O’Reilly Series: More than halfway home, and The Chase has only tightened

When the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase presented by Mobil 1 began, the top four drivers were separated by 40 points. More than halfway through the postseason, and with Phoenix Raceway on the horizon (Sat., 7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the battle among the top four has tightened to just 15 points -- shaping what could be an incredible four-race fight for the championship. RELATED: O'Reilly Series standings | Phoenix weekend schedule With back-to-back victories, Corey Day shaved 85 points off his deficit, going from 92 behind to just seven points back of leader Sheldon Creed with four races to go. Speaking of Creed, he made a statement of his own to open The Chase, winning two of the first three to dethrone Justin Allgaier -- who's combated execution issues -- to take the top spot. But Allgaier is certainly not out of the fight yet. Don't forget defending champion Jesse Love, either, who's well positioned for another title before leaping to Cup in 2027. To put this Chase in perspective, first to fourth in the NASCAR Cup Series are separated by 65 points, with fifth place another 20 in arrears. The top four in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series are separated by 88 points, with second place sitting 60 markers ahead of third. So how'd we get here? The Chase has been anything but clean for 2024 champion Allgaier, who's suffered costly issues in all five races and quickly lost his 25-point advantage as the No. 1 seed. He hit the wall in the opener at Darlington Raceway after leading 60 laps, fading well out of the top 10 at the checkered flag. A loose wheel and damage plagued him at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. While contending for the win at Bristol Motor Speedway, Allgaier was pushed into the wall by Love and ultimately finished fourth. He wrecked out at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, finishing 34th and earning just five points. Allgaier's cleanest race came last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, when he finished fourth -- but not before hitting the wall with 17 laps to go. A 14.4 average finish in the postseason is not remotely close to the version of Allgaier that won six regular-season races. This is an obvious trend, though: The top seeds in all three national series enter Phoenix having surrendered the points lead. But nobody's capitalized better than Creed and Day, who have combined to win four of the first five Chase races. Creed commanded the final stint at Darlington, pacing the final 53 circuits to win his second career race – and first on a traditional oval. He finished second at WWT Raceway and then, in a race where he admittedly struggled to find pace, survived a pair of late restarts to score an unlikely victory at Bristol, where Allgaier's tension simmered in a heated conversation with Love on pit road. The victories were massive breakthroughs for the 29-year-old Creed. He entered the season winless in 137 starts, recording 15 runner-ups – the most by a driver all time before earning a victory. MORE: O'Reilly Series schedule | Phoenix entry list The No. 00 Haas Factory Team driver departed Thunder Valley with an 11-point lead, and that only grew after Allgaier's DNF at Las Vegas. Creed finished 13th in Sin City, leading the series by 19 points over Carson Kvapil as Allgaier plummeted to fourth, the lowest he's been in points since EchoPark in February. Allgaier outpointed Creed for the first time all postseason at Charlotte, even though Creed finished third. The Californian earned only one stage point and spent just 23 laps running inside the top five. But in the last two weeks, Day came to life. Trailing by 92 points after three Chase races, the Hendrick Motorsports driver's championship odds seemed slim. But in a long green-flag run to the end in Las Vegas, Day and Kvapil banged fenders coming to the white flag before Day ripped the fence in the final corners, pounding the wall as he squeezed every bit of juice out of his No. 17 Chevrolet for a thrilling win. He somehow one-upped it last weekend, making a daring three-wide pass on Allgaier and Love with 10 laps to go for his fourth win of 2026. Day's combined 144 points are the second-most scored in a two-race stretch all season. His only blip is a tango with William Sawalich at WWT Raceway, which resulted in a DNF and a 33rd-place finish -- leaving him to wonder what could've been if not for that crash. But he's still in the thick of the title fight amid a stellar rookie season thus far, and his 242 points scored are the most among Chase drivers. [caption id="attachment_529120" align="aligncenter" width="1300"]Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images[/caption] Then enter Love, just two points behind Creed in second. He earned his first victory since last fall at WWT Raceway, snapping a 25-race winless streak after countless missed opportunities earlier in the season. Love's only snafu in The Chase came at Bristol, where he finished 17th after the late contact with Allgaier. The Richard Childress Racing driver's postseason hasn't been the flashiest. But he hasn't needed it to be -- at least not yet. With podium finishes over the last two races -- and 80 laps led at Charlotte -- that could wake the sleeping giant as the series pivots to the site of his championship a year ago. With the O'Reilly Series heading to the Valley of the Sun, the pressure rises -- and the stakes might be highest for Allgaier, who's made Phoenix his playground. He's a three-time winner at the 1-mile oval, including this spring -- defeating Love late. Allgaier has 22 top 10s and a whopping 824 laps led across 32 starts, bar none the best in the field. But Day has the momentum. Creed has the monkey off his back. Love has title defense at stake. And at 40 points back, Kvapil, a two-time winner this season, could become a factor again before this championship fight is all said and done. So will Phoenix be where the savvy Allgaier finally finds his Chase mojo? If it isn't, the title race could stay just as wide open between now and Homestead-Miami Speedway.