DARLINGTON, S.C. — Corey Day had a solid points night at Darlington Raceway on Saturday night (Sept. 5), but he may have made an enemy that could potentially cost him down the road.
Day finished second in The Chase opener for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and scored 44 points on the night to move from seventh to fifth in the standings. However, an incident involving William Sawalich on lap 68 of the 147-lap event will overshadow what was an otherwise great night for the Hendrick Motorsports drivers … and it could have future ramifications for him as well.
“He [Sawalich] told me to go f–k myself, so I think that’s where we’re at,” Day said after a long conversation with Sawalich.
The two young drivers had made contact early on in stage 2 and raced each other hard in the laps since then. Day then went to the No. 18’s inside on lap 68, and the two collided again. Day’s nose and Sawalich’s bumper then crossed a few times, and the result was a destroyed No. 18 Toyota.
“Two or three laps before, he ran me out of room into [turn] 1, and I did the same thing to him,” Day said. “I got a run on him, got under him. He puts it tight on my door. Out of [turn] 2, he really crammed me, and as we know, out of 2 at Darlington gets sketchy with guys on your door. So I clipped him. He came down the track. I still had the run, so I go to take it to the outside of him. I’m there, and he starts coming up on me. So it’s either I fence myself or lift or kill my run or I finish a guy off that’s been driving me like that all year.”
Of course, there are two sides to every story, and Sawalich’s version of the crash didn’t exactly match up with Day’s.
“He ran me up basically almost into the wall,” Sawalich told Frontstretch. “I kind of checked him so he wouldn’t hit me into the wall and then got clear of him, what I thought, off of [turn] 2, and then he just kind of didn’t lift through my back bumper and had me turning right, and that’s kind of why I went right toward the wall to his bumper.
“Yeah, he said I ran him in the wall early in the race too. I don’t really know, so it sucks.”
The two rubbed under caution following the wreck. Sawalich then tried to continue for a while, but ultimately exited the race. He was credited with a 30th-place result, 41 laps down.
“Yeah, just hate it for the [No.] 18 guys,” Sawalich said. “They’ve had a really fast car. We were faster than basically everybody but the [No.] 00 [Sheldon Creed]. I think we were able to pass everybody but him. So they [my team] brought a really good car. I hate that it got that damage and we had that incident.
Day had major damage on both fenders of his No. 17 Chevrolet but still managed to rebound and finish second in stage 2. He stayed in the top five the rest of the night, finishing second, his first top five since Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.
“To tell you the truth, I honestly think we were better after the damage,” Day said. “I just think that the track temp cooled down, a lot of things fit into our factor. I’m not really sure. There’s obviously something that can go on there with knocking the right front headlight in, and it can help you or hurt you, and tonight, it helped us. So, yeah, glad that worked out the way it did because it would have been really tough to drive around this place with an ill-handling racecar.”
While Day was talking to his team on pit road after the race, Sawalich — now in street clothes — approached him. The two walked off by themselves and spoke for nearly two minutes, with Day showing a lot of agitation on his face.
“Yeah, I don’t know, his argument just didn’t really make sense, but we’ll see,” Sawalich said.
Day’s side of what they talked about was much more clear though.
“Yeah, absolutely, yeah, he [Sawalich] threatened to wreck me and said, ‘We’ll see how the rest of your Chase goes,'” Day said. “And yeah, I don’t doubt that he will wreck me or whatever the case in one of these races where it means obviously a lot to me and nothing to him. So yeah, if that happens, I really won’t be surprised at all, but I tried to plead my case and explain to him why I feel the way I feel and that he’s to blame for some of this as well. He doesn’t see my side of it in the slightest, so that’s how it is.”
Sawalich denied that he would wreck Day or try to make his life difficult throughout the rest of The Chase. He instead insisted he and his No. 18 team were focused on getting back to victory lane.
“We’re just gonna focus on our program and build for next year,” Sawalich said. “We have good speed everywhere. We’re just gonna go try and chase some trophies.”
Both drivers did note that they had had run-ins at the start of this season, with Sawalich saying, “he blamed them all on me.” Day took responsibility for those instances when he spoke to the media afterward but shed some light as to why he and Sawalich haven’t been able to put it all in the past. At least his version of it.
“The first couple weeks of the year, we had some run-ins and some things that I’ve owned up to and apologized to him about, and I feel like all year long, he’s still just raced me as if I wreck him every week,” Day said. “He’ll go pass someone clean in front of me, but before that, he was running me out of room and packing air on me.
“Just all year long, just not giving me really respect or anything. Not that I’m gonna say I necessarily deserve the most respect he’s going to give to everybody. But I’ve owned up and apologized for my mistakes. I think we’re going to be racing together for a long time. So if it was roles reversed, I’m probably not going to race him like that every single week, where he is.”
But Sawalich isn’t the only driver Day feels isn’t racing him with respect. He called out the entire NOAPS field.
“I got ran out of room and left no option other than to lift, and I’m just tired of it,” Day said. “I’m tired of it. I don’t feel like I get much respect from any of these guys, to tell you the truth, and I’m just over it. I’m going to race people the way they race me.
But for now, Day needs to worry about racing for a championship. He entered Darlington 55 points out of the points lead and left 46 out. So the night was a net gain. But with eight races remaining, he can’t afford to get into scraps with Sawalich or anyone else.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be tough,” Day said. “Like I said, I don’t doubt that he’s [Sawalich] going to try and wreck me or make my life difficult the rest of these races for sure. So I guess we’ll just play it race by race with him.”
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.
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