The first few weeks of Corey Day‘s 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season were headlined by his multiple run-ins with fellow competitors. But since a P27 in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway, Day has quietly picked up results.

Day has now compiled seven consecutive top 10s after finishing 10th in Saturday’s race at Rockingham Speedway. He started on the pole and swept both stages at Rockingham, a pit road miscue in Stage 3 being the only thing to slow him down. His turnaround has been impressive to Freddie Kraft, who spoke glowingly of Day on Monday.

“I wanna give a shoutout to Corey Day,” Kraft said on Door Bumper Clear. “… I don’t know where he ended up finishing because I know they had to come back and put some lugs on it, which, in the moment, really good thinking by the crew chief to realize we can’t get a penalty next week, we’re missing lugs, I know we’re missing lugs, but we have the No. 1 pit stall at Bristol. So, we have to come fix this now while we have the opportunity so we don’t forfeit that. Obviously, buried him in traffic, I don’t know where he ended up finishing.

“But I thought he was the best car clearly early in the race, won both stages. I just feel like the last maybe month or so — since COTA when he got into the back of Connor [Zilisch] — he’s been nothing but good.”

Corey Day is on a heater after messy start to 2026 season

Just a few weeks ago, there were people questioning if Day was ready for the seat was in. That the hype around him was too much and he wasn’t worthy of being in the No. 17 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.

All of a sudden, not only does the 20-year-old look like he belongs, but he just might have something to say about the race for the championship. Day sits fifth in the points standings, 150 points behind Justin Allgaier for the top spot, but just 24 shy of Jesse Love for second. Day has raced clean over the last month, and that has stood out most to Tommy Baldwin.

“You see a completely different race car driver, right? He’s just all of a sudden — it’s like a switch. Again, he’s not running into anybody, right? He’s not hurting his car, he’s keeping the performance in his car and the car is fast, and he’s learning every week. He just keeps getting better,” Baldwin said. “It really looks like [Jeff] Gordon had that eye for him, and it’s gonna start paying off here.”