Hendrick Motorsports development driver Corey Day seems to have taken a liking to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The Clovis, California-native captured the pole position for Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series event at the mile-and-a-half racetrack in Las Vegas, Nevada, and his third pole across NASCAR’s National Series – two of which have been at Las Vegas.
Piloting the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro, Day posted a lap time of 29.858 seconds (180.456mph) to earn the top spot in qualifying over Sheldon Creed, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series points leader out of the Haas Factory Team, by just under two-hundredths of a second.
Last Fall’s event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, while Day was still running a partial schedule for Hendrick Motorsports, marked the first-ever top-five finish for the sprint car racer-turned NASCAR driver. The track also produced his first-ever pole in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series in Spring 2025.
“It’s definitely nice, for sure. I don’t think we’ve ever started inside the top eight here before, if I’m not mistaken,” Day said after his qualifying lap. “So yeah, it’s a good job by my guys there. I feel like we’ve always struggled a little bit in qualifying here with the balance, and we did it about as good as we could out there.”
Sheldon Creed, who spent the morning in the news with his move to Sam Hunt Racing for 2027, will start from the outside of the front row in the No. 00, with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Brandon Jones, Brent Crews, and Taylor Gray completing the top-five.
Rajah Caruth will roll from sixth in the No. 88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, with Justin Allgaier in seventh, Sam Mayer in eighth, Carson Kvapil ninth, and Jesse Love rounding out the top-10.
Harrison Burton, driving the No. 24 Toyota GR Supra for Sam Hunt Racing, was the highest qualifying entry not in either the Driver’s or Owner’s Championship. Other Chase-eligible drivers starting outside the top-10 include Austin Hill (12th), Parker Retzlaff (17th), and Sammy Smith (23rd).
William Sawalich will start shotgun on the field after having to go to the garage during practice from Las Vegas, which meant he couldn’t make a qualifying run.
Photo: Rory Malloy
