Corey Day has now finished fourth twice in his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts career, but his journey there on Saturday was a messy one.
It started with, Ryan Sieg, who was hoping to carry momentum over from a solid season-opener where he finished third at Daytona. However, his day came to an abrupt end after just five laps into the Atlanta NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts (NOAPS) race.
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Day tried to get underneath Sieg exiting Turn 4, taking him three-wide up the middle. However, he quickly ran out of room and Sieg got sent up the track, slamming into the outside wall. Harrison Burton, Blaine Perkins, and Ryan’s brother Kyle Sieg all plowed into the accident, suffering heavy damage. Patrick Staropoli also got a piece of it.
Ryan Sieg crash
Ryan Sieg crash
After being released from the infield care center, Sieg, who operates as an independent driver/owner, was still heated over the incident.
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“Yeah, it’s lap three, I think,” he told The CW. “So, we’re just riding, just kind of staying in the line, trying to get our line going, and then he’s got somewhat of a hole, and he just goes in it … I mean, what’s the point? It’s lap three. that’s just his normal race anyways, tearing up cars. He’s like that. At Martinsville, he only wrecked 15 times in one lap. So, I mean, last week he did that about four or five times at Daytona, so here we are again on lap three, just not smart.”
However, that wasn’t Day’s last run-in of the night. Later in the race with 59 laps to go, he was battling Carson Kvapil for the lead when he pushed up the track, triggering a three-car crash at the very front of the field. Both Kvapil and Justin Allgaier were unable to continue.
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“You know, you’re in those moments and I don’t know what caused the events that kind of put us in there,” said Allgaier. “But you know, you’re just riding along and unfortunately … the only option was to go low and I knew there was cars below us. But just that little bit of damage was enough to to break some suspension parts. So I hate it for our team I had it for everybody at JR Motorsports.
Added Kvapil: “Just was controlling the race there, trying to control the top line, and the #17 got free under me and launched up into us, and I thought I was going to have it saved, and slapped the right front and took the suspension out, so just hated this whole team, these guys brought me a really fast race car, and just didn’t get to the end.”
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Day radioed that he had a tire going down, but it was another rocky chapter in a wild race for the rookie driver. He fell a lap down, but earned the free pass and drove back up inside the top ten. As chaos unfolded in the final laps, he managed to get all the way up to fourth — matching his previous best from Las Vegas last fall.
“No I can’t (believe it),” said Day about how his day ended up. “Our sway bar was broke there after the contact with the #1 (Kvapil) and the #7 (Allgaier). I thought we were done after that, but we fired off with with really good pace after that. At the beginning of the race, I don’t think things really worked out for me. I feel like I would move to the bottom at the wrong time, move to the top at the wrong time, and just kind of get shucked to the back. There at the end, I feel like I kind of played my cards good.”
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