Corey Day recorded his best NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday afternoon with a 16th-place result in his third start. The driver of the HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST endured an eventful afternoon and has the No. 91 team 16th in the NCTS owners’ point standings after 21 of 23 events.
Day began the afternoon from row 11 after timing in 21st in Friday afternoon’s qualifying session. After the Californian settled in during the opening laps, he managed to move forward and reclaim his initial 21st position by lap 17. Despite a tense moment while rim-riding the outside wall, Day held the 20th position at the end of Stage 1 on lap 30.
Crew chief Chad Norris dialed up a right rear chassis adjustment to compliment four tires and fuel for Day’s first pit stop under the first stage caution. Day restarted 18th and consistently moved forward during the second segment utilizing the rim of HMS’ progressive banking and cracked the top-15 by lap 51. A dose of adversity appeared coming to complete the second stage as a right front tire went down. As a result, Day was scored 21st and was forced to pit before pit road was opened.
Due to the flat tire, Day restarted from the tail of the field when the final stage went green on lap 68, but began to move forward for the third time. A caution on lap 76 split the field into two tire strategies as Day and the HendrickCars.com team elected to preserve their final set of fresh tires for later in the race. During the final 52-lap run to the conclusion, Day pitted under green for his last scheduled stop on lap 100 for four tires and fuel. As roughly half of the field remained on track, Day cycled from outside the top-20 to take the checkered flag in 16th position.
Corey Day Quote:
“Today was a grind for sure. It took some time to get up to speed, but once we did it was good. I got into the wall a couple times, but I feel like that was to be expected here. Thankfully the team got it fixed so we could finish out the race. While the strategy didn’t quite work out, we still finished all the laps and I’m happy with how the day went.”
McAnally Hilgemann Racing PR
