LAS VEGAS -- Corey Day showed Saturday his ability to come a long way in a short amount of time in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.

After losing the lead to Carson Kvapil in lap traffic that defined the closing laps of the Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Day planted his No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet right up by the wall and got by Kvapil to get his third win of the 2026 NOAPS season.

Day held off Kvapil in an instant classic finish where the two drivers swapped the lead four times in the final 13 laps of a 103-lap run to the checkered flag.

"That was a race of the year candidate from me. That was awesome," Day said. "I'd say a good amount. Honestly for me, I know what I'm doing in the late race there, in a sprint car. In a stock car not so much... [but] that's the sprint car driver in me not lifting and a stock car guy would've made some different decisions there."

Day gained 51 points on points leader Sheldon Creed. That could've been Kvapil, which is what disappointed him in coming up close Saturday.

"I'm bummed out. It's hard to run that good, be that close and lead a few of them [laps] toward the end and not win the race," Kvapil said. "We never had the lead position to drive and defend but we were always in the top-three... It was apparent it was going to be hard to pass him, the aero was so bad... and I felt like our car was good in one of them [lanes]... He [Day] did a really good job in three and four running the fence."

Kvapil is the second JR Motorsports driver to lose to Corey Day this year. After Day was made a winner at Talladega Superspeedway in April, beating Justin Allgaier at Dover Motor Speedway in May coronated him as one.

Saturday redeemed Day. After two of the first three races of the Chase saw him seemingly regress into the old ways that plagued his reputation at the start of the season, he led 136 of 201 laps from the pole and took the lead back twice to cap off a near-perfect day.

"I think I'm able to put things behind me. A lot of people struggle with that but I think that's a strength for me," Day said.

Day won the first stage but lost the second stage to Sam Mayer, who had to rally from the back to finish sixth after a pit road penalty. 

"We did what we had to do after our stop and we're in a decent spot," Mayer said noting his 52-point gap to teammate Sheldon Creed.

Creed failed to earn stage points and finished 13th. However, he retained the points lead in what's now a six-way fight for the lead after Justin Allgaier crashed.

In the only caution for cause, Brandon Jones spun in turn two and was right in the path of Justin Allgaier to hit. Allgaier worked with the team to get back out on to the track to pass Jones and get one more point to now be 31 behind Creed. 

Creed leads Kvapil by 19, Jesse Love by 22, Allgaier by 31, Day by 41 and Mayer by 52. 

Outside of the Chase, Jeremy Clements had a stellar finish in seventh. He also finished fifth in the second stage.

STAGE ONE TOP-10 (LAP 45): Corey Day, Sam Mayer, Rajah Caruth, Brandon Jones, Jesse Love, Brent Crews, Ryan Sieg, Taylor Gray, Austin Hill, Justin Allgaier.

STAGE TWO TOP-10 (LAP 90): Sam Mayer, Corey Day, Rajah Caruth, Carson Kvapil,  Jeremy Clements, William Sawalich, Brent Crews, Jesse Love, Taylor Gray, Ryan Sieg    

TOP-10 FINISHERS (LAP 201): Corey Day, Carson Kvapil, Jesse Love, Brent Crews, Taylor Gray, Sam Mayer, Jeremy Clements, William Sawalich, Austin Hill, Anthony Alfredo.

Chase drivers Rajah Caruth, Sheldon Creed, Sammy Smith, Parker Retzlaff, Justin Allgaier and Brandon Jones finished 11th, 13th, 15th, 19th, 34th and 35th, respectively.

NEXT: Charlotte Motor Speedway, Oct. 10 at 4 p.m. ET: CW, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90, PRN affiliates. Ross Chastain in the No. 9 team won in May.