Corey Day's debut win in the Talladega O'Reilly race has brought him to the forefront of Cup Series speculation. There are talks about him going to Hendrick Motorsports if seats open up. Addressing it, Denny Hamlin, a NASCAR veteran, shared his thoughts and asked for patience.

“Corey didn’t put a steering wheel wrong coming to the checkered,” Hamlin said in the recent Actions Detrimental podcast. Following this, he highlighted how the teams need to have patience with the young driver.

When asked about the same directly whether Day could move up to the Cup next year, Hamlin said: “Oh man, that would be quick. I wouldn’t advise that.”

Notably, Day was at Hendrick Motorsports in 2024 with a development deal in place, and as a result, there are ample links of him moving to a Cup car. The links strengthened after Connor Zilisch landed himself a Cup ride just a year after the NOAPS full-time season.

And Zilisch is a suitable example of why having patience with Day would make sense. Zilisch claimed 11 wins last year in NOAPS, but after switching to the Cup Series, he picked up the third-lowest average finish (27.0) and fourth-lowest starting position(28.3).

The point is even though Zilisch dominated at a lower level, the Cup Series is a totally different game, and Day's early move could backfire in the same way like it did for Zilisch.

And while Hamlin advised patience with Corey Day, he did not forget to confront Stephen A Smith on his recent controversial statement.

Denny Hamlin confronts ESPN analyst over NASCAR statement

Joe Gibbs Racing star, Denny Hamlin, shared his thoughts on Stephen A Smith's recent statement that NASCAR drivers cannot be considered athletes. The #11 driver explained how the NASCAR drivers fit into the 'athlete' criteria.

“I say yes,” Hamlin said in the recent Actions Detrimental episode. “When you train for a specific sport for most of your life, your body gets trained to be able to do that. Jared or you, you would not be able to sit in that car and do what we do, turn that wheel, sit in that heat, maintain the g-forces.”

With this, he also explained how the drivers are trained specifically for higher speeds, which looks impossible for a normal human to do. Along with NASCAR, Smith had also targeted Golf players.

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Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason