LEEDS, Ala. — Corey Day has been one of the busiest drivers in the country this season.
The 19-year-old Californian has won seven winged sprint car features and also raced in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, ARCA Menards Series and the Trans Am Series.
This weekend Day returns to the No. 17 Team SLR Chevrolet Camaro in Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series competition at Barber Motorsports Park.
It will be Day’s fifth Trans Am race this season and comes a week after he posted his career-best NASCAR Xfinity Series effort — a fourth-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Day, like many drivers in the field, has never raced at Barber Motorsports Park.
“It’ll be the first time there for me, just like all the places we’ve raced this year, but that’s all right,” Day explained. “Our stuff has been good off the truck all year, which is definitely helpful. I’ll have some sim work done by the time we get there, and I’ve watched a little bit of video and it seems like a cool place, pretty technical. I’m excited.”
Day feels the fact few drivers have experience at the Barber road course will be an equalizer as he adapts quickly to new race tracks.
“Yeah, for sure. That’s always a good thing for me because I’m used to showing up to a new track in a sprint car and getting three hot laps, and then you’ve got to go qualify, so I’m good at adapting quicker than probably some other guys are because of that experience,” Day said. “I think that could play into my favor, for sure, so we’ll see. That gives me confidence going into the weekend, and if our car’s close, just like it was at Mid-Ohio and Road America — where I think we had the best cars, we were fast — we should be good.”
While Day is looking for his first Trans Am victory, Team SLR has won five times and his teammate, Tristan McKee, leads the standings.
“It’s been cool to see, for sure. Tristan’s doing a really good job, and it just goes to show the team’s ability to perform,” Day said. “Scotty (Scott Lagasse Jr.) does a really good job helping us and giving us his knowledge, and he’s really smart with the mechanics of the car, too. I actually have a lot of fun racing for Scotty. He’s a pretty fun car owner to race for and he’s a great guy. It’d be really cool to get a win in only my fifth race this year.
“I know Tristan will be really good this weekend. He’s definitely got some seat time on me, but I feel like I’ve learned a lot with this road-course stuff and I’m pretty excited to give it another shot.”
Watch Sunday’s Trans Am race on SPEED SPORT 1.
