Taylor Gray holds back Sheldon Creed to win NASCAR O'Reilly race at Kansas

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Taylor Gray is now a two-time race winner in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. Driving the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, he held off a charging Sheldon Creed in the No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet as Kansas Speedway.

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"First of all, thank you to everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing," said Gray in Victory Lane. "How about  (crew chief) Jason Ratcliffe? That pit call was awesome. I knew we had a car capable of winning. I thought the No. 20 (Jones) was a little better than us before the green-flag cycle, but you just have to stay locked in.

"Jason made a really good adjustment on the car, a really good pit call, and got us the clean air. I can't thank everybody enough. It's been a long start to the year, man. Not that we're not bringing speed to the race track, but things just haven't gone our way. So it's nice to finally be able to close one out."

Justin Allgaier finished third, Jesse Love fourth, and Brent Crews fifth. William Byron, Cole Custer, Brandon Jones, Sam Mayer, and Ryan Sieg filled out the remainder of the top ten.

While he missed out on the win, Creed did earn the $100,000 Dash4Cash bonus, beating Allgaier, Crews, and Carson Kvapil for that prize. However, Allgaier now leads Creed by 131 points in the championship standings.

Stage 1

Kvapil led the race from pole position, but Day quickly moved into the race lead. While battling in the middle of a three-wide situation on the third lap, Kvapil got hit by teammate William Byron. He slammed the wall and went airborne, tumbling down the backstretch in a dramatic rollover crash.

The incident triggered a 12-minute red flag. After racing resumed, Day barely held on against Allgaier as they raced to the a competition caution. Luke Baldwin's race was also over after a separate incident that happened just as the Kvapil crash was unfolding.

Jones took over the lead on pit road, and held it through the ensuing restart. Battling for a spot inside the top ten, things got messy between RCR teammates. Hill was to the inside of Love and ended up spinning sideways after being put in a bad aero spot. William Sawalich then slammed into Hill, severely damaging both cars. Hill was none too pleased with Love, saying as much after being released from the infield care center.

This caution came just before the end of the stage, so there was a split strategy with Love leading one group of cars onto pit road after the run-in with his teammate.

Jones held on to win Stage 1 over Day, Allgaier, Love, Alfredo, Tay. Gray, Creed, Crews, J. Burton, and Byron.

Stage 2

There was a new group of cars at the front as multiple strategies played out with Alfredo leading the way. After a chaotic restart, Byron took the lead, but Jones was already right with him despite restarting back around seventh. He immediately went to the inside of Byron, and was able to clear him within a lap.

The next caution was for Alfredo, who cut a right-front tire down and hit the wall. During the yellow, both Austin Green and Blake Lothian fell out of the race with mechanical issues.

Jones went on to sweep the stages, winning Stage 2 over Creed, Allgaier, Love, Day, S. Smith, Tay. Gray, H. Burton, Mayer, and Thompson.

Stage 3

On the restart, Creed and Tay. Gray took Jones three-wide for the lead, but were unable to complete the pass.

Back in the pack, Day got into Smith, triggering an accident that damaged both cars. On the following restart, Creed actually did manage to take the lead from Jones.

What followed was the longest green-flag run of the day, with a round of green-flag stops kicking off with about 55 laps to go.

Gray, who opted to short-pit, jumped both Creed and Jones through that cycle of stops. Unfortunately for Jones, his incredible day went awry as the team was handed a pass-through penalty for an uncontrolled tire during their stop.

Gray held a three-second advantage over Creed after pitting four laps earlier than the Haas driver.

However, Creed steadily closed the gap, and got to within half-a-second at one point as they battled through traffic, but he never quite got close enough.

Read Also: NASCAR red flags race as Carson Kvapil flips wildly in violent Kansas crash

NASCAR O'Reilly Kansas results

cla # driver manufacturer laps time gap laps led retirement 154 Taylor GrayToyota2002:33'54.897 48 200 Sheldon CreedChevrolet2002:33'55.6150.71848 37 Justin AllgaierChevrolet2002:33'56.7511.854  42 Jesse LoveChevrolet2002:34'05.00410.1071 519 Brent CrewsToyota2002:34'06.06011.163  688 William ByronChevrolet2002:34'13.06318.1661 70 Cole CusterChevrolet2002:34'15.60520.708  820 Brandon JonesToyota2002:34'17.08222.18567 941 Sam MayerChevrolet2002:34'20.64125.744  1039 Ryan SiegChevrolet2002:34'26.67931.7823 1126 Dean ThompsonToyota1992:34'01.1761 Lap  1217 Corey DayChevrolet1992:34'09.5931 Lap26 1327 Jeb BurtonChevrolet1992:34'10.7791 Lap  1448 Patrick StaropoliChevrolet1992:34'11.0331 Lap  1551 Jeremy ClementsChevrolet1992:34'14.5821 Lap  168 Sammy SmithChevrolet1992:34'26.5201 Lap  1792 Josh WilliamsChevrolet1992:34'29.1341 Lap  1845 Lavar ScottChevrolet1982:33'57.5532 Laps  1944 Brennan PooleChevrolet1982:33'58.5112 Laps  2018 William SawalichToyota1982:34'06.9642 Laps  2132 Rajah CaruthChevrolet1982:34'08.1682 Laps  2202 Ryan EllisChevrolet1982:34'08.6302 Laps  2331 Blaine PerkinsChevrolet1982:34'28.7872 Laps  2442 Nathan ByrdChevrolet1972:33'57.8283 Laps  2528 Kyle SiegChevrolet1972:34'16.7393 Laps  2607 Josh BilickiChevrolet1962:34'24.3114 Laps  2755 Joey GaseChevrolet1942:32'37.6596 Laps  2824 Harrison BurtonToyota1902:34'21.16210 Laps  2974 Dawson CramChevrolet1201:50'01.04580 Laps Engine3096 Anthony AlfredoChevrolet651:01'17.200135 Laps6Accident3135 Blake LothianChevrolet6257'38.745138 Laps Brakes3287 Austin GreenChevrolet6156'57.782139 Laps Engine3391 Mason MaggioChevrolet5150'14.980149 Laps Engine3421 Austin HillChevrolet3731'26.694163 Laps Accident355 Luke BaldwinFord410'32.026196 Laps Suspension3699 Parker RetzlaffChevrolet21'30.255198 Laps Accident371 Carson KvapilChevrolet133.409199 Laps Accident

 

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