It’s been a little over a year since Corey Day made his debut in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and for the Clovis, California-native, it appears that things are definitely beginning to click.
Piloting the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports (the winningest team in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series), Day collected a career-best fourth-place result in Saturday’s Focused Health 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The run is easily his strongest in nine starts across the NASCAR Xfinity Series platform, besting a ninth-place result at World Wide Technology Raceway in September. However, if you’ve been paying attention to the progression of the 19-year-old protege of Kyle Larson in full-bodied stock cars, this breakout run likely doesn’t come as much of a surprise.
Since making his debut in NASCAR’s National Series, Day has had the pace to compete, and with it has come some flashes of brilliance — including a NASCAR Truck Series pole at Las Vegas in the Spring — but putting an entire weekend together has been a struggle, as is the case for most rookies.
But a pair of top-five results in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Nashville (May) and Indianapolis Raceway Park (July) have been strong indicators that the Hendrick Motorsports development driver was finding his way.
“To run up front basically every night [in dirt racing], and then to come to this style of racing, that is way different for me, and I’m not running good at all. So, it’s been tough,” Day said post-race at Las Vegas. “I knew before I started this that it would be. Just trying to learn. […] So, yeah, it’s really good to get a run like this and know that the work you’re putting in is paying off.”
The HendrickCars.com-sponsored machine unloaded with tons of pace immediately, with Day leading the opening group of Xfinity Series practice. However, a major bobble in qualifying left the No. 17 Chevrolet to start in 19th. From that point, it was all about making progress through the field, while keeping the fenders on it.
Having made it through the bulk of the event still in contention for a solid result, Day used the final 23-lap green-flag run to drive his No. 17 Chevrolet not only into the top-10, but into the top-five, picking up a whopping eight spots to finish fourth.
“I fired off after the green-flag cycle a little tight; that was the first time we fired off in rubber all night, so we picked it back up again on that caution, and I knew I’d fire off good, kind of how I did the rest of the runs,” Day commented. But, yeah, the seas parted for me there in [Turns] 1 and 2, I don’t know what happened there, someone got together and everyone split, and I was able to turn the middle.”
Day, who has been a standout youngster in the world of dirt racing up to this point, has had quite the cheering section in his transition to full-bodied stock cars, including Rick Hendrick and the entire Hendrick Motorsports organization, but there’s been an entire faction of people who have helped bolster the development driver’s prowess to this level.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of people. Kyle Larson is a big help to me; it feels really good to get to bounce some questions off of that guy, for sure,” Day explained. “Josh Wise and Scott Speed are a big part of what I do at Team Chevy, and they’re really good at just simplifying things for me. I don’t necessarily understand things in these guys’ terms, or as well as they do, so they do a really good job of helping me out with that. ”
Corey Day is scheduled to return to the seat of the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet for the final two NASCAR Xfinity Series events of 2025, at Martinsville Speedway (October 25) and Phoenix Raceway (November 1).
