Kyle Larson's recent hot streak, which has vaulted him to the points lead as the new favorite to win the NASCAR Cup Series championship, has certainly not gone unnoticed.
After a regular season in which he finished seventh in the standings, 303 points behind regular season champion Denny Hamlin, and without a victory, he opened up the postseason with two wins in four races.
His sixth place finish this past Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway was actually his worst finish through six playoff races and his first non-top two result since he placed fifth in the opener at Darlington Raceway.
Both of Larson's Hendrick Motorsports Cup Series teammates who qualified for the playoffs, William Byron and Chase Elliott, could potentially be eliminated this coming weekend at Phoenix Raceway.
But another Hendrick driver's playoff hot streak might be going unnoticed.
Corey Day, who is in his first season as a full-time driver for Hendrick Motorsports in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and is the team's first full-time driver in the series since the late Kyle Busch in 2004, had an impressive regular season, winning twice and recording four other top five finishes. Like Larson, he finished seventh in the regular season standings.
And like Larson, he has found a new gear in the postseason.
He has already recorded four more top five finishes in the first five races of the playoffs, and he has racked up back-to-back wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway, vaulting himself all the way to third place in the point standings, just seven points behind points leader Sheldon Creed of Haas Factory Team.
And with that, the driver of the No. 17 Chevrolet has emerged as one of the O'Reilly Series title favorites with just four races remaining on the 2026 schedule.
The championship battle appears wide open, with the top five drivers separated by just 40 points. Fitttingly, those five drivers have distanced themselves from everyone else in DraftKings Sportsbook's O'Reilly Series betting odds.
The top four, who are separated by just 15 points, are all listed between +250 and +300. Day has moved up to +300, just behind Creed (+250), reigning champion Jesse Love of Richard Childress Racing (+260), and regular season champion Justin Allgaier of JR Motorsports (+275).
Full NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series championship odds can be found at DraftKings Sportsbook and are always subject to change.
It's a wide open race, and the momentum right now is with Day.
Additionally, of the four tracks remaining on the 2026 schedule, three hosted races earlier this year. Day placed ninth at Phoenix Raceway, won at Talladega Superspeedway, and placed second at Martinsville Speedway.
15-time Cup Series champions Hendrick Motorsports have earned just one title at NASCAR's second-highest level, back when Brian Vickers won the then-Busch Series championship back in 2003. Could this be the year in which they win both the Cup Series and the O'Reilly Series title in the same season?
They previously won both the Cup Series and the Truck Series titles in the same seasons back in 1997 and 2001.
Saturday night's Timberland PRO 200 is set to be shown live on the CW Network from Phoenix Raceway beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss the sixth of nine races on the 2026 O'Reilly Series postseason calendar!
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