There are always rivalries worth watching in NASCAR, but one in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series is quickly becoming hard to ignore. It pits a championship contender against a driver who isn’t even in the Chase, with Hendrick Motorsports’ Corey Day and Joe Gibbs Racing’s William Sawalich continuing to add fuel to their feud. A week after their clash at Daytona, tensions boiled over again in Darlington.
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On Lap 68 of the Fleetio 200 on Saturday, Sawalich in the No. 18 JGR Toyota was ahead of Day in the No. 17 HMS Chevrolet, and the HMS car was quicker and on fresher tires than the JGR. Day attempted to use the outside line to make the pass on Sawalich, who left him little less than a car’s width to the wall.
Day didn’t slow up and tried to fit into that hole and ended up tapping Sawalich’s rear right, sending the JGR driver into the outside wall before the Toyota bounced back in front of Day with more contact, sending Sawalich down toward the inside wall.
On the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Freddie Kraft, Tommy Baldwin and Jamie McMurray broke down the incident, and all of them agreed that it was more on Sawalich than Day.
“Corey, he’s made his mistakes; there’s no doubt,” said McMurray, a former Cup Series driver. “And Rick has definitely sat him down. And I feel like it’s been significantly better since COTA, when that all happened. In this case, I mean, people get hip-checked and turned into at Darlington about every third lap.
“That’s what happens when you pass there. But definitely, the 18 just decided to clear himself. I don’t know if he was gonna try to, like, door him or what, but he just wrecked himself on the back stretch.”
This isn’t the first time the two young drivers have gone bumper to bumper. Tensions have been building all season, with Day’s aggressive racing style often leaving Sawalich with little room on restarts and costing the JGR driver valuable positions.
In Daytona, at the regular-season finale, Sawalich was caught up in a multi-car crash that ended his race and knocked him out of Chase contention. The wreck began when contact between Day and Anthony Alfredo sent Sammy Smith spinning into Sawalich’s path. It ended Sawalich’s postseason hopes and set the stage for their confrontation at Darlington.
While the second incident is not directly between the two drivers, the one in COTA is what Day believes has led to Sawalich not giving him enough room and racing him aggressively through the season. Day said that he is over it and that he would race each driver on the basis of how they raced him.
After the race in Darlington, Day and Sawalich had an intense conversation. Day said he tried to explain his side and told Sawalich that he needed to take some responsibility for the incident, but Sawalich wasn’t interested. “He told me to go f*** myself,” Day said, describing how the conversation ended.
Although a year younger, 19-year-old William Sawalich has more experience than Day. The 20-year-old HMS driver has made 36 starts in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, while Sawalich is up to 59. This is Sawalich’s second full season in the series, while it’s Day’s first.
Sawalich wasn’t happy with what happened at Darlington, and given that he’s not in the Chase, he made a threat to Day that could prove costly for the HMS driver.
“He threatened to wreck me and said, ‘We’ll see how the rest of your chase goes,’” said Day on the pit road of the Darlington Raceway. “I don’t doubt that he will wreck me or whatever the case in one of these races where it means obviously a lot to me and nothing to him, so yeah. If that happens, I really won’t be surprised.”
On the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Baldwin argued that Sawalich needs to calm down, pointing out that his name seems to come up far too often when questionable incidents occur. He added that the JGR driver has a fast car but is losing positions too frequently by getting caught up in these incidents, with those lost opportunities ultimately contributing to Sawalich missing the Chase cutoff.
Freddie Kraft issues a warning to Sawalich, and it’s one he needs to consider taking seriously.
“This is just my opinion; you can’t miss the Chase two years in a row in a Gibbs car in that series,” said Kraft, knowing how JGR views missed opportunities.
Another interesting point Kraft made was that if Sawalich tries to pay Day back in the very next race, it won’t create a good impression of him and could even lead to a penalty.