Corey Day and Hendrick Motorsports announced Thursday (Jan. 9) that the Californian has signed with the race team to run races in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, Craftsman Truck Series, and the ARCA Menards Series.
Day is a veteran in dirt racing, having competed in various levels of sprint cars for the past nine seasons. The 19-year-old has earned praise, with Kyle Larson saying in 2023 outright that “he’s definitely the best to be in a winged Sprint Car at [age 17] in a long time.”
Day’s races in the Craftsman Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series will come with Spire Motorsports. HendrickCars.com will sponsor Day in eight truck races and four ARCA races.
The Truck Series schedule will start at Las Vegas in March, followed by races in Homestead, Martinsville, Bristol, Rockingham, Nashville, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and Darlington. His first ARCA race of the year will be the Daytona ARCA 200 at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 15. That will be followed by subsequent races at Phoenix, Sonoma and Kansas.
Day is currently in Daytona for ARCA’s pre-season test session at the high-banked tri-oval with 79 other drivers. It will be his first experience at a superspeedway.
Day raced full time in the Kubota High Limit Sprint Car Series, co-owned by Larson, in 2024. He made 50 features and won eight of them en route to a fifth-place finish in points.
Day will also make starts in the Trans-Am Series, presumably to secure valuable road course racing experience.
“It’s going to be a lot, of course, and I’m trying to be as mentally prepared for it as possible,” Day said in the press release. “With the group of people I have around me to be able to ask questions to, really anything I need I don’t have too many concerns. I know I’m probably going to have a lot of questions.
“There’s going to be some things come up to where I’m confused, but when you’ve got Jeff Gordon, Kyle Larson, Josh Wise … all these guys I can ask questions to, I think I’m going to be OK.”
Day already had an affliation with Hendrick in his adjustment to pavement racing last year. After winning his first late model start in April for JR Motorsports, which Rick Hendrick has a minority stake in, he competed in three ARCA races and four Truck Series races with sponsorship from HendrickCars.com.
His best finishes in both series was a fourth at Kansas Speedway in ARCA and 16th at Homestead Miami Speedway in Trucks.
“When Kyle Larson and Jeff Gordon say someone is the real deal, it certainly gets your attention,” Hendrick said in the press release. “What he’s already accomplished at this point in his career speaks volumes, and it’s been impressive to see how quickly he’s adapted to pavement.”
No specific race dates were announced for Day in the Xfinity Series. The length of Day’s contract was also not announced.
About the author
Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021, and also formerly covered the SRX series from 2021-2023. He now covers the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and road course events in the NASCAR Cup Series.
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