{"id":893837,"date":"2026-09-13T05:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T05:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/893837\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T05:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T05:26:09","slug":"love-claims-nascar-oreilly-auto-parts-series-chase-win-in-nu-way-225-powered-by-bobcat-and-sauced-by-blues-hog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/893837\/","title":{"rendered":"LOVE CLAIMS NASCAR O\u2019REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES CHASE WIN IN NU WAY 225 POWERED BY BOBCAT AND SAUCED BY BLUES HOG"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Updated on September 12, 2026 by WWTR<\/a><\/p>\n

Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Jesse Love snaps a 25-race winless streak Saturday night to capture second race of the Chase.<\/p>\n

Sheldon Creed\u2019s runner-up finish moves him into the championship lead.<\/p>\n

Chase drivers sweep the top eight finishing positions.<\/p>\n

MADISON, Ill. (Sept. 12, 2026) \u2013 Defending O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Jesse Love gave his 2026 title hopes a major boost by snapping a 25-race winless streak with a victory in Saturday night\u2019s Nu Way 225 Powered by Bobcat and Sauced by Blues Hog atWorld Wide Technology Raceway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Richard Childress Racing driver overtook Carson Kvapil with 16 laps remaining and went on to a 0.896-second victory over Haas Factory Team driver Sheldon Creed in the second race of the nine-race Chase playoff format. Love also won Stage 2 and led four times for 70 laps.<\/p>\n

The victory, his first since winning the 2025 season finale at Phoenix, was the fourth of his O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series career and moved him up two positions to fourth in the championship standings. He is 16 points back of the new championship leader Creed, who now holds a three-point lead over Justin Allgaier and a nine-point advantage over Kvapil.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been really hard, but I knew that if I keep my grit \u2026 if I keep my work ethic, not just keep it, but improve it, then eventually one of these opportunities is going to be there and I\u2019m going to freaking take it,\u201d Love said. \u201cI love St. Louis. I got my first national Midget win across the street with Chad Boat. I had my first Truck race start here, and got beat here last year here, I had a good car. I\u2019m just so proud of my team. I want to give all the glory to God for putting so many great people in my life. Man, I\u2019m just so grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kvapil, who won the pole earlier in the day, dominated the opening stage as the JR Motorsports driver led all 48 laps. He was followed by fellow Chase drivers Corey Day of Hendrick Motorsports and Allgaier, respectively. The biggest movers in the stage were Chase drivers Sam Mayer of the Haas Factory Team, who gained nine positions to finish ninth after starting 18th, and Viking Motorsports\u2019 Parker Retzlaff, who climbed nine positions to 10th after starting 19th.<\/p>\n

Chaos ensued as the field pitted between stages. A 10-car pileup at the entrance to pit lane, which included Chase drivers Brandon Jones and Rajah Caruth, led to a red-flag period of nearly eight minutes. When action resumed, Kvapil remained out front for the opening 33 laps of Stage 2 before Love passed him with 12 laps remaining. Love held on to win the stage while Mayer slipped past Kvapil with five laps remaining to take second.<\/p>\n

Kvapil, who led three times for a race-high 105 laps, took control once again in the final stage. He held the lead for 26 laps, but Love continued to close the gap. He eventually made a strong inside pass and cleared Kvapil with 16 laps remaining. He maintained a lead of nearly one second the rest of the way and was never challenged.<\/p>\n

Love was followed by seven Chase drivers, giving the championship contenders a sweep of the top eight positions. Creed, Mayer and Taylor Gray of Joe Gibbs Racing and Kvapil rounded out the top five, in order. Chase drivers Retzlaff, Brent Crews of JGR and Sammy Smith of JR Motorsports completed the top eight.<\/p>\n

Click HERE<\/a> for the full results.<\/p>\n

For the latest Enjoy Illinois 300 NASCAR race weekend news,\u00a0visit www.wwtraceway.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Updated on September 12, 2026 by WWTR Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Jesse Love snaps a 25-race winless streak…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-893837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}