Corey Day came under fire once again this weekend after his second consecutive NASCAR O’Reilly race incident with an allied car. Connor Zilisch, the most recent victim at COTA, even demanded an apology from the young Hendrick Motorsports driver. And while the criticism is pouring in from across the NASCAR world, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the opportunity to pull back the curtain on how Corey’s string of mistakes is being viewed within Hendrick and JRM.

On Tuesday’s most recent episode of The Dale Jr. Download, former driver and JR Motorsports owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. explained what happened in the aftermath of Corey Day’s incident with Connor Zilisch at COTA.

“We all got together. Rick 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. But we have to do this without being detrimental to each other. I know it looks ugly for fans who are watching it. It’s hard for our teams. But it’s part of the process of trying to school up these guys to become the drivers that we think they’re capable of becoming.”

It’s worth noting that Corey Day is one of NASCAR’s most highly touted prospects and is just a few weeks into his rookie O’Reilly Series season. With a background in dirt racing, Day still has a lot to learn about the asphalt.

At just 20 years old, Corey Day certainly has some rope to work with when it comes to getting his feet under him. But that leash is getting considerably shorter, especially when the mistakes of inexperience are hurting Hendrick partner JRM’s results. The Atlanta race saw him at the center of multiple incidents, including one that claimed JRM entries Carson Kvapil and Justin Allgaier. And, of course, the incident this past weekend at COTA ruined what looked like an epic comeback for Connor Zilisch in the No. 1 JRM Chevy.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. voices support for Corey Day

While Corey Day’s mistakes are clearly proving costly, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made it clear that there’s no insidious intent behind them. He also emphasized the idea that Day should get a clean slate going forward, at least as far as his JRM drivers are concerned.

“This is a very tough situation to be in for me. [Corey Day] has a ton of talent… He’s got a lot of racecar. He didn’t go through the esses and go ‘man, I’ma just clean this No. 1 car out.’ But he is in control of the car, and he has to realize that’s my teammate. And Rick Hendrick owns the car I’m driving and Rick Hendrick owns the car that I’m going to spin out. And he has to drive his car and control it so that it doesn’t cause that accident, right? That’s what we’re asking him to do.””

“…Our drivers should have no animosity towards Corey. Corey should look at this as an opportunity to start anew and start to build a rapport and a reputation that he wants to have.”