Rockingham, N.C. — Despite all the noise early in the season about Corey Day‘s race craft and aggression, the 20-year-old Hendrick Motorsports youngster showed everyone what he is capable of in the first half of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Rockingham Speedway (April 4).
You could say that Day was ‘solid as a rock,’ flexing his muscles early in the weekend by earning his first career pole.
However, Day didn’t stop there, as he put a chokehold on the field through the first two stages. The Clovis, Calif. native led 118 laps and swept the stages, the first two stage wins of his career.
Yet, when he needed to tie it all together to execute the perfect day, pit road and restarts became trouble spots for him.
A slow pit stop during the stage two break and a rough restart to follow it buried Day towards the back of the top 10 before he eventually fell out on the next restart. The issues continued to stack up when he was forced to pit on lap 174 with a loose lug nut. Despite roaring back from outside the top 20, Day could only get back to 10th before the checkered flag flew.
“We just had a couple of bad pit stops there and lost three or four spots in each one,” Day told Frontstretch. “That’s enough at this place, it’s so narrow, so hard to pass. Your balance gets worse the further you get back in dirty air. I just kind of struggled with that after that happened as well.”
Though he struck out on scoring his first victory, Day remained optimistic and pleased with what he did accomplish.
“We won a couple of stages there, something I’ve never done, so good to do that, good to lead some laps, but overall it was a good points day for us too. Obviously, it didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but still a lot of positives.”
Positives there were to be had from Day, who is competing in his first full-time NOAPS season. Day had led only 46 laps in his career coming into the race, easily surpassing that total at The Rock. He also earned his seventh consecutive top 10, with the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway serving as his only race without a top 10 this year. The performance also vaulted him to fifth in the standings in a season where points matter more than they have in ages.
Day’s run was part of a continuous theme throughout the race of drivers in search of their first career win. Joe Gibbs Racing rookie Brent Crews led 30 laps before losing the lead and ultimately suffering a flat tire, relegating him to 26th.
Meanwhile, William Sawalich went on to score his first victory, besting Crews on a restart before zipping away to the trophy.
Overall, the rising phenoms ruled the day, and before long, it’ll be Day who gets to celebrate the same feat that Sawalich did.
Luken Glover joined the Frontstretch team in 2020 as a news writer before elevating to a columnist, where he served as the longtime writer for The Underdog House. Currently, he is an editor for the site and conducts feature interviews. Glover has covered several forms of racing for the site including NASCAR, CARS Tour, and SRX events.
A 2023 graduate of the University of the Cumberlands, Glover is a promotional writer, elementary athletic director, and basketball coach. He is passionate about serving in his church, playing/coaching a wide variety of sports, and researching motorsports history.
Long way to go to catch the driver who according the TV broadcast, is dominating the series, with his 22th in standings, Harrison Burton. Well, you would expect nothing less from the HoF driver Harrison.
Though the finish wasn’t anything to write home about, I came away from this impressed with Day. Got a ton of points thanks to dominating the first two stages, and salvaged a top ten after circumstances beyond his control had him mired in traffic.
While I haven’t cared for his attitude and driving style until the last couple of weeks, I recognize he is young, and it would be easy for huge names in the sport constantly touting you to go to your head. Far too early to tell, but possibly the talks people have had with him did sink in.
Just as importantly, he’s beginning to show some of the speed we keep hearing about. Until recently, he was a combination of mouth, wreck, and poor performances even when not creating drama. Same as above, far too early to tell if he’s figured it out, but everything currently is pointing up for him.