O’REILLY: First-lap first-corner spin sends Corey Day hard into unforgiving Pocono wall
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
Day (bottom center) bounces off the inside wall as 38th-place Gase (top center) follows the last few cars past the scene. (SCREENSHOT: TheCW Sports, @TheCW_Sports)
Corey Day picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career in Saturday’s MillerTech Battery 250 presented by KOA at the Pocono Raceway when his #17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet crashed on the opening lap of the 100-lap race.
The finish occurred in Day’s 28th series start. In the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series rankings, it was the 15th for the #17, the 692nd for Chevrolet, and the 710th from a crash. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 52nd for the #17, the 1,464th from a crash, and the 2,048th for Chevrolet.
From his early years racing dirt bikes to his excellence showcased running dirt sprint cars on the west coast, Day burst onto the NASCAR scene by running late models for JR Motorsports, and made his series debuts in both ARCA and the Truck Series. He then landed a part-time deal in Hendrick Motorsports’ #17 entry in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, a team formed in honor of the late Ricky Hendrick. Day finished 4th that fall in Las Vegas, but found the transition challenging. Those challenges extended into this season, where he triggered a few controversial accidents, wrecking both Sieg brothers in Atlanta, then spinning Connor Zilisch in COTA. But during this period, he also scored eight straight top-ten finishes, and showing his maturity, soon after scored a pair of wins at Talladega and Dover. He’s been a weekly threat ever since.
At Pocono, Day was one of 38 drivers entered for as many available starting spots, meaning all would make the show. He ranked 14th in opening practice with a lap of 55.361 seconds (162.569mph), then improved to 11th in qualifying with a lap of 55.169 seconds (163.135mph).
Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Joey Gase, who ran David Starr’s renumbered Alarm Tech paint scheme from his #53 Chevrolet at Nashville on a #55 Ford. This was part of a unique three-car lineup for Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, which fielded three cars for three different manufacturers. Continuing their collaborative effort with Mike Harmon Racing, the Gase team’s #35 was Harmon’s Chevrolet with Carson Ware driving and sponsorship from Costa Oil. The team’s #53 for a returning Natalie Decker and sponsor T.N. Dickinson’s Witch Hazel was a Toyota.
Gase was also one of five drivers to not turn a lap in qualifying, and was ranked last of the group based on Owner Points. He ran the slowest lap in opening practice at just 90.531 seconds (99.414mph), then stalled at the entrance of pit road, forcing the team to change engines. The others ranked ahead of him were 37th-place Josh Bilicki in the #07 Rita’s Ice Chevrolet, 36th-place Cole Custer in the #0 Sysco Chevrolet, 35th-place Dean Thompson in the #26 Uglies Kettle Chips Toyota, and 34th-place Dexter Bean in the #91 Rich Mar Florist / Badger Environmental Chevrolet. Of those, Custer, Bilicki, and Thompson incurred tail-end penalties for unapproved adjustments along with 28th-place Patrick Emerling in the #38 Pennsylvania Army National Guard Chevrolet.
Incurring the same unapproved adjustments penalty were 32nd-place Nathan Byrd in the #42 Young’s Motorsports Chevrolet and 33rd-place Blaine Perkins in the #31 Easycare / Bommarito.com Chevrolet wrecked during their qualifying attempts, and thus turned in the slowest completed laps. Bean also wrecked his patriotic-themed #91, which was to go with his Uncle Sam-themed driver’s uniform. He instead drove DGM Racing x JIM’s backup, the re-decaled black-and-yellow Call811.com scheme that Josh Williams ran as the #92 at Bristol. The team called Bean’s car their “Frankenstein.”
The result was a scrambled running order at the tail end of the field with a number of battered and re-decaled cars. When the green flag dropped, intervals showed Gase still in the last spot, 4.039 seconds back of the lead and about four-tenths back of new 37th-place Custer (3.605), followed by 36th-place Byrd (3.450), Bean in 35th (3.394), Bilicki in 34th (3.308), Thompson in 33rd (3.077) and Perkins in 32nd (3.006). Immediately, Gase radioed he was “down on power,” and was arranging with the team to swap the carburetor. He soon reported water at 250 degrees and his oil temperature at 260. By then, trouble had already broken out among the leaders in Turn 1.
Heading through the first corner, Day was running 13th spot, working to the inside of Connor Zilisch’s #1 Roto-Rooter Chevrolet. At corner apex, Day’s car started to back up toward a side-by-side battle with Parker Retzlaff’s #99 FDNY Foundation Chevrolet to the inside of Sheldon Creed’s #00 VieLight Chevrolet. Near corner exit, Day moved high in front of Creed, but the back of the car started to come around. Creed got on the brakes as Day spun sideways in front of him, causing a stack-up behind. Several drivers moved to the low lane including Jesse Love, who cut hard to the left in his #2 Whelen Chevrolet. But the moment he did, Day’s car started to roll across traffic. Love jerked his car to the right, but couldn’t avoid colliding with the left-rear of Day’s car, sending Day spinning hard into the inside wall, which he struck with both ends of his Chevrolet. Gase remained behind the field by open track when he cleared a stopped Day off Turn 1, dropping the #17 to last place.
As Day climbed from his wrecked car, Love made it to pit road, completing a lap a he pulled into Stall 9 on the Turn 1 side. Fluid leaked from beneath his car. On Lap 3, he pulled behind the wall, where the pit crew was summoned to begin repairs. At the time, they thought they were classified last behind Day, and looked at bypassing the car’s damaged oil cooler to make a couple laps. But when they learned they were already classified 37th ahead of 38th-place Day, the team said they were done and told Love he could climb out. As first Day, then Love were checked and released from the infield care center, Gase pulled behind the wall on Lap 4, then asked his crew if there was spilled oil in the trunk of his car.
The race restarted on Lap 7, where this time two near-simultaneous accidents occurred just short of the first completed lap under green. William Sawalich’s #18 Starkey Toyota glanced off the wall coming off Turn 3, causing Ryan Sieg’s #39 Sci Aps Chevrolet to check-up and be bumped by Austin Hill’s #21 Chevrolet, steering Sieg into the wall with the right-front. An instant later, Nathan Byrd checked-up his repaired #42 only to be bumped by Custer’s #0, sending Byrd spinning into the inside wall. Sieg managed to continue around the track, but after sitting stopped against the outer pit wall, Byrd was told by NASCAR to stay low before he pulled off at the apron of Turn 1. Gase’s team monitored this closely, looking to climb past Byrd, but never returned to the track. Decker completed the Bottom Five when her #53 blew the engine coming off Turn 3, causing her to stop on the apron of Turn 1. For some reason, CW’s leaderboard then shoed Decker classified in last place.
Alfredo and Caruth continue strong season performances
Anthony Alfredo came home 6th in the #96 Big Rack Spirits Chevrolet, marking his best finish of the season and third top-ten run of the year – a year that began with him failing to qualify this new second entry from Viking Motorsports in the season opener at Daytona. His career-best series run remains a pair of 3rd-place finishes for Richard Childress Racing at Texas in 2020, and for Our Motorsports at Talladega in the spring of 2024. He retains the 17th spot in points.
Rajah Caruth took home 7th in the #32 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet for Jordan Anderson Racing, marking his best run with that team, and just short of his season-best 4th-place run at Rockingham for his other part-time effort at JR Motorsports. Caruth battled into the Top Five in the race’s closing stages before he took the 7th position.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #17 in an O’Reilly race since September 2, 2023, when Kyle Larson finished 31 laps down at Darlington. The number had never finished last in an O’Reilly race at Pocono.
*Day is the second driver to finish last in an O’Reilly race without completing a single lap, joining Mason Maggio for his first-lap crash damage at Daytona on February 14, 2026. Day is the second driver to fail to complete a lap of an O’Reilly race at Pocono, joining Brandon Jones’ own first-lap wreck on June 28, 2020.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #17-Corey Day / 0 laps / crash
37) #2-Jesse Love / 1 lap / crash
36) #55-Joey Gase / 3 laps / engine
35) #42-Nathan Byrd / 7 laps / crash
34) #53-Natalie Decker / 17 laps / engine
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES OWNER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) DGM Racing x JIM, Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, RSS Racing, Young’s Motorsports (2)
2nd) AM Racing, Big Machine Racing, Haas Factory Team, Hendrick Motorsports, Hettinger Racing, JR Motorsports, Sam Hunt Racing, SS-Green Light Racing, Viking Motorsports (1)
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES MANUFACTURER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (12)
2nd) Ford (4)
3rd) Toyota (1)
2026 LASTCAR O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP
