O’REILLY: Last-place battle at Iowa decided after lapped Jesse Love wrecks Carson Ware
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Jared Haas, @RealJaredHaas
Carson Ware picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career in Saturday’s HyVee Perks 250 at the Iowa Speedway when his #47 YSS.org Chevrolet was involved in a crash after 164 of 260 laps.
The finish came in Ware’s 21st series start. In the O’Reilly Series last-place rankings, it was the 18th for the #47, the 424th from a crash, and the 696th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 60th for the #47, the 1,469th from a crash, and the 2,058th for Chevrolet.
The younger brother of full-time Cup Series driver Cody Ware, Carson Ware enters his fifth part-time season in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. His series debut followed his lone Truck Series start in the 2019 season finale at Phoenix, where he ran 37 laps in Josh Reaume’s #33 Jacob Companies Toyota before early electrical issues. His first O’Reilly race went better, yielding a 22nd for SS-Green Light Racing at Bristol, and his career-best improved just two starts later with a 20th in Pocono.
Ware was absent from NASCAR for nearly three years, the result of a behavioral penalty handed down by NASCAR stemming from a 2021 arrest. He completed the steps for reinstatement in 2022, and in 2024 made his return to competition at Bristol, taking 28th for the Emerling-Gase Motorsports effort. While rebuilding his career, Ware has also been public about getting his tattoos removed. Around this time, he began a successful business relationship with sponsor Costa Oil, which has backed him both in O’Reilly and on the late model circuit. He earned a new career-best at Daytona this past February in a Costa-sponsored #30 for the Barrett-Cope Racing effort, and has since made two other starts for both Gase and Mike Harmon.
Costa Oil has remained one of Ware’s sponsors, even as they’ve expanded their efforts to other drivers, including Mason Maggio’s run in DGM Racing x JIM’s #92 Chevrolet on Saturday, and brother Cody’s #51 Chevrolet for Sunday. For Iowa, Carson Ware would instead run a white paint scheme to promote YSS.org, an Iowa-based nonprofit aimed at “helping children, teens, and young adults overcome challenges and build brighter futures,” according to their website. Among their efforts are programs intended to curb opioid addiction.
The midweek withdrawal of RSS Racing’s #38 Ford meant that Iowa would welcome just 37 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series teams into the garage, marking just the third short field of the season and first since San Diego. Among those entries, Ware ran 33rd fastest in practice with a best lap of 24.931 seconds (126.349mph). His was the second car on track for qualifying, following the #55 904EVER Club Ford of Joey Gase. Ware put up the slowest lap in that session as the only driver in the 25-second bracket, clocking in at 25.103 seconds (125.483mph), more than a full second off Ryan Sieg with his first career pole.
Two other drivers would join Ware at the tail end of the field for unapproved adjustments: 21st-place Kyle Sieg, whose #28 Goliath Games Chevrolet promoted the company’s novelty toy “Butt Face,” whose mascot wandered the track, sent to the rear along with 32nd-place qualifier Ryan Ellis and the red MPI steering wheel of his #02 DMECO Farm Rescue Chevrolet.
When the race started, the last spot quickly fell to Tyler Tomassi in Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen’s #53 Exter Convenience Store Toyota. By Lap 4, he was 7.953 seconds back of the lead, then 9.439 seconds back on Lap 5, and 10.866 seconds on Lap 6. That time by, Tomassi was already eight-tenths of a second behind the now 36th-place Ware. This gap increased to two full seconds by Lap 12, then nearly three on Lap 17, before his was the first car to be lapped around Lap 24. By Lap 25, both Ware in 36th and 35th-place Josh Bilicki in the #07 Sukup Chevrolet had also been lapped. The first caution fell on Lap 28, when 33rd-place Nathan Byrd spun his lapped #42 Byrd Insurance Group Chevrolet in Turn 4 after contact from Garrett Smithley in the #0 Knight Fire Chevrolet. Smithley got his lap back while Byrd discussed adjustments with his team, the crew calling for one pound of air pressure out of the right-rear and two pounds into the left-rear. Byrd spun in Turn 4, which may have incurred the commitment cone violation NASCAR then handed his last-place running car. For the Lap 34 restart, Byrd lined up behind Blaine Perkins, whose #31 The Gentleman Thief Chevrolet was caught speeding in the pits, but both had again moved ahead of Tomassi, who regained the last spot.
Jesse Love in the garage after early transmission issues. PHOTO: Jared Haas (@RealJaredHaas)
Soon after the restart, Tomassi’s spotter alerted him to a car slowing ahead of him. This was Jesse Love, whose #2 Whelen Chevrolet was fastest in practice and holding the 11th spot before he suddenly dropped off the pace exiting Turn 2 on Lap 35. Team radio indicated the car wouldn’t stay in fourth gear, a fact which so surprised his crew that they didn’t have anything ready to fix it when he came down pit road, losing a lap in the process. Love returned to the track, only to incur a pit road speeding penalty during that run, forcing him back down pit road. While trying to serve the penalty, Love then spun at nearly the same spot as Byrd in Turn 4, but didn’t draw a caution as he returned to the pits. Already two laps down, he continued to limp around the track until Lap 43, when the crew called him behind the wall. Already four laps down, Love entered at the first entrance just short of pit entry, and the crew set to work on a full transmission change, staging the car behind the team hauler with jack stands at the ready. On Lap 52, Love climbed out to be interviewed by TheCW while work continued. By Lap 59, his car was 20 laps down while the other 36 cars on track were all within two laps of the leader.
On Lap 98, Love was back behind the wheel and exiting the garage, showing 58 laps down to the leaders. His last completed lap was clocked at 2,014.700 seconds, or approximately 33 minutes, 30 seconds. By Lap 103, Love was classified 60 laps down. He remained 57 laps behind the next cars in line of 36th-place Tomassi and 35th-place Ware. During this run, Ware was running faster laps than Tomassi, who was running on older tires. Both drivers also had some close calls as several cautions slowed the final stage. On Lap 163, Ware’s crew informed him that Tomassi’s crew had bolted on a fresh set of tires, so the two should be running comparable lap times. They also encouraged their driver to go pass some more cars on the next run. But just moments after the Lap 166 restart, Love made a peculiarly aggressive move under Ware entering Turn 1. As Ware’s spotter warned him he was “middle of three,” Love locked his brakes and got into the back of Ware’s car. The contact slid Ware up the track and backing into the outside wall, crushing the rear bumper panel.
Under the ensuing caution, Ware lost a fourth lap as he came down pit road for repairs. On Lap 170, his crew said they could complete repairs in the garage area, and so pushed his car out of Pit Stall 7 on the Turn 1 side, guiding him to the nearest garage entrance. Then on Lap 174, the crew relayed, “I didn’t hear, are we done here?” “Yeah, we’re done.” “We’re gonna need a wrecker, Jason?” At the time, Ware was ten laps down, and Love had 76 laps to make up his 50-lap deficit to the #47. His crew remained upset on the radio, relaying that Love had reportedly tried to “spook” Ware going into the corner. One crew member responded, saying, “They're gonna find out what ‘spooked’ is when he gets to that No. 21 car,” referencing Love’s upcoming promotion to the Wood Brothers’ Cup team in 2027. “He ain’t near the driver Connor Zilisch was.”
Ware was declared out by NASCAR on Lap 193, an instant before yet another caution fell on the track. This was for Corey Day, who after apparent contact from Sammy Smith slammed the Turn 1 wall with the right side of his #17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet. Love managed to drop Ware to last around Lap 225, then also caught and passed Day as the race finished in overtime. Ahead of 35th-place Love were Mason Maggio, whose #92 Costa Oil Chevrolet had suspension issues after a late-race incident, and 34th-place Ryan Sieg, who was once again in the thick of the lead battle when his #39 Sci Aps Chevrolet was destroyed in a late-race mess not of his making.
Iowa sees some different teams hit on the right combination
While Carson Kvapil scored his second consecutive victory, finishing a close 2nd was Rajah Caruth, who earned his second top-five finish of the year and his new career best. This happened to occur in his first start as sole driver of the #88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet for the remainder of 2026.
Making only his fifth start for the Peterson team, Nick Sanchez capitalized on some aggressive pit strategy to finish 6th in the #87 Peterson Racing Group Chevrolet, his best run with the team so far. Dean Thompson, who had just that day announced his impending move to a third Haas Factory Team entry in 2027, finished 8th in his #26 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota – his third top-ten finish of the year and first since Talladega. Harrison Burton, Thompson’s teammate at Sam Hunt Racing, took home 9th in his #24 AirBox Toyota, matching his season-best run from San Diego two months ago. And 10th-place finisher Brennan Poole in the #44 Macc Door Systems Chevrolet walked away with his second top-ten finish of the year and first since COTA this past spring.
Further back, Kyle Sieg’s “Butt Face” car overcame an early spin to finish 12th, his second-best finish of the entire season. Three spots behind in 15th came RCR development driver Carson Brown in the #32 DWC Distributor Wire & Cable Chevrolet, a strong finish in his series debut. Derek Lemke, who also made his series debut on Saturday in the #91 Crankshaft Supply Inc. Chevrolet, came home the first car one lap down in 26th.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Ware set a new record for most laps complete by an O’Reilly Auto Parts Series last-place finisher at Iowa. Up until Saturday, the record was held by Dawson Cram last year, who completed 93 laps before a vibration ended his day. Both Cram and Ware are the only last-place finishers of this race to complete more than 21 laps.
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #47 in an O’Reilly race at Iowa.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
37) #47-Carson Ware / 164 laps / crash
36) #17-Corey Day / 193 laps / crash
35) #2-Jesse Love / 200 laps / running
34) #92-Mason Maggio / 231 laps / suspension
33) #39-Ryan Sieg / 252 laps / crash / led 65 laps / won stage 1
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) RSS Racing (4)
2nd) DGM Racing x JIM, Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, Mike Harmon Racing, Young’s Motorsports (2)
3rd) AM Racing, Big Machine Racing, Haas Factory Team, Hendrick Motorsports, Hettinger Racing, Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport, JR Motorsports, Sam Hunt Racing, SS-Green Light Racing, Viking Motorsports (1)
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (16)
2nd) Ford (5)
3rd) Toyota (1)
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
