Corey Day overcame a pit-road penalty and made a three-wide pass with 10 laps left to win the Blue Cross NC 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, Oct. 11.

The victory was Day's fourth of the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series season and his second in a row. The 20-year-old Hendrick Motorsports driver now trails championship leader Sheldon Creed by just seven points with four races left.

Day won Stage 1 but was penalized for driving through too many pit boxes on the ensuing stop, dropping him back in the field. He worked his way forward over the next 100-plus laps, according to Charlotte Motor Speedway's race recap.

Jesse Love, driving the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, appeared headed for the win after passing Justin Allgaier for the lead with 17 laps to go. Then Brent Crews crashed on Lap 185, and the caution bunched the field.

Day restarted on the outside of the front row. He cleared Allgaier on the bottom lane entering Turn 1 and took the lead.

Day said he had a strong car on the final restart and could tell his rivals struggled through the corner. "I could see (Allgaier) and (Love) didn't have a great corner and I got to them pretty quick," he said after the race.

Love finished second. Creed, who struggled early with grip, rallied to third in the No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet. Allgaier, who led 54 laps, finished fourth. Carson Brown rounded out the top five.

Love led a race-high 80 laps. Day led 55.

The championship picture tightened considerably. Day took 34 points out of Creed's lead by winning Stage 1 and finishing seventh in Stage 2. Creed still holds a two-point edge over Love in the Chase presented by Mobil 1 standings.

The race had been postponed from Saturday, Oct. 10, because of rain from Hurricane Isaias, WBTV reported. It ran at 8 p.m. Sunday.

Concord-based motorsports journalist Deb Williams noted on X that Day became the first Hendrick Motorsports driver to win consecutive O'Reilly Auto Parts Series races since Kyle Busch in 2004.

@DebWilliams72: ".@corey_day_ victory in tonight's Blue Cross NC 300 at @CLTMotorSpdwy makes him the first @TeamHendrick driver to win 2 consecutive #NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series races since @KyleBusch did it in 2004. He now has 4 wins this year & is within 7 points of the standings lead."

Brandon Jones, Austin Hill, Anthony Alfredo, Taylor Gray and Brennan Poole completed the top 10. Four races remain in the championship season.