By AMANDA VINCENT
Sheldon Creed won the Food City 300 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Friday night. It was his third-career win and his third win of the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. It also was his second win and third top-two finish in the first three races of the Chase.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates William Sawalich and Brent Crews finished second and third. Justin Allgaier and Corey Day rounded out the top-five.
The race, scheduled for 300 laps, went into overtime after a lap-297 caution for Ryan Sieg and Day. Sawalich was the leader for the final restart, but Creed, on newer tires, took the lead when the race returned to green on lap 304.
“Where were we before the caution — 10th,” Creed said. “Yeah, we were struggling. We weren’t going to pass anyone in front of us. And, yeah, it was kind of a no-brainer for us to come down and get tires. And my pit crew just did a great job allowing me to be the first one on tires. That’s a big deal.”
Carson Kvapil led a race-high 156 of the 305 laps, but after losing the lead to JR Motorsports teammates Allgaier on lap 249, he reported a loose wheel and, then, lost brakes. Kvapil made an unscheduled pit stop on lap 259 and wound up 24th at the checkered flag.
Allgaier still was the leader when the yellow flag waved for Patrick Staropoli on lap 274. Jesse Love made an aggressive move for the lead on lap on lap 287. Sawalich, then, took the top spot on lap 290.
“Well, I’m not going to tell you what he (Allgaier) said to me, but drove into him. We all saw what happened,” Love said. “I screwed up and made a bad judgment call, and in a lot of ways, screwed myself.”
Teammates Allgaier and Kvapil ran first and second at the end of the 85-lap opening stage. Allgaier took the stage win.
Love started on the pole and led the first 81 laps before losing positions to Allgaier and Kvapil on lap 82. He also lost third to Crews by stage-end.
A few drivers — including Jeb Burton and Chase drivers Rajah Caruth and Austin Hill — made unscheduled pit stops for flat tires after contact in stage one.
JRM swept the stages and were one-two at the end of the second 85-lap stage. But they were in reverse order with Kvapil taking the stage-two win on lap 170. Allgaier was second and Love third.
Kvapil was first off pit road after stage one. Allgaier took a brief lead early in stage two, but Kvapil retook command of the race on lap 102.
The first caution for an on-track incident came on lap 124 when Natalie Decker spun as a result of contact from Anthony Alfredo.
Taylor Gray finished the race in the sixth position. Sam Mayer finished seventh, Parker Retzlaff eighth, Dean Thompson ninth and Sammy Smith 10.
