that run…
“We made good adjustments. We did all the right things. We just came up a couple of laps short. I think if we have a couple more laps, if we have maybe a little bit different help from some of the lapped cars, there’s things that we maybe could have done different.
“But again, super proud of Carson and the whole No. 1 team. He’s done a really good job, and as a company, to do what we did today shows really where we’re at and what we’re able to accomplish, and for that I’m super proud.”
Crew chief Rodney Childers and the No. 1 team kept Kvapil in the mix from start to finish, but that was no surprise. While working as Kevin Harvick’s crew chief, Childers fashioned two NASCAR Cup Series victories at the Brickyard.
Kvapil has cobbled the current season together in three different cars with three different teams—the Nos. 1 and 9 at JR Motorsports and the No. 91 fielded by Mario Gosselin for DGM Racing.
Saturday’s victory was vindication of Kvapil’s determination to sustain a career despite some imposing obstacles in his path.
With seven of 12 Chase positions now filled, the fight for the final spots intensified at Indy. After finishing 12th, Taylor Gray holds the final berth above the current cut line by seven points over Joe Gibbs Racing teammate William Sawalich and 20 over Rajah Caruth, who stayed out on old tires to win the second stage before finishing 22nd.
RACE RESULTS
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