Corey Day — Driver Profile
Car: No. 17 | Team: Hendrick Motorsports | Manufacturer: Chevrolet Crew Chief: Adam Wall | Sponsor: HendrickCars.com Status: Full-time | Hometown: Clovis, California | Age: 20
2026 Season
Corey Day has been the most surprising performer of the 2026 O'Reilly Series season. The 20-year-old Hendrick Motorsports rookie won his first career O'Reilly Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on April 25, passing Sheldon Creed on the final lap to deliver Hendrick its first-ever O'Reilly Series win at Talladega. He sits fourth in points through 12 races and held that position despite ending the very next weekend on Lap 1 at Texas — a hard wreck off Turn 2 that took the No. 17 out of the Andy's Frozen Custard 340 before the race had really begun. The cushion he built from a season of top-10 consistency before Talladega — and the win itself — kept him in title contention.
2026 Stats (through 12 races): 4th in points (400 pts, -198) | 2 wins (Talladega April 25; Dover May 16) | 4 top 5s | 9 top 10s | 1 pole
Career
Day is part of Hendrick Motorsports' first full O'Reilly Series program since 2006 — a significant organizational commitment. He came up through the Hendrick pipeline and enters 2026 as the clearest test case of what a fully supported HMS O'Reilly program can produce at the national level.
The Story
Day is leading laps, qualifying near the front, and finishing in the top 10 at a high rate — but hasn't converted that pace into a win. For a 20-year-old rookie with 164 laps led and a Martinsville runner-up already on the résumé, that's a story of remarkable promise. The win is coming. The question is when, and whether it arrives in time to matter in the playoff picture.
Related Pages
- Hendrick Motorsports — Team Profile
- O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Guide
- 2026 O'Reilly Series Schedule
- Driver Directory
Recent Race — Dover, May 16, 2026 (BetRivers 200)
Day won his second career O'Reilly Series race in his first Dover start, passing Justin Allgaier with four laps left by running up against the outside wall and splitting Blake Lothian's lapped car. Margin: 0.461 sec. "This one feels really, really good. The Talladega one was unexpected at a superspeedway, but we earned this one." Read the recap.