Corey Day led 45 of the first 49 laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday night and won the first stage, one of two segments that pay points before the finish. Then a pit-road penalty dropped him to 30th. He drove back to the front and won the Blue Cross NC 300 with a three-wide pass for the lead 10 laps from the end.
It was his second straight win in the Chase, the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series playoff, after Las Vegas, and it moved him from fifth to third in the standings, seven points behind Sheldon Creed.
It was Day's fourth O'Reilly Series win, all of them this season, in his 40th start, and his first at Charlotte. The 20-year-old drives the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
Penalty, and back
The first stage ended on Lap 45 with Day in front. During pit stops under the caution that followed, NASCAR penalized him on Lap 48 for driving through more than three pit boxes on his way in, and he restarted 30th.
By the end of the second stage, on Lap 90, he was seventh. Justin Allgaier won that stage. Day said he was glad he could "rebound after that mistake."
Three wide with 10 to go
Allgaier led from a restart on Lap 164 through Lap 182, until he brushed the outside wall in Turn 4 and Jesse Love and Day went by. Then an accident for Brent Crews in Turn 3 brought out the seventh and last caution and set up a restart with 10 laps left.
Day lost ground when the green flag fell and was third, behind Love and Allgaier, through the first two corners.
Day said Love's car got loose, meaning its rear end slid, and that Love and Allgaier were side drafting, running side by side so closely that the air off each car slows the other. That gave Day a run off Turn 2. In the middle of the backstretch he went beneath both of them, three wide, and took the lead.
"I think the 2 got really loose from what I could see up there in front of the 7, and that kind of messed them both up," Day said. "That was just enough for me to get a good run and take my run. That was crucial. I think if I don't do that, I don't win the race."
Love, who led the most laps, 80, stayed close the rest of the way and finished second, 0.728 seconds back. "At the end, the 17 was not quite as good as we were, but just good enough that, when he took my air away, it was really hard to make up ground," Love said. A car running close behind another loses the air it needs for grip.
Creed recovered from early contact with the wall and a long repair under caution, then passed Allgaier on the last lap for third. Allgaier was fourth, and Carson Brown, who is not in the Chase, was fifth.
Where the Chase stands
Points were reset when the Chase began, which is why the gaps are small. Creed has 2,294 points and leads Love, the defending series champion, by two. Day is seven back and Allgaier 15 (full standings).
Day came to Charlotte 41 points behind Creed and scored 69 points to Creed's 35, a gain of 34. With the 51 he gained at Las Vegas, he has made up 85 points in two races.
"I thought we could be close by the end," Day said. "I didn't think we'd be this close with four to go."
Asked which title rival will be hardest to beat, he named Allgaier, who led the series by a wide margin before the reset. "Without the reset, I think he's probably already clinched the championship by now," Day said.
The night went the other way for Carson Kvapil, who started on the pole and came to Charlotte second in the standings, 19 points back. He led the first three laps and later had a cut right rear tire and contact with the outside wall. He finished 32nd, 29 laps down, and fell to fifth, 40 back.
The race had been scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Rain called off all of Saturday's on-track activity, qualifying included, which left Kvapil on the pole, and the race moved to Sunday night, after the NASCAR Cup Series race.
The O'Reilly Series goes next to Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, Oct. 17, a track where Day said he has "kind of struggled."