Day Closes NCTS Stint with Top-20 at Martinsville
Venue: Martinsville Speedway
FINISH: 18th
Start: 31st
Laps Led: 0
Corey Day closed out his run in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) with an 18th-place finish on Friday night at Martinsville Speedway. The driver of the No. 81 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST finished his four-race stint with three top-20 results to begin his foray into NASCAR competition.
Day acclimated himself to the tricky confines of Martinsville’s 0.526-mile bullring in the 15-minute practice on Friday afternoon and posted a lap of 20.16 seconds during qualifying. The Californian took the green flag from 31st position, but gradually gained positions in the opening stanza. He managed to stay on the lead lap by the time the first caution flag flew on lap 36, and pitted for fresh tires. The call by crew chief Chad Norris paid off as Day advanced from 24th to close out Stage 1 in 20th on lap 50.
Stage 2 restarted on lap 61 and saw Day continue to make a steady forward progression. The second segment featured a 38-lap green flag run and allowed him to advance three positions. Day was scored 17th at the end of Stage 2 on lap 100 and came to pit road under the caution period for four tires, fuel, and adjustments.
Quick pit work by the HendrickCars.com team allowed Day to gain positions on pit road and quickly gained the 12th position on the lap 111 restart. Day recorded extremely quick lap times during portions of the ensuing 53-lap run and settled in 13th position. After staying out on a lap 163 caution, Day was caught up in an incident on lap 191 but avoided severe damage. He rejoined the field for the final five-lap dash to take the checkered flag in 18th position.
Corey Day Quote:
“Today was tough. I wish I would have qualified better but this is just a hard place to get around and I knew it would be a struggle. Overall, we had a solid race, we didn’t go a lap down, gained track position and made positive changes all race. Newer tires got us on that one restart which is unfortunate, but we were able to still run all the laps tonight and learn which was the goal. I just want to thank the guys at MHR for these four races and all the work they put in.”
