“Talking about Corey Day, talking about silly season’s kind of ramping up, now you hear a lot of sh*t, I would have thought Corey Day was a year away from getting in the 48 car or at least getting a chance to get in the 48 car. I think that there are some serious conversations of whether he might get in that car next year now,” Freddie Kraft said recently on the Door Bumper Clear podcast, igniting fresh rumors around Corey Day and a possible move to Hendrick Motorsports. And while the speculation around Rick Hendrick’s reported multi-million dollar investment keeps growing louder, Day himself isn’t exactly feeding the fire publicly. Here’s what Corey Day had to say when asked about it directly.
Corey Day refuses to fuel HMS rumors
“I’m just doing all I can to focus on getting as good as I can this year,” Corey Day said recently when asked about the growing speculation surrounding a possible move to Hendrick Motorsports and the Cup Series in 2027. It was a careful, measured answer from a driver suddenly finding himself at the center of NASCAR’s silly season rumors.
While NASCAR no longer publicly reveals driver salaries, Hendrick Motorsports has long been viewed as one of the sport’s financial heavyweights. Around the garage, it is widely speculated that HMS Cup drivers operate around an $8 million base salary range before sponsorship incentives and bonuses are added, which only adds more intrigue whenever a young prospect gets linked to one of Rick Hendrick’s seats.
And right now, most of those rumors center around Alex Bowman. Bowman is currently in the final year of his contract with HMS, and his long stretch of poor performances has only intensified questions about the future of the No. 48 team. Bowman last won a race way back in 2024. The 2025 season was unimpressive, with him eventually finishing 13th and having zero wins in the season.
Corey Day tight-lipped answering a question on his future and Cup readiness. There was a rumor this week that he could take over the 48 car at Hendrick in 2027.
“I’m just doing all I can to focus on getting as good as I can this year.” pic.twitter.com/1j8FaHMsOs
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) May 16, 2026
The 2026 season has been especially rough. Earlier this year, Bowman missed races dealing with vertigo symptoms before eventually returning to competition. Even after coming back, the consistency simply hasn’t been there, while his teammates continue operating near the front of the field almost weekly.
That is where Corey Day’s rapid rise suddenly becomes impossible to ignore. The 20-year-old has quietly put together one of the strongest development seasons in NASCAR this year. Day currently sits fourth in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings, already collecting ten top-10 finishes and five top-fives through the opening stretch of the season. He broke through with a win at Talladega three weeks ago and backed it up again yesterday at Dover.
So while Day continues staying “tight lipped” publicly, the noise around him inside the NASCAR garage only keeps getting louder.
Day’s Dover dash
Corey Day now has two wins in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series after delivering another statement drive at Dover on Saturday. Driving the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Day spent most of the afternoon chasing down Justin Allgaier rather than controlling the race outright. In fact, he did not lead a single lap until the closing moments. But with four laps remaining, everything changed.
As Day and Allgaier approached the lapped car of Blake Lothian, hesitation from the slower traffic opened the door just enough for Day to capitalize. The young HMS prospect aggressively attacked the gap, completed the pass for the lead, and immediately pulled away to secure the victory.
After the checkered flag, cameras even caught Allgaier speaking with Lothian in what many interpreted as a teaching moment after the indecision during traffic directly influenced the outcome. Behind Day and Allgaier, Sam Mayer finished third, followed by William Sawalich in fourth and Austin Hill in fifth.
“Yeah, it’s super fulfilling. I just owe it to my 17 guys, you know, we really were not good there early in the race,” Corey Day said afterward. “Kind of struggled in the bottom the whole entire race and when it moved up, we’d be okay, but definitely not as good as we were at the end there.”
What stood out most was not just the win itself, but how patient and composed Corey Day looked while earning it. He waited for the opportunity, attacked at exactly the right moment, and closed the race like a veteran. And as the victories continue piling up, so do the conversations about where Rick Hendrick may eventually place one of NASCAR’s fastest-rising young talents.
