By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
Hendrick Motorsports underscores commitment to driver Corey Day
MADISON, Ill.— Hendrick Motorsports doesn’t have a driver development program per se.
As team president Jeff Andrews put it, Hendrick is committed to the “Corey Day Development Program,” as evidenced by the long-term contract awarded the driver earlier this week.
“I think, for us, guys like this don’t come along very often, so when a talent like Corey Day presents itself…,” Andrews said. “We knew the (learning) curve was going to be steep, but we’ve been really proud of his progress and the things he’s accomplished on track and who he’s become off-track and part of our team and our culture.
“It’s a lot of things that led to the decision of going forward with the long-term development of Corey Day.”
The 20-year-old driver certainly has exceeded expectations in his first full season in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. He picked up his first victory at Talladega in April and followed that with a second win at Dover in May.
After rallying to finish second last Saturday at Darlington Raceway, Day is fifth in the Chase standings, 46 points behind leader Justin Allgaier.
“I think back to when I signed my first deal two years ago, and I was just hopeful that there would be another one, much less another long-term one,” Day said Saturday at World Wide Technology Raceway. “Really cool.
“I’m really excited for what’s to come for me in my career. I also talked about the fact that I never really thought I would be much more than just a sprint car guy, which I was fine with that, but it’s really cool to see where my career is at now.”
The driver from Clovis, California, grew up racing on dirt, but he has handled the transition to pavement adroitly. There hasn’t been one “light bulb” moment, rather a steady progression.
“I didn’t expect that one day I would show up at the track and get the pole and win the race,” Day said. “I knew that it was going to be tough and that I was going to learn things at different paces.”
Day’s new contract includes a plan to run a handful of NASCAR Cup Series races next season in addition to competing for the O’Reilly Series championship. Because of limitations under the current charter agreement, Hendrick is unable to run a fifth car, even on a limited basis.
Consequently, Day will drive a Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in his Cup Series events, Andrews said.
Beyond 2027, Day’s future with the organization lacks specifics, but the new contract speaks to Hendrick’s belief in the young driver, especially after the signing of Connor Zilisch to succeed Alex Bowman in a Cup car, starting in 2028.
Brad Keselowski addresses on-track rivalry with Carson Hocevar
Back in 1991, peer pressure had a noticeable effect on NASCAR Cup Series driver Ernie Irvan.
By the time the series arrived at Talladega Superspeedway for the July 28 Diehard 500, the Salinas, California, driver already had earned the nickname “Swervin’ Irvan”—undeniably talented but overly aggressive in the eyes of his fellow competitors.
Before the race, drivers Darrell Waltrip and Richard Petty—representing the Cup competitors—held an informal “intervention” with Irvan, counseling him on how to improve his standing inside and outside the garage.
In the subsequent drivers’ meeting, Irvan apologized to his peers and vowed to try to harness his aggressive tendencies.
RFK Racing owner/driver Brad Keselowski, who spun off Carson Hocevar’s front bumper in last Sunday’s Chase opener at Darlington Raceway, doesn’t think the Irvan approach would work in contemporary NASCAR racing.
After the race, Keselowski asserted, “His day is coming. It’s coming hard. Watch out, Carson Hocevar.”
Though Hocevar has been involved in incidents with the majority of Cup drivers this season, Keselowski believes attempted peer pressure would prove fruitless.
“We’re in a different day and age, which is greater than our sport,” Keselowski said Saturday before Cup practice for Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway (3 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“It transcends our society as a whole, where that level of social interaction is not valued the same way it was valued 10, 20, 30 years ago. At some point, everybody just has to touch a hot stove and learn.”
As to the future of the rivalry, which was promoted on posters at WWT Raceway—pitting Hurricane Hocevar vs. Bad Brad Keselowski—the RFK co-owner/driver said, “You live and you figure it out in the moment, and it’ll play out however it plays out.”
Denny Hamlin downplays past success at WWT Raceway
Denny Hamlin doesn’t think his results at World Wide Technology Raceway have reflected the potential of his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
That’s usually something a driver says when he doesn’t finish as well as he thinks he should.
Hamlin, however, is the defending winner of the Enjoy Illinois 300, which renews as the second Chase race on Sunday, September 13 at 3 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. In each of the previous two seasons, Hamlin was runner-up in the Gateway event.
“Yeah, I can’t rely on the results alone,” said Hamlin said, who leads the Chase standings by 12 points over second-place Christopher Bell. “I think that when I dug into this race track this week, I think that while we won, (and) we finished second a few other years, I don’t know that we were that car on pace, right? I think we did a really good job executing.
“I had some fortunate breaks. I had some good restarts, and then you end up winning the race, and so I don’t think that we had that—we had race winning pace when it mattered, but I don’t think we’ve been as good as the results have shown. So, there was a lot to dig into this week and try to get better at and we’ll try to start that today and go practice.”
After the 50-minute practice, Hamlin’s inclination to downplay his results seemed well-founded. He was 30th-fastest in the session with a lap at 133.670 mph.
