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Corey Day going full-time with Hendrick Motorsports 17 team in NASCAR O'Reilly Series

JHby: Jonathan Howard22 hours agoJondean25
Corey Day NASCAR pole Las Vegas
Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

While it was expected, the news is official. Corey Day is going racing full-time in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Hendrick Motorsports believes in Day and his talent. So, he’s going full-time in the No. 17 car.

HendrickCars.com is going to sponsor the effort, as expected. For those who aren’t too familiar with Corey Day, think of him as a taller version of Kyle Larson. As a teenager, he was slinging dirt and throwing sliders on the best of the best in sprint cars. He has won in the World of Outlaws and High Limit Racing series.

With a big recommendation from Kyle Larson and Jeff Gordon, Day might be the next big thing from California to go from dirt to asphalt. That journey really starts next season.

Earlier in the season, things didn’t look great for Day in the Xfinity Series. It was clear that the learning curve was doing its work on him. Really, his Truck Series starts weren’t that impressive either. Then we got to Nashville. Day earned a P5 and a P11 in the Truck and Xfinity races, respectively.

From there, Day went to IRP in the Truck Series and finished P2. He earned a top-10 at Gateway in the Xfinity Series, and perhaps his best performance in 2025 was P4 at Las Vegas.

If Corey Day is going to race in the Hendrick 17 car, he has to perform at a high level. It sucks a little bit for so much pressure to be put on kids who aren’t even old enough to drink legally. But Day is a three-time Gold Cup Sprint Car Champion; he’s gone against the best in dirt racing, and his talent, I believe, is going to translate.

Corey Day trying to fit Kyle Larson mold at Hendrick

The thing that Corey Day has going for him is his relationship with Kyle Larson. To have someone like Larson who has gone through this before is a big deal. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Larson is a two-time Cup Series champion and a future Hall of Famer.

If Day is going to succeed, it’s going to be at Hendrick. They have all of the tools and resources available to make this talented sprint car driver a talented stock car driver. Day is perhaps the biggest question mark of the season going into 2026. He could be a pretty good rookie driver, or he could turn out to be the great driver they are expecting at HMS.

Despite having a relatively young core at Hendrick with Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Alex Bowman, HMS is keeping options for the future open. If Day ends up being one of the next big things, Hendrick wants him. After all, Trackhouse has this guy named Connor Zilisch, and he might start an arms race between teams if he ends up being the driver everyone knows he can be.

Corey Day is going full-time in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. What are your expectations for him in 2026?