Ryan Sieg has been making a name for himself for a long time in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series -- 14 years to be exact. But prior to Friday night's Winn-Dixie 250 at Daytona International Speedway, the likeable underdog had never visited Victory Lane, other than to congratulate someone else on their triumph.

In an overtime finish to Friday night's race, that all changed, and as the field of cars blurred across the finish line for the final time at 2.5-mile superspeedway, Sieg finally erased that massive gooseegg on his career statistics sheet.

The wild thing is that Sieg, 39, never held the lead of Friday night's race during regulation. It took the overtime finish, which was set up by a crash involving Rajah Caruth with three laps to go, to open the door for Sieg.

When that door opened, as Carson Kvapil knifed up the track to pick up Justin Allgaier, his JR Motorsports teammate. Sieg, now leading the inside lane, made Kvapil pay for that move, as he parlayed shoves from Austin Hill into the race lead.

For the final two circuits of the race, Sieg masterfully managed the gap behind him, and the two lanes fighting side-by-side in his rearview mirror.

Finally, in his 424th attempt, Sieg did everything it took to capture victory in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. After performing post-race celebratory donuts on the front stretch, Sieg was very excited to finally break through after years of tireless effort.

“No, this is incredible, unbelievable,” Sieg said. “Especially to do it here at Daytona. I’ve been coming here since I was a baby. We’ve come here for every summer race. And no, to do it right now, and the way we did it, that’s amazing.”

Sieg continued, “This has been a long time coming, and last week we got the pole, and we came back to Daytona, where I really wanted to win. And we did it.”

As the final two laps unfolded, Sieg, who had finished runner-up five times in his career, had a lot going through his mind.

“Just don’t mess up and get too far out was the biggest thing,” Sieg explained of his thought process. “And definitely just watching both lanes. We had a good enough car to do it, and just thanks to Chevrolet, Hendrick power, Joe Custer, Haas, everybody that helps this whole 38 team. Just super excited to do it here at Daytona.”

Austin Hill would be rewarded for pushing Sieg to the win with a runner-up finish.

Kvapil, who captured his first win in his 63rd career starts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and came into this race on a two-race winning streak, would finish third.

Anthony Alfredo, who has had a quietly consistent season with Viking Motorsports this season, came home in the fourth position, ahead of Brandon Jones.

Friday night's race served as the final race of the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series regular-season, and at the end of the evening, the 12-driver Chase for the Championship field was chiseled in stone.

William Sawalich and Brent Crews, who came into the evening above the Chase cutline, would see their races ruined by hard crashes. This would effectively eliminate them from Chase contention.

Taylor Gray and Rajah Caruth, who came into the night below the cutline, would work their way into Chase contention, and despite a crash for Caruth with three laps remaining in regulation, he was able to hang onto the final Chase slot by a margin of five points over Sawalich.

The NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase will kick off at Darlington Raceway on Saturday, September 5. That race will be televised on The CW with coverage set to kick off at 7:30 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the event.