Corey Day is most known for its exploits behind the wheel of a winged Sprint Car but the 18-year-old from Clovis, California made a major statement in winning his first Chili Bowl prelim on Wednesday night.
As a result, he will race for the Golden Driller for the second time in three years, driving a 71 for Willie Kahne.
It was actually a track, and on a tire, that really suited his style for a winged racer in driving to the top to take the lead from Jake Swanson two laps into the feature.
“I swapped lanes with Jake there going down the back straightaway on the first lap and drove by him on the bottom,” Day said. “Then we had another restart, went to the bottom and I don’t know if my tire wasn’t warm enough or what the deal was but I blew it and I knew it’s time to get up to the curb.
“I was glad we had a curb like that to race on. That’s my style.”
Day stumbled on the cushion a couple of times early in a run but was able to brush it off and drive away on each consecutive restart.
He has previously won in this building but it was as a child in the Tulsa Shootout.
“It’s pretty crazy,” he said. “Last time I stood up here was for a Shootout driller in restricted six or seven years ago,” said Day. “Times have definitely changed but glad to be back up here.”
As for Swanson, it was a win in and of itself as Alex Bowman Racing crashed all three cars last year in the Chili Bowl and now they’ve responded by locking one of them in with another chance on Thursday with CJ Leary.
Kevin Thomas Jr. was eighth on the Tuesday prelim but was surely faster than that was involved in an early fender bender early in the feature.
“I’m super happy for Alex,” Swanson said. “He’s had a rough couple of years, especially last year where we tore up everything we had. It feels good to lock in for him. We did exactly what we needed to for him and I’m pumped more for him than anything.”
Swanson said Day just didn’t make many tangible mistakes.
“I needed, especially on a short run, for him to make a mistake so I could slide him,” Swanson said. “He could hit (the curb) a little bit harder than I could. My car was a little more knife’s edge.”
But it was enough to lock in — the first time Bowman has locked in through a prelim in his history coming here as a team owner.
Briggs Danner finished third and will begin his Championship Saturday from a B after finishing D15 and D14 in his first two attempts.
Day also won in a 19-year-old Mope engine built by Bob Wirth. It’s the first time a non-Toyota/Stanton engine has won a Chili Bowl prelim since Travis Berryhill won with a Ford Fontana powerplant.
A-Feature: Top 2 advance to Saturday’s A-Feature.
York Plumbing A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 41-Corey Day[2]; 2. 55A-Jake Swanson[1]; 3. 1I-Briggs Danner[5]; 4. 5U-Michael Faccinto[3]; 5. 27W-Colby Copeland[9]; 6. 71K-Kale Drake[12]; 7. 71-Jade Avedisian[6]; 8. 57-Tyler Courtney[16]; 9. 67K-Brent Crews[7]; 10. 7X-Jerry Coons Jr[15]; 11. 5D-Michael Stewart[22]; 12. 3W-Brandon Waelti[21]; 13. 83M-Rylan Gray[19]; 14. 3G-Kyle Cummins[11]; 15. 52-Blake Hahn[13]; 16. 86-Daison Pursley[10]; 17. 25M-Alex Bright[14]; 18. 60X-Garet Williamson[8]; 19. 4B-Chelby Hinton[20]; 20. 1A-Trey Osborne[17]; 21. 16C-David Camfield Jr[23]; 22. (DNF) 8J-Jonathan Beason[18]; 23. (DNF) 45S-Caleb Stelzig[24]; 24. (DNF) 19T-Mitchel Moles[4]
Lap Leader(s): Jake Swanson 1; Corey Day 2-30
Hard Charger: Michael Stewart +11
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.