Dale Earnhardt Jr claims that Hendrick Motorsports Owner Rick Hendrick pulled the HMS Corey Day prospect aside to address his run-ins with multiple JR Motorsports drivers at EchoPark Speedway and Circuit of the Americas this season.
To say that Corey Day is having a rough start to his first full-time NASCAR season is an understatement, as through three races, the 20-year-old dirt phenom turned Hendrick Motorsports’ top prospect has had multiple on-track run-ins with several drivers, most of which come from the JR Motorsports stable.
This started at Daytona, where Day inadvertently caused a major crash while racing William Sawalich.
Then, at Atlanta, Day was at the defensive end of another big crash that took out several cars, including fan favorite Ryan Sieg. After this crash, Sieg called out Day, saying, “That’s his normal race anyway, tearing up cars.”
Later on that evening, Day would also have a run-in with JR Motorsports’ Carson Kvapil while racing for the lead, crashing the No. 1 and collecting JRM’s No. 7 to boot.
This series of events came to a head this past weekend at Circuit of the Americas, when, after a quiet and successful afternoon, Day wrecked JR Motorsports driver Connor Zilisch with three to go, ending a valiant effort for Zilisch following early issues with a brake rotor.
The fallout from this crash has, of course, focused on Day crashing Zilisch, but mostly his reasoning behind the crash, with Day giving a list of reasons for the crash to the CW, none of which bought him sympathy from the fans.
As unfortunate a start as this would be for any driver in NASCAR’s developmental ranks, Day’s constant collisions with JR Motorsports drivers are made all the more unfortunate by JRM’s close ties to HMS.
Now, it is no secret that Hendrick Motorsports Chairman and CEO Rick Hendrick is a co-owner of JRM.
But, while HMS runs the No. 17 out of their shops in Concord, North Carolina, during the latest episode of The Dale Jr Download, JRM co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr explained that the No. 17 team is essentially a fifth team of JRM.
“We share all of our notes with them, everything that we do well, they have, they know this information,” Earnhardt Jr said. “They’re a fifth team of ours.”
With this close, almost familial relationship between the No. 17 team and JRM, fans were wondering when or if Rick Hendrick would handle this issue and talk to Day about his on-track actions.
During this same episode, Earnhardt Jr revealed that in the fallout of last Saturday’s race, JRM and HMS leadership, including the boss of HMS, have sat down with their top prospect to hash out the situation.
“We all got together, and we all sat down, Rick [Hendrick] had a conversation with Corey, and we’re all trying to help him understand, ‘Look, man, we want you here. We believe in you, we believe you’re a winner. We want to see you succeed. But we have to do this without being detrimental to each other.’” – Dale Earnhardt Jr
While Day has yet to have a chance to start mending these relationships on track, a sit-down conversation with those in charge is probably a good start, and something that Earnhardt says is “part of the process.”
Last season, Day signed a developmental contract with HMS, getting a glowing endorsement from team leadership like Hendrick and NASCAR Cup Series legend turned executive Jeff Gordon.
While he has had his moments on track, for a driver who switched from dirt to asphalt not even three years ago, Day has shown signs of being the prospect HMS was looking for.
Day currently sits eighth in points with two top fives and two top tens, and, despite his controversial moments, those in the garage are taking notice, including Earnhardt Jr, who says Day has a lot of talent, but is having to learn the ropes via trial by fire.
“Corey has a ton of talent, he’s got a lot of race car, and he’s got no experience. And he ran a handful of races last year, and now his car is even better, he’s starting to run closer to the front, and he’s just in over his skis in a bunch of moments.”
While disappointed by Day’s reasoning for the Zilisch crash, he says that the young driver’s questionable decision-making is nothing new and is just part of the learning process in NASCAR’s lower levels.
“What Corey’s doing is nothing new,” Earnhardt Jr said. “We’ve had teammate issues in the past; we will have them in the future. When you bring all of these young kids into the same building, they’re all on different paths, they are all eager to get that next opportunity.”
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