Day On Xfinity Debut: ‘It Just Got Pretty Chaotic There’

Corey Day leads a line of cars at Martinsville Speedway. (Scotte Sprinkle/Race Face Digital photo)

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Corey Day’s NASCAR Xfinity Series debut Saturday with Hendrick Motorsports went about as rough as it could have possibly gone at Martinsville Speedway.

Day started the race in sixth after a strong qualifying effort on Friday and ran inside the top 10 early on, but six laps before the end of stage one, he was sent into turn one off the front bumper of Sammy Smith’s Chevrolet.

The contact sent him sliding into Harrison Burton, putting both he and Burton into the outside wall. The damage to the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet kept Day buried in the back of the pack after that, and he ended up being a pinball the rest of the race.

Two free passes late in the going – part of 14 total caution flags during the 250-lap distance – allowed Day to claw back onto the lead lap inside the final 20 laps of regulation, but he still ended up with a disappointing 21st-place finish given where he started.

“It was a rough weekend,” said Day post-race. “These guys don’t give an inch, or even half of one around here. Just tough. [Didn’t] want my debut to go like that at all. But, [we] showed really good speed to start the weekend, [both] in practice and qualifying and for the first 50 laps there. It just got pretty chaotic there after that first incident we were in.

“We can’t hang our heads too low, though,” Day added. “It’s a positive we got the first half of the weekend down. The [No.] 17 guys brought me a super-fast HendrickCars.com Chevrolet … and [it] just sucks it ended the way that it did.”

Day’s run in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race the night prior went arguably even worse. While he did get used up mightily before getting crashed out in the second half, he was still able to take some of the experience and learn from it going into Saturday.

“This place is kind of its own beast,” the Clovis, Calif., native noted. “I’m not going to race people how I’d race them here at other places. [But I’m learning] car control and car experience. I put myself in a lot of bad situations, so hopefully I won’t do that again. And just racing around cars is important, to learn awareness of where your tires are and where the body’s at.

“I think I learned a lot in that aspect, but I know I’ve still got a long way to go.”

Day’s next Xfinity Series race will be at Texas Motor Speedway on May 3. Coverage of the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 is slated for 2 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.