DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After more than a decade of competition, Ryan Sieg earned his first-career NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory at Daytona International Speedway on Friday night in his 424^th start.

Sieg has come so close to victory throughout his 13 full seasons in the series, and in NASCAR Overtime, he made it happen in the Regular Season finale. The 39-year-old Georgia native started 12^th and only led the final two laps, but he was at the right place at the right time to win the Winn-Dixie 250 Powered by Coca-Cola.

“This is incredible,” Sieg said. “Unbelievable, especially doing it here at Daytona. I’ve been coming here since I was a baby. We’d come here every summer race and to do it right now and the way we did it, that’s amazing.”

Sieg took only two tires on the final pit stop of the night, and in NASCAR Overtime, he restarted on the second row behind JR Motorsport’s Carson Kvapil on the inside of the front row and Justin Allgaier on the outside. Sieg took the lead away and held the field off with a commanding lead down the backstretch and through the trioval on the last lap.

“This has been a long time coming,” Sieg said. “Last week we got the pole. We came back to Daytona where I really wanted to win, so we freaking did it.”

Austin Hill, who is moving on to compete for Richard Childress Racing full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2027, finished second. He helped Sieg surpass the JR Motorsports cars, but he just didn’t have the momentum to challenge for the win.

Kvapil finished third, followed by Anthony Alfredo and Brandon Jones who announced this week that he’d be returning to Joe Gibbs Racing. Rounding out the top-10 was Allgaier, Brennan Poole, Harrison Burton, Jeb Burton and Sheldon Creed.

Hill won Stage 1, and Rajah Caruth won Stage 2.

There were 20 lead changes among 11 drivers. Kvapil led a race high of 50 laps. Hill led 22 laps.

The caution came out on four occasions for 25 laps. All cautions were for accidents.

Stage 1 came to close as the caution came out on Lap 29, for an accident in Turn 3. Patrick Staropoli was sent spinning after with Jeremy Clements. With nowhere to go, Daniel Dye, made a significant impact with Staropoli. Sam Mayer was also involved.

On Lap 46, Sammy Smith was sent spinning in front of the field on the frontstretch. The accident involved four other drivers. Most notably, the crash ultimately took William Sawalich out of contention for The Chase.

Hill was sent spinning through the frontstretch grass to bring out the third caution of the night on Lap 57, which ended Stage 2.

The final caution of the night occurred on Lap 99, when a missed bump draft from Allgaier, sent his JR Motorsports teammate, Caruth sent spinning in Turn 3. The crash set the field up for an Overtime finish.

Following the checkered flag, the field for The Chase was set and competing for the 2027 series championship will be Allgaier, Kvapil (-25), Sheldon Creed (-35), Jesse Love (-40), Hill (-45), Jones (-50), Corey Day (-55), Smith (-60), Parker Retzlaff (-65), Mayer (-70), Taylor Gray (-75) and Caruth (-80).

The first race of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ The Chase, will take place at Darlington Raceway on Saturday, Sept. 5. Live coverage of the Fleetio 200 will broadcast live on the CW Network at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Patricia McCormack/TheFourthTurn.com