Going into Phoenix, the top four in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase, the series playoff, were 15 points apart. Sheldon Creed led Jesse Love by two. Love won Saturday night at Phoenix Raceway and leads Justin Allgaier by 36 with three races left. Creed is fourth, 59 back.
Love put the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on the pole, won both stages, the segments that pay points before the finish, and led 156 of 200 laps. He scored 75 points, one short of a perfect day.
He still had to hold off Sam Mayer. Mayer's No. 41 had an engine failure in practice, so he started at the back. He was second by Lap 122, ran Love down over the last 35 laps and got to his bumper off the final corner. Love won by 0.128 seconds. "My best corner was no longer enough at that point," Love said of the last 15 laps or so.
The 00 got its stage points
Last week I said Creed's 00 doesn't get here by being dominant. It gets here by execution, and it needed stage points. On Saturday, Creed got them: second in the first stage. Then, under the caution that ended the stage, he shut the engine off the way drivers do, and it wouldn't refire. NASCAR's recap blamed a malfunctioning kill switch. He lost three laps on pit road and finished 32nd.
Creed said afterward that he needs to get back within 25 or 30 points before Homestead.
The 7 scored 52 and still lost ground
I picked Phoenix as the track where Allgaier had to max out his day. He finished third in the No. 7, scored 52 points, the second most of anyone, and won the fastest-lap point. He still lost 23 points to Love. A slow stop under the second-stage caution, with trouble on the left rear, dropped him from second to fifth.
"I could tell Justin's car just like didn't have the raw speed compared to mine," Love said.
Day's fourth straight top five
My track for Corey Day to max out was Homestead, not Phoenix, and Day said before the race that Phoenix hasn't been his strongest track. He finished fourth, scored stage points in both stages and is third, 39 back. That was his fourth straight top five.
Help for the 2 at Talladega
Last week I said there is a lot of Richard Childress Racing influence in this series at Talladega, and I would not be surprised to see cars around the 2 helping it get stage points. Love expects less help than that. "Not a lot of people are going to want to help me," he said, and he pointed at JR Motorsports, Allgaier's team. "The JRM cars do a phenomenal job working together."
His plan is to run up front. "The safest place on the racetrack is usually first, second and third," he said.
Picks
On Episode 7 of The Grand National Show, Dillon Welch took Love. He got it. Chris Wilner took Allgaier, who ran third, and Davey Segal took Day, who ran fourth. I took Carson Kvapil. He finished 10th and is fifth in the standings, 79 back.
Talladega is Saturday, Oct. 24, at 3:30 p.m. ET on The CW.
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