O’Reilly: Crash Breaks Out to End Stage 1

What’s Happening?

After a fairly clean start to Saturday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series 2026 season opener at Daytona, things started to heat up in the closing laps of Stage 1. Corey Day went around with three to go in the stage. The field stayed green, the 17 going a lap down in the process. But the big crash that ended the stage early was when Sam Mayer tagged Sammy Smith from behind, turning him around in front of the pack. With Smith going around, he collected Sheldon Creed and Rio Ruggiero in the JGR No. 19.

Ruggiero received the most damage, slamming headfirst into the outside SAFER barrier. His day was done. Austin Hill went on to win the stage.

• Austin Hill led the field all stage long like a race general. In this stage, he proved that he may just be the goat at superspeedway racing in NASCAR’s second-tier series.
• Ruggiero retired from the event after his brutal impact with the wall.
• Smith, Meyer, and Sheldon Creed were able to continue, albeit with damage.

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