Corey Day shows true colors after putting Dale | Sports News

Corey Day has acknowledged that he’s coping with an quantity of criticism that he’s not but used to after crashing with Connor Zilisch in latest weeks, together with a number of JR Motorsports drivers.

Day and Zilisch are thought-about two of the brightest younger drivers within the sport and future NASCAR Cup Series whereas competing towards one another within the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. At COTA final weekend, Day ended Zilisch’s race with a transfer that has been deemed “reckless,” and Dale Earnhardt Jr. — who co-owns JR Motorsports — criticized him.

Earnhardt — who used to drive for Day’s present group, Hendrick Motorsports — additionally admitted that the 20-year-old is putting him in a robust place.

Speaking about his incidents on SiriusXM, Day didn’t apologize or take a lot accountability — as an alternative, he insisted his crashes are “growing pains.”

He mentioned: “I’ve never had to deal with any of this off the racetrack. I would say the sprint car world, the dirt world is a lot smaller, obviously, and a lot less on social media and there’s a lot less going on that side of things. So, yeah, it’s something I’ve never had to deal with.

“I wish to assume I used to be a fairly clean man in grime. I by no means actually brought on too many wrecks or issues, or had issues with different people. But I’ve completed it for eight years now, and I’m on the level the place I can race on the highest degree and be that approach, proper? I’m not a new man like I’m right here.

“Yeah, I’m positively getting everybody’s opinion on how to deal with myself off the monitor and like I mentioned, it’s simply stuff I’ve by no means handled. It’s simply growing pains, proper? I’m racing on the highest degree, and I’m a rookie. So, it’s stuff that’s gonna occur, sadly.”

Earnhardt has a close relationship with Rick Hendrick and their team, but admitted he had to speak to them about Day’s driving after Zilisch’s recent race was ruined.

Speaking on Day, Earnhardt said: “He is a good man… he isn’t in over his head, however dude is consuming from a firehose. He’s bought a lot of racecar.”

He added: “This is a very robust state of affairs to be in for me. Day has a ton of expertise… He’s bought a lot of race car. He didn’t undergo the esses and go ‘Man, I’ma simply clean this No. 1 car out.’ But he’s in control of the car, and he has to understand 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 in order that it doesn’t trigger that accident, proper? 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.”