Race Recap Elite O'Reilly Series

Dover Motor Speedway

Thu, Jan 15, 2026Round 8

Gordon2 Dominates Dover Motor Speedway: Leads from Pole to Victory

Race at a Glance

🏁Field Size

19

🔄Laps

115

Avg Lap Time

26.498

🟡Cautions

1

⚠️Caution Laps

3

🔀Lead Changes

2

🛡️Clean Runners

9

🏎️Lead Lap Finishers

5

Winner Spotlight

65

Jesse Gordon

P1 Finish

Started: P1Finished: P1Incidents: 2
🔀 2 Lead Changes🏎️ 5 Lead Lap Finishers
P1
65

Jesse Gordon

Started P1 • Inc 2

P2
73

John W Crosby

Started P5 • Inc 0

P3
29

Judson Curtis

Started P9 • Inc 0

Jesse Gordon delivered a wire-to-wire victory at Dover Motor Speedway, leading all 115 laps from pole position to capture the season opener in the RFRL O'Reilly Series. Despite accumulating 2 incidents during the race, Gordon held off a charging John Crosby, who advanced from his fifth-place starting position to finish second and extend his championship points lead. Judson Curtis completed the podium with a strong drive from ninth to third, while David Burcicki maintained his fourth-place starting position to finish fourth.

The race's most compelling story belonged to Brandon Hinton, who delivered the performance of the day with a remarkable charge from 19th to fifth place, earning hard charger honors with his 14-position gain. Hinton's clean drive, free of any incidents, moved him from fourth to third in the championship standings with 252 points. The race ran remarkably green with only one caution period consuming just 3 laps, allowing drivers to showcase their racecraft on Dover's challenging concrete surface.

Championship leader John Crosby strengthened his title position with his second-place finish, extending his points advantage to 48 points over Tom Ringer, who recovered from his 17th-place starting position to finish eighth. Crosby's 35-point haul moved him to 319 total points, while several contenders struggled with Scott Millikan dropping four positions to tenth and Todd Parent suffering a disappointing slide from seventh to 19th, collecting only 18 points.

The season opener featured relatively few incidents despite the tight racing, with nine drivers managing completely clean races. However, some notable struggles emerged as Tiyler Walts tumbled from third to 16th with 8 incidents, and Thomas Wynne fell from second on the grid all the way to 13th. With seven races remaining in the championship, Crosby's strong start puts him in the driver's seat, but Hinton's impressive comeback performance signals he'll be a factor in the title fight moving forward.

🔥Hard Charger: Brandon M Hinton (+14)
Cleanest Race: John W Crosby (0x)
Pole: Jesse Gordon
🔴Most Incidents: Tiyler Walts (8)

Top Movers

Brandon M Hinton5

+14

Brian Sousa60

+9

Tom Ringer68

+9

Finishing Order

FinishStart+/-Car #DriverIncPoints
11065Jesse Gordon2x40
25+373John W Crosby0x35
39+629Judson Curtis0x34
44092David Burcicki0x33
519+145Brandon M Hinton0x32
611+521Joshua Gillen4x31
716+960Brian Sousa0x30
817+968Tom Ringer0x29
918+909jonathan McIntosh4x28
106-403Scott Millikan2x27
1113+213Cody Deak6x26
1215+366Brandon H Yates0x25
132-1171Thomas Wynne2x24
148-63Shaun Dionne0x23
1514-123Tony Mcdaniel4x22
163-1354Tiyler Walts8x21
1712-553David Lewis6x20
1810-845Brent Thompson0x19
197-1269Todd Parent2x18