{"id":38286,"date":"2025-07-26T08:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T08:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/38286\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T08:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T08:08:09","slug":"corey-day-has-a-career-best-night-at-irp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/38286\/","title":{"rendered":"Corey Day Has a Career-Best Night at IRP"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2013 Corey Day<\/a> made his 15th NASCAR national series start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on Friday, July 25. It was his first time at the 0.686-mile short track, and the 20-year-old did not disappoint.<\/p>\n

With qualifying scrapped due to lightning strikes delaying on-track activities earlier in the day, he started 16th as per the starting metric. Two hundred laps later, he finished second, 1.864 seconds behind Layne Riggs<\/a>, who dominated the race.<\/p>\n

\"#34:<\/p>\n

Layne Riggs Dominates IRP, Claims 2nd Win of 2025<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I don\u2019t really know. It was another day of no qualifying, so who knows, maybe I just need to not qualify for these races,\u201d Day told media post-race. \u201cBut, no, I think just having a surface like this, being able to move all over, I think I\u2019m probably the most comfortable guy on the track, along with [Stewart] Friesen<\/a> that was moving all around the racetrack. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m used to. So, I guess when we\u2019re boxed in, I feel more boxed in when I only have to run one line. Yeah, I felt really good tonight. The truck was really good, of course, so thank you to Spire Motorsports and everyone for bringing me a fast truck. So, big thanks to those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

From start to finish, Day improved the most positions of anyone in the field (14). He attributed it to his sprint car dirt track racing background.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m probably the best guy in the field in being able to change lines and run the bottom,\u201d Day added. \u201cAnd, you know, not just change from bottom to the top, but cross over guys, slide guys. You know, that\u2019s something I\u2019ve been able to adapt for the dirt stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they gave me the green light, I was excited. So, they also told me the bottom was going to go away at the end of the race, and it didn\u2019t. So, yeah, glad I stuck with that. A good day overall. You know, one of these days I\u2019ll get to qualify in a Truck race.\u201d<\/p>\n

He piloted his No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet to eighth place at the end of stage one. A lap 100 caution split the field into differing pit strategies, and Day was 13th<\/a> at the end of stage two. In the final 80-lap run to the checkered flag, he gained 11 spots up to second place. He credited his success to a fast long-run truck plus better decision making.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn\u2019t filled the top on a lot of those restarts,\u201d Day continued. \u201cI knew we had a fast truck too many times this year. I\u2019ve made a stupid mistake or decision on the restart and got myself plugged into the fence or, you know, into someone else. I was easier, I guess, with my decision making at the beginning of that race, and that\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve learned to be able to make good decisions but not go slow, right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean \u2026 sprint cars you just make decisions and go where they\u2019re not and pass cars. This, it\u2019s not like that. I guess, like tonight it takes 10-12 laps to clear one car. So, my decision-making process has had to change throughout, I guess, almost a year on pavement racing. So, I feel like I\u2019m finally at a point where I can make those good decisions and not lose time, be able to make the right decision at first go.<\/p>\n

\"Andres<\/p>\n

Truckin\u2019 Thursdays: What\u2019s Going On With Spire\u2019s Truck Team?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yeah, just filled the top on that restart. I guess that worked out really good. I entered turn 1 in 14th and came out, I think I was seventh or something. Ended out really good, and our truck had that speed really well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Day now has back-to-back top-five Truck Series finishes. Both of them are on ovals. He scored a fifth-place result at Nashville Superspeedway<\/a>, besting his career-best by 10 spots. Four races later, he bettered that amount by three, runner up. Moreover, he was the lone Spire driver to finish in the top five. Playoff-bound Rajah Caruth<\/a> wound up 10th, ARCA Menards Series points leader Brenden Queen<\/a> made a one-off start to finish 16th, and full-time rookie Andres Perez<\/a> was 22nd.<\/p>\n

Now imagine if there had been qualifying where Day could\u2019ve showcased the speed in his No. 7, or a late-race caution where he could\u2019ve had a shot at beating Riggs.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, thanks to Day\u2019s performance, the Spire No. 7 team improved one position in the owner standings from seventh to sixth, jumping ahead of full-time driver Grant Enfinger<\/a>\u2018s No. 9 team.<\/p>\n

\"Donate<\/a>
\n\"Frontstretch.com\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site’s ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2013 Corey Day made his 15th NASCAR national series start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[425,99],"class_list":["post-38286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}