After years of close calls, heartbreak and grinding away with a family-owned race team, Ryan Sieg is finally a NASCAR winner.
Sieg captured his first career NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory Friday night at Daytona International Speedway, winning the Winn-Dixie 250 in his 424th career start. Sieg held off superspeedway standout Austin Hill in overtime, beating him to the finish line by just 0.149 seconds.
It was a victory more than a decade in the making for one of the series’ longest-tenured drivers.
424 Starts Later, Sieg Finally Gets His Moment
Sieg has spent much of his career competing against powerhouse organizations with significantly greater resources, doing so with his family’s RSS Racing operation.
There had been plenty of moments where it looked like Sieg’s breakthrough might finally come. He had accumulated top-five finishes, poles and races where the No. 39 was in contention late, but the first victory continued to escape him.
That changed under the lights at Daytona.
After starting 12th, Sieg put himself in position when it mattered most and emerged at the front during the closing stages.
When Rajah Caruth spun from second place with three laps remaining, the caution sent the race into overtime and created one final shootout. Sieg survived it.
He took the white flag out front and successfully defended against Hill and Carson Kvapil as the field charged toward the checkered flag.
A Win Bigger Than Just One Race
For Sieg, this wasn’t simply another Daytona upset.
It was the culmination of 424 starts without a victory and years spent building RSS Racing into a team capable of fighting some of NASCAR’s biggest organizations.
Sieg has been competing in the series since 2013 and has experienced nearly everything short of standing in Victory Lane. That longevity makes Friday night’s breakthrough one of the season’s best stories.
And fittingly, it happened at Daytona.
Sieg has been coming to the speedway since he was a child, making the location of his first victory even more meaningful. After the race, Sieg described the moment as “incredible” and said the victory had been “a long time coming.”
Sieg Makes NASCAR History at Daytona
Austin Hill finished second, while Carson Kvapil came home third. Anthony Alfredo and Brandon Jones completed the top five. Justin Allgaier, Brennan Poole, Harrison Burton, Jeb Burton and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top 10.
But Friday night belonged entirely to Ryan Sieg.
For 423 starts, Sieg had been chasing the same goal. There were opportunities where he came close and nights where a potential victory slipped away.
Start No. 424 was finally the one.
Ryan Sieg can officially call himself a NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series winner — and he did it on one of the biggest stages in the sport, under the lights at Daytona.