Kenny Wallace thinks that Corey Day has it all laid out for him.
The biggest announcement of this season was possibly from the Chevy. With Alex Bowman's performance facing a steady decline, the rumors had already started to spin up. Bowman was bound to leave the team, and fans were arguing about the next best option. Corey Day was one of the highest-rated options among all. Yet, when the news dropped, people couldn't help but feel shocked. It was Connor Zilisch who got the No. 48 car for the 2028 season and beyond.
Now Zilisch has been the apple of the eye for GM. But nobody expected Hendrick Motorsports to go ahead and snag him away from Trackhouse Racing. Especially after the mediocre performance from Zilisch in his debut Cup championship. In doing so, HMS also angered the fans who were thinking that Corey Day was going to be Bowman's successor in the No.48 car. Nevertheless, Kenny Wallace thinks that the uproar was uncalled for because of what the future holds.
Corey Day might become the next Jeff Gordon for HMS
In motorsports, teams prefer pipelines over wild card entries. But that also means drivers need to stay patient about their career. One wrong step or word of overconfidence and they risk losing it all. The same was the case with Corey Day. At first, he was like an outcast in the NOAPS, and HMS executives had to school him about the limits.
The maturity immediately showed up when he started winning races. In fact, Corey Day was rather calm about his future when the media dumped questions on him about Zilisch's signing. Today, Day is sitting in P3 in the driver standings with back-to-back Chase wins. It shows that he is still the preferred driver for HMS. They are just letting him have all the time he can to become mature enough for the Cup Series. And Kenny Wallace agrees over it.
"It was two months ago when everybody was up in arms. How dare Rick Hendrick sign Connor Zilisch?... We all knew he was coming, but it's like he flipped the switch. He figured it out," Kenny Wallace said during the Herm and Schrader podcast.
"I think they have a clear plan in place. I think they know what Cup car he is going to. This is Jeff Gordon all over again. It is not Kyle Larson."
Maturity matters, and top teams like Hendrick Motorsports do not gamble on drivers' abilities. We are seeing the perfect example of rushing someone to Cup with Zilisch. And with a fast driver like Corey Day, it's imperative that Rick Hendrick wouldn't want any complications, especially after having Zilisch in his team from 2028.
So the driver who has the hype of Jeff Gordon might be competing with or against the driver with the pathway of Jeff Gordon. It would be an interesting matchup whenever it happens in the Cup Series.
