Corey Day Led One Lap. Jesse Love Led 38. Talladega Picked the Winner.
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Corey Day won the AG-PRO 300 when Sam Mayer got spun on the final lap, Jesse Love led 38 laps and finished seventh, and Brent Crews finished 0.154 seconds from winning his first race.
The Short Version
Corey Day wins from the third starting spot, leading just one lap — the last one. Jesse Love dominated (38 laps, Stage 1 lead count) but finished seventh in the final-lap chaos. Brent Crews holds on for second, 0.154 seconds back. Sheldon Creed third, wins the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus. Justin Allgaier wins Stage 2.
What Happened
The race started badly for several cars before it started well for anyone. On the opening lap, Patrick Staropoli got turned by William Sawalich on the backstretch and hit the wall, collecting Tyler Ankrum and David Starr in the sequence. Three cars compromised before lap two.
Jesse Love went to the front out of the restart and stayed there. He led the most laps of any driver — 38 across the race — and controlled the flow through much of Stage 1. Carson Kvapil (#1) won the stage at lap 25 by holding off Sammy Smith at the line, with Love cycling through leadership before and after. Kvapil ran 22 laps at the front and led the standings battle for most of the first half.
Stage 2 went to Justin Allgaier. He got under Love in turn three at lap 50 and led through turn four to win it, ahead of Ryan Sieg, Creed, Dean Thompson, and Parker Retzlaff. Allgaier running to a stage win and then fading — he finished 23rd — is the most Allgaier result this track type produces.
The final stage was the usual Talladega negotiation. Creed, Day, Love, Crews, and a rotating group of lead-pack cars cycled through. On lap 93, Taylor Gray pitted with a potential flat right front. The lead group kept moving.
Lap 113. Final lap. Mayer (#41) and Day (#17) cleared Creed for the lead off turn two. On the backstretch, contact spun Mayer into the field, triggering a crash that collected Jeb Burton, Harrison Burton, Blaine Perkins, Brandon Jones, and Ryan Sieg. Day cleared it all. The caution waved. Day is declared the winner.
Crews, who somehow pitted ten times across 113 laps and still found himself 0.154 seconds from the win, finishes second. Creed, clean through the final chaos, is third and collects the Dash 4 Cash bonus.
The Defining Moment
Mayer’s spin on the final lap is the moment the race turned, but the real story inside it is what he was doing when it happened. He started second, led eight laps, and ran at the front of the lead pack for the entire final stage. He was positioned — maybe better positioned than anyone other than Love — for a realistic shot at the win. Contact off turn two sent him spinning. Day got clear. Mayer finished 25th.
Talladega doesn’t protect the driver who earned the position. It only protects the driver who happens to be in the right place.
The One That Got Away
Jesse Love. He led 38 laps in a 113-lap race — more than a third of the distance — won Stage 1 on laps led, and was in the front group for the entire afternoon. He finishes seventh. On the lead lap. The dominant car at a superspeedway doesn’t get rewarded; it gets shuffled behind the cars that survived the right moment. Love ran the right race and got the wrong result because Talladega has its own definition of right.
Numbers That Matter
- Winner: Corey Day — No. 17 · Chevrolet
- Margin of Victory: 0.154 seconds
- Cautions: 4 for 15 laps
- Lead Changes: 38 among 16 leaders
- Stage 1: Carson Kvapil | Stage 2: Justin Allgaier
- Laps Led: Love — 38 | Kvapil — 22 | Mayer — 8 | Creed — 7 | Smith — 6 | Gray — 6
- Fastest Lap: Jeremy Clements — 192.866 mph (Lap 76)
- Dash 4 Cash: Sheldon Creed ($100,000)
Take
Crews finishing second deserves more than a bullet point. Kansas was his first career start on a 1.5-mile track in any series — he finished fifth. Talladega is his first career superspeedway start at this level — he finishes 0.154 from the win. He pitted ten times and still had enough left to run the final lap at the front of the field. The name from the Kansas notebook is already in the Talladega results.
Day’s win is the purest form of what this track produces. He led one lap. He made the right move off turn two on the final lap when it mattered, cleared the Mayer wreck, and took the flag. Nothing about his day suggested this was coming. Everything about Talladega made it possible.
Allgaier wins Stage 2 and finishes 23rd. If you’ve read the Allgaier feature on this site, you understand exactly why that sentence requires no further explanation.
Notes
- Kvapil entered Talladega needing a clean result after his lap-2 crash at Kansas. He led 22 laps and finished 22nd. That’s the superspeedway math.
- Sawalich was involved in the lap-1 crash that turned Staropoli into the wall — a rough start for the driver who’s been building momentum.
- Crews’ ten pit stops across 113 laps at a superspeedway and still finishing second is a sequence that needs no editorial comment. It just needs to be noted.
- Gray cut a right front tire in lap 93 — same issue that plagued several cars at Bristol and Kansas earlier this season. Watch for that pattern at Texas.