Saturday's NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race at the Naval Base Coronado saw a red flag for around 45 minutes after the first lap, as a loose manhole cover struck Corey Day's car and damaged it. NASCAR red-flagged the race to repair the track, causing a delay.

Tommy Baldwin Jr., the Competition Director of the NASCAR Cup Series team, Rick Ware Racing, apparently saw a loose manhole cover on the track that morning. However, he missed out on informing the officials, as he recalled while having a conversation on the "Door, Bumper, Clear" podcast. He said:

"So, earlier that morning, I'm out on the track, and we're looking at some stuff because they changed some stuff, and I see this manhole cover. It's marked "weld," and there's two pieces of tape."

"And where it's welded is obviously the direction of the car, so I'm like… and Slugger (Slugger Labbe of Toyota Racing Development) was with me, and I'm like, 'Slug, this thing's not Welded, so we go about our stuff, and I forgot to tell the officials," he added.

Following this, the hosts and other guests of the show jokingly held him responsible for the incident. "So, this was your fault," to "You could've stopped that!", they went on to poke Baldwin Jr.

However, he then revealed a twist in the story, that the manhole cover he had spotted wasn't the one that caused the incident.

"So I'm sitting there, I'm sitting there watching the race, and I text Slug, I said, 'Holy s***, man, this could've been prevented, this was me. And now I'm getting bashed on our little group that we have, group chat, you know, and finally I'm like, 'Slug, you could've said something too. I told him the whole story, and he goes, 'That wasn't the cover, Tommy. You're okay.' I'm like, 'Thank god!" Baldwin Jr. added.

Corey Day elated with San Diego result despite unexpected issues

Corey Day started the race from the back of the pack after a crash during the qualifying on Friday. Having started from behind, the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports driver was cautious about early wrecks, but it did not matter.

After damaging his car's radiator, oil cooler, and several other parts after the contact with the manhole cover, Day's expectation of a good finish seemed a distant dream. Fortunately, NASCAR allowed HMS to make repairs to his car under the red flag, and he eventually finished the race in 10th.

"Pretty unbelievable there," Day told Fronstretch post-race. "I think it would have been, you know, we were close to the top five there, too. So, man. This team is unbelievable. I mean, manhole cover through the radiator and the oil cooler, pit penalty, get turned, have damage, fix it, bad pit stop, fix it, and get back out, all good. I mean, it's unbelievable."

Besides the manhole cover issue, Day also had to go through a bad pit stop, where he lost a chunk of time. In the end, he managed to come home with 34 points. Not bad for such a negatively eventful race.

Follow the RFK Racing Digest for more updates!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Yash Kotak