Homecomings are sometimes an opportunity to mirror. For Corey Day, Saturday’s return to Sonoma Raceway (5:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), 200 miles northwest of his hometown of Clovis, California, affords a chance to measure simply how far he is come throughout a rookie season stuffed with classes discovered at NASCAR’s nationwide degree.
Day has impressed the Hendrick Motorsports brass that put him within the No. 17 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Components Collection automobile full-time in 2026. He began off his first full season with a bang, stringing collectively eight consecutive high 10 finishes between the second and ninth races at EchoPark Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway, respectively.
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“Corey’s progress this season has been spectacular to witness firsthand,” Adam Wall, crew chief of the No. 17 Chevrolet, mentioned. “His potential to point out up at new tracks and rise up to hurry as rapidly as he does reveals how gifted he’s. The expectations had been clearly excessive going full-time with this program, however the begin we needed to the season was greater than I believe any of us might have anticipated with somebody so new to this.”
The outcomes have been robust, however the optics had been much less favorable to start 2026. Day clashed with JR Motorsports’ No. 1 Chevrolet at EchoPark and Circuit of The Americas, leaving Carson Kvapil and Connor Zilisch, respectively, on the unsuitable finish of contact. Contemplating the alliance between Hendrick and JRM, it was basically a quasi-teammate being wrecked off Day’s entrance bumper.
Day took possession of each incidents, admitting he wanted to be higher.
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“Final yr, I used to be simply quick sufficient to crash and get myself into bother,” Day instructed NASCAR.com. “I did not actually have the pace to wreck anybody else. I used to be getting handed, not passing folks. The beginning of this yr, I began with much more pace than I had. There have been a few occasions the place I did not know what to do with it and made a mistake.”
With extra seat time and a chat with Rick Hendrick, Day has stopped overstepping his boundaries. In comparison with 2025, he is seen notable enhancements throughout the board.
“Simply comfortability within the automobile,” Day mentioned of the most important enchancment. “I can fireplace off for Lap 1 of the race or apply and know what the automobile goes to do and you may already really feel what it should do into Flip 1 earlier than I get to Flip 1. Earlier than, I used to be behind the race automobile. There was no anticipation of what the automobile was doing; it was driving me, per se. That is been a giant factor.”
2025 NASCAR Cup Collection champion and Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson knew that with a complete offseason, Day can be a viable menace in 2026.
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“He is finished nice,” Larson instructed NASCAR.com. “I really feel just like the efficiency aspect of it has gone as I hoped and anticipated. I assumed final yr, I do know the potential in Corey, so I used to be like, ‘Man, he is not operating nearly as good as I assumed he would.’
“This offseason, I used to be like, I believe he’ll adapt this yr since you get to have consistency along with your group, you’re going to be greater within the (qualifying) metric. Every thing has gone higher.”
Corey Day in Victory Lane with Kyle Larson and group spotter.
Day’s potential throughout the Hendrick ranks might be traced again to a different Hendrick Motorsports icon. The Days — Corey’s father, Ronnie — crossed paths with Hendrick vice chairman and NASCAR Corridor of Famer Jeff Gordon on the sprint-car scene. That was the trail Day was chasing till Larson gave his nod of approval to the powers that be at HMS, believing within the upstart’s pure potential.
“When you’ve gotten a man like Kyle who’s racing on the monitor with [Day] and saying these varieties of issues, it definitely will get our consideration after we begin trying down the street at up-and-coming drivers,” Gordon instructed NASCAR.com in a dialog final fall. “It isn’t that we had been planning for that, however when any person comes alongside that has that kind of expertise, you begin taking a look at it slightly bit in a different way of what is potential.”
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The 2026 season has been highlighted by a pair of victories for the No. 17 group, as Day stunned himself at Talladega Superspeedway, the location of his first triumph. He adopted it up three weeks later, passing regular-season championship chief Justin Allgaier within the closing laps at Dover Motor Speedway whereas utilizing the excessive line.
“Talladega was my first [win], however Dover was my first actual oval win, for positive,” Day famous. “It felt actually good. That was such a group win. There was slightly attrition, however I nonetheless owe it to my guys. You possibly can’t have a shot to win these races on the finish and not using a nice automobile.”
The trajectory is optimistic, with further enchancment nonetheless attainable. In three of the final seven races, Day has had an incident on the opening lap of the race, leading to DNFs at Texas Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway. Final weekend at Naval Base Coronado, he collected a monitor cowl on the opening lap, although he rallied to a top-10 end result.
“I nonetheless get caught off guard as soon as each race and make a mistake,” Day mentioned. “I believe that is going to occur all through your entire profession; I do not suppose anybody may be good. Some race craft stuff, my road-course potential has received some work to do. My speedway stuff, although I received a race, I actually do not know what I am doing but. Nonetheless lots to work on.”
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After signing a developmental take care of Hendrick in December of 2024, he zagged throughout the nation, akin to a graduating highschool senior shifting away for his or her freshman yr of faculty. But it surely’s been a sturdy begin to his NASCAR tenure for the 20-year-old, rating third within the standings, 14 markers under reigning champion Jesse Love for a distant second to Allgaier. And by the point The Chase rolls round, Larson believes the No. 17 group might play spoiler to Allgaier.
“I really feel like he is in all probability the second-best group proper now to Allgaier, with rather more potential inside himself and the group nonetheless studying,” Larson mentioned. “Clearly, Justin has a lot expertise, and that is why he can outrace a few of these folks and is aware of what he feels. I believe when Corey learns extra of that, he’ll be prepared as soon as The Chase comes and hopefully have the ability to problem Justin for the championship.”
