Shane van Gisbergen took JR Motorsports to Victory Lane at COTA, driving the #9. One week later, Justin Allgaier in the #7 earned JRM a win at Phoenix, and a week after that, two-time NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Larson drove the #88 to Victory Lane for the Earnhardt-owned team.
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This is Larson's 18th career victory in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series (NOAPS), coming in his first start of the 2026 season.
"I finally remembered what he (son Cooper) told me and decided to go faster," said Larson after climbing from the car. My car was not handling the best, at all. I was just super tight, loaded, and I couldn't get any speed through the corners and I was just getting ate up on restarts, or really, the whole run. But that last restart, we had some guys stay out and I had a good launch, was able to get to the middle with some clean air ... I was a bit nervous. I knew the #00 [Creed] and Briscoe were ripping the top. I tried it in (Turns) 1 and 2 once and I didn't feel good out there at all. Glad we were able to pick our way through traffic."
He beat another Cup regular to the checkered flag, finishing a couple of seconds ahead of Chase Briscoe in the #19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Sheldon Creed, Justin Allgaier, and Sammy Smith filled out the rest of the top five. The remainder of the top ten featured Jesse Love, Connor Zilisch, Corey Day, William Sawalich, and Austin Hill.
Stages 1 and 2
Mayer led the race from pole position, while Larson quickly lost several spots from the front row due to a slow start.
The first caution flew on Lap 2 as Zilisch got up into Clements in a two-car incident. There was another early-race incident in the middle of the field that soon followed, but the rest of the stage after that ran green.
Mayer remained in control, but Allgaier eventually ran him down and took the race lead. He went on to win Stage 2, followed by Mayer, Briscoe, Tay. Gray, Creed, Love, Larson, Day, Custer, B. Jones.
Briscoe had made an impressive charge through the field after starting 23rd, running far higher than most of the field.
During the stage break, Mayer's car suddenly lost power and he needed to be pushed back to the pits with a fuel pickup issue. He lost six laps while the #41 Haas team worked on the car.
Love won the race off pit road and led the way for the start of Stage 2, but Allgaier soon regained control of the race. He eventually had to deal with a charging Briscoe, who was now running right against the wall, but ran out of time.
Allgaier swept the stages, and at the end of Stage 2, he was followed by Briscoe, Tay. Gray, Love, Larson, Creed, Day, Zilisch, A. Hill, Kvapil
Stage 3
Once again, Love took the lead on pit road with an impressively quick stop.
Briscoe got into the outside wall, and fell off the pace. He lost a lot of track position as he desperately tried to get back to pit road, initially missing it.
At the front, Allgaier and Love swapped the lead back-and-forth with Love ultimately prevailing.
A caution for an incident in the back of the field resulted in the entire pack come back down pit road for fresh tires and a full load of fuel. However, this stop would prove costly for Love, as his actual crew chief (Danny Stockman) fell over the pit wall trying to grab a tire, resulting in an end-of-line penalty.
An unfortunate safety violation for the 2 team.
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) March 14, 2026
@jesselovejr1 trying to keep the calm on the radio 😂 pic.twitter.com/o9h0QANfjx
It was now Gray leading the race, with Zilisch back up to second. Unfortunately, he smacked the wall on the restart, falling back a few spots before the next caution for a two-car spin on the frontstretch.
It was a split decision to pit, and Love was among those who came down pit road. He did save his final set of tires, but the fuel ensured he could make it to the finish without issue. Others did opt to take their final set, including Briscoe.
With 60 to go, Gray lost the lead to rookie driver Day, but he wasn't able to get away. Gray tried to get back to his inside a few laps later, but a bump on corner entry from Creed sent Gray spinning up the track and slamming the wall. He was livid, and drove his wounded #54 JGR Toyota back up to Creed under caution, showing his displeasure.
Gray and Creed get together going for the lead! pic.twitter.com/epz3d1TIUP
— NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts (@NASCAROReillyAP) March 14, 2026
On the restart, a small group of cars led by Alfredo and Jones stayed out. Larson quickly surged into the race lead, followed by his protege, Day. Smith eventually moved up to second, but he was unable to challenge Larson for the lead as laps ticked away.
Creed eventually moved into second, and then Briscoe passed him, but while they battled, Larson drove away. Briscoe tried his best to run down his fellow Cup driver, but couldn't make a dent in Larson's multi-second lead as the race reached its conclusion.
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cla # driver manufacturer laps time gap int laps led retirement 188 Kyle LarsonChevrolet2002:34'04.908 47 219 Chase BriscoeToyota2002:34'07.4652.5572.5572 300 Sheldon CreedChevrolet2002:34'11.0636.1553.5981 47 Justin AllgaierChevrolet2002:34'11.2726.3640.20948 58 Sammy SmithChevrolet2002:34'14.0329.1242.760 62 Jesse LoveChevrolet2002:34'14.5889.6800.55636 71 Connor ZilischChevrolet2002:34'15.39210.4840.804 817 Corey DayChevrolet2002:34'16.96612.0581.5749 918 William SawalichToyota2002:34'17.85412.9460.888 1021 Austin HillChevrolet2002:34'19.87714.9692.023 119 Carson KvapilChevrolet2002:34'22.13917.2312.262 1299 Parker RetzlaffChevrolet2002:34'25.00420.0962.865 1320 Brandon JonesToyota2002:34'26.65121.7431.6474 1428 Kyle SiegChevrolet2002:34'27.63622.7280.985 1552 Daniel DyeFord2002:34'30.68625.7783.050 1692 Josh WilliamsChevrolet2002:34'31.64526.7370.959 1724 Harrison BurtonToyota2002:34'32.03327.1250.388 180 Cole CusterChevrolet2002:34'34.91030.0022.877 1932 Rajah CaruthChevrolet2002:34'36.17031.2621.260 2044 Brennan PooleChevrolet1992:34'05.3661 Lap1 Lap 2148 Patrick StaropoliChevrolet1992:34'10.7211 Lap5.355 2231 Blaine PerkinsChevrolet1992:34'13.6431 Lap2.922 2307 Josh BilickiChevrolet1992:34'17.5981 Lap3.955 2451 Jeremy ClementsChevrolet1992:34'19.2341 Lap1.636 2587 Austin GreenChevrolet1992:34'19.5881 Lap0.354 2645 Lavar ScottChevrolet1992:34'23.6971 Lap4.109 2727 Jeb BurtonChevrolet1992:34'28.9811 Lap5.284 2891 Mason MaggioChevrolet1992:34'34.1711 Lap5.190 2955 Joey GaseChevrolet1992:34'37.7911 Lap3.620 3002 Ryan EllisChevrolet1982:34'07.6332 Laps1 Lap 3126 Dean ThompsonToyota1982:34'12.7752 Laps5.142 3242 Nathan ByrdChevrolet1982:34'13.4722 Laps0.697 3339 Ryan SiegChevrolet1972:34'38.1453 Laps1 Lap 3496 Anthony AlfredoChevrolet1972:37'32.9173 Laps2'54.772 3541 Sam MayerChevrolet1962:34'28.2484 Laps1 Lap32 365 Chandler SmithFord1842:26'11.59916 Laps12 Laps Ignition3754 Taylor GrayToyota1482:00'36.01652 Laps36 Laps21Accident3825 Nicholas SanchezFord1412:13'30.27959 Laps7 Laps Fuel pumpTo read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.