Corey Day has already gained valuable experience in his first-ever O’Reilly Series campaign this year. However, his latest outing in Darlington has raised questions about whether he is ready for a Cup Series run in the near future. Denny Hamlin, for one, feels that Rick Hendrick’s protege has a lot left to learn, and to support that, the No. 11 driver pointed to a clear sign.

“You could just definitely see there’s still some growing to be had there. People make arguments about, you know, the 48 car and who’s the right guy, who’s the wrong guy that got in that. Like, it clearly shows Corey Day’s got like a long way to go to like be ready to race on Sundays, in my opinion,” Hamlin shared on the Actions Detrimental podcast on the William Sawalich-Corey Day incident at Darlington Raceway.

It unfolded early in Stage 2 after the two drivers had already made contact and continued racing aggressively. On lap 68, Day went to the inside of Sawalich, and the two made contact again. Their cars continued to cross paths over the next few moments, with Day’s nose and Sawalich’s bumper coming together several times. The repeated contact eventually left Sawalich’s No. 18 Toyota badly damaged.

Both drivers spoke after the race, but they offered very different explanations for what happened. Day believed he was simply responding to how Sawalich had raced him moments earlier, as said in a post-race interview.

“Two or three laps before, he ran me out of room into [turn] 1, and I did the same thing to him,” Day said. “I still had the run, so I go to take it to the outside of him. I’m there, and he starts coming up on me. So it’s either I fence myself or lift or kill my run, or I finish a guy off that’s been driving me like that all year.”

Sawalich saw it differently. He claimed Day had already pushed him toward the wall before the contact that ended his race.

“He ran me up basically almost into the wall,” Sawalich told Frontstretch. “I kind of checked him so he wouldn’t hit me into the wall and then got clear of him, what I thought, off of [turn] 2, and then he just kind of didn’t lift through my back bumper and had me turning right, and that’s kind of why I went right toward the wall to his bumper.”

The two drivers eventually spoke after the race, although the conversation did little to settle the matter. When Day was asked how it ended, his answer was blunt.

“He told me to go f*** myself, so I think that’s where we’re at,” Day told journalist Tim Moore.

That sequence appears to be what caught Hamlin’s attention. His criticism was not necessarily about one isolated mistake. Instead, it pointed toward the larger question of whether Day has developed the racecraft and the mindset needed to compete against Cup Series veterans.

Hamlin’s point can be viewed through the lens of maturity. Day had a chance to put the earlier contact behind him and focus on maximizing his own race. Instead, the continued battle with Sawalich eventually turned into multiple incidents that put both drivers at risk.

For a young driver trying to establish himself, knowing when to fight and when to move on is an important part of racecraft. Plus, the way things were handled off-track could also have been better. The speed may be there, but learning to manage those heated situations could be just as important to Day’s development.

Day has risen quickly through NASCAR’s ranks, making his Truck Series debut in 2024 before signing a multi-year deal with Hendrick Motorsports for the then O’Reilly Series beginning in 2025. With his name already linked to a potential Cup opportunity in 2028, every incident becomes part of the evaluation.

There were rumors earlier this year that Day could eventually replace Alex Bowman at Hendrick Motorsports. However, with Connor Zilisch confirmed for that seat after Bowman retires in 2028, speculation has shifted toward another organization.

Spire Motorsports could be a logical destination because of its partnership with Hendrick. Former Cup Series champ Kevin Harvick recently addressed the possibility of Day moving to another Cup car to gain experience.

“We hear a lot of rumors that he could go into a different car to get experience on the Cup side,” Harvick said on SPEED with Harvick and Burton. “It will be interesting to see if Corey Day is placed at [Spire Motorsports] or somewhere that he has the opportunity to get some laps and see if he’s ready.”

Darlington was not the perfect Cup Series audition for Day. Sawalich tried to continue after the contact with Day, but eventually had to retire. He finished 30th, 41 laps down. Day, meanwhile, somehow salvaged a remarkable result. His No. 17 Chevrolet suffered major damage to both fenders, yet he recovered to finish second in Stage 2 and remained inside the top five for the rest of the night.

He ultimately crossed the finish line second and moved two positions to fifth in the Chase standings. The result showed Day’s ability to recover. But Hamlin believes the incident showed there is still another part of his development that cannot be ignored.