Sawalich hip-checks Day out of O’Reilly race at Gateway

William Sawalich and Corey Day collided for the second consecutive week in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, and this time, it was Day who wound up on the worst end of it. One week after getting together at Darlington Raceway, Day washed up into Sawalich's left-side door in Turn 1 at Lap 134 of Saturday's event at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway as he was pushed from behind by Justin Allgaier. MORE: Live leaderboard | At-track photos Still frustrated by last week's run-in that put Sawalich out of the race, Sawalich expressed his displeasure with Day down the backstretch at Gateway by swinging left into Day's right-side door, sending the No. 17 Chevrolet for a slide and a hard hit into the inside SAFER barrier at the 1.25-mile track. Allgaier, the series points leader, also incurred right-front damage in the incident. Day, who entered Saturday fifth in The Chase presented by Mobil 1, will be credited with a 33rd-place finish. The crash comes after an incident at Darlington where, on Lap 68, Day contacted Sawalich's back bumper down the backstretch, got Sawalich's No. 18 Toyota squirrelly and led Sawalich back into the wall before spinning again off Day's front bumper. Sawalich finished 30th in the Sept. 5 race, unable to continue due to the damage. Sawalich barely missed The Chase in the regular-season finale. Sawalich and Day have been involved in multiple incidents this year, including the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway in February and at Circuit of The Americas in March. This story will be updated.