Corey Day is not the ‘star rookie’ in the eyes of NASCAR fans. His aggressive moves and irrational clashes with his teammates are creating a bad reputation for his name. But Day believes that these situations are a given, considering that he is a rookie in the sport. In his latest interview with SiriusXM, he reveals that handling public criticism is something he’s experiencing for the first time.

Corey Day distances himself from dirty racing allegations

A big gripe that the fans and fellow racers in the garage have with Corey Day is that he is way too aggressive on track. In his interview, Day denies such allegations, citing his experience in the grassroots series.

“I like to think I was a pretty clean guy in dirt. I never really caused too many wrecks or problems for other people. But I have done it for eight years now; I am at the point where I can race at the highest level and be that way right. I am not a new guy like I am here.”

In his eyes, the opinions of other people are necessary. But it’s not something that he can entirely avoid. He attributes it to the nature of racing and his current standing in the sport.

“I am definitely getting everyone’s opinion on how to handle myself. It’s just stuff that I have never had to deal with, and it’s just growing pains. I am racing at the highest level, and I am a rookie, so it’s stuff that’s going to happen, unfortunately.”

However, it is much different for him compared to his racing days in the grassroots series. As he recounts, he never really faced such a critique early in his career. Day believes that it is only because the sprint car or dirt community is not that popular on social media.

In his eyes, the opportunity that NASCAR has brought him has also left him exposed to trolls and multiple varying opinions.

While he does not mind these other opinions, there is something that he does need to keep in mind. His mentor at JR Motorsports, Dale Jr., had some stern advice for him.

Corey Day might believe that he is racing cleanly. However, as Dale Jr. reminds, he can’t go against his own teammate and leave his team in a difficult spot. He needs to curb his aggression and work for the team, not against it. For now, Day might need to pay some more attention to it.

While he continues to work on his debut O’Reilly season, veterans are already raising questions about his seat.

Denny Hamlin renders Corey Day a failed experiment

Denny Hamlin did not hold back on Corey Day. While there are comparisons between Corey Day and Carson Hocevar, Hamlin took it a step further.

He relegates Corey Day to someone worse than Hocevar. Because in his eyes, Day only makes contact, and his aggression has no goal or ideals. It is purely a mistake that he keeps making out of ego.

“How long does the experiment continue to go? I mean you’ve seen good runs out of him. I haven’t seen a lot of great runs out of him. You’ve seen more mistakes than you’ve seen great runs. And like when I say mistakes, I mean big old blatant mistakes. And every weekend there are some guys that are upset.”

Hamlin was referring to the multiple incidents in which Day ended up wrecking other drivers. Not only that, but last weekend, Day left Connor Zilisch furious about their contact at the Circuit of the Americas.

“We were going to finish in the top 5, but it’s the same guy every week that does this. So hopefully, he can figure it out… All I want is an apology, but the guy just stands over there and stares at me. It just makes it worse.”

For now, it is clear that a big jump from dirt racing to NASCAR is not going well for Corey Day. Even the driver himself admits it in his latest interview. It seems like he might need training in more than one aspect of NASCAR with Hendrick Motorsports and Dale Jr.