In first sprint car race in five-months, Day takes lead late to win High Limit Season Opener at Las Vegas dirt track
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Las Vegas-Corey Day has done a lot in the last five months. But when it’s all over, he still loves to be in a winged 410 sprint car.
On Saturday night, Day won his first race back in a Jason Meyers-owned sprint car by winning the Kubota High Limit Racing season-opener at the dirt track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Day is fresh off of his first start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series this season where he finished 27th after starting on the pole as part of his development deal with powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports.
“Yeah, it’s super cool, especially on this busier weekend,” Day said. “I didn’t know how it’s gonna go running both and being able to be successful in both. I knew I could do it physically and mentally, just didn’t know if I was going to be able to win or come close. So just super glad it worked out, you know, grateful for a great race car and a great team behind this one. It’s definitely, it’s a different team than I had last year. They’re on that other 14, and I got a new one on this 14 this year. So super glad it worked out. Our race cars just as fast as we we left at the end of the year. So that’s that’s definitely encouraging as well.
The 19-year-old from Clovis took the lead on lap 24 when Daryn Pittman fell off the pace. This was also his 8th career win with High Limit Racing. He also takes home a nice $25,000 payday with the win.
“Right in the time of the track was changing as well to the bottom was finally cleaning off, and I was running him down slowly there,” Day explained of his lap 24 pass where he git the lead and never looked back. “But he’s just still really, really good in clean air. I don’t think anyone would have been able to beat him. So yeah, I was glad to see him run out of fuel. I’m sure it’s the complete opposite for him and his guys. They brought a really fast race car. So that sucks, of course, but got to put enough fuel in.”
Throughout the evening, Day also maximized everything. He was second quickest in flight A qualifying, which put him in a position to qualify for the dash. In that dash, he went from third to second to get a front-row starting spot in the main event.
Finishing second was Kyle Larson. In his Silva Motorsports 57, he went fastest in flight A qualifying and advanced to the main event by way of finishing in a transfer position that sent him to the dash. He gained two spots in the dash to lock up a top spot in the main event.
“I was thankful for the caution, but I knew it’d be tough, with just a five-lap shoot out to be in there,” Larson said of the final caution after Pittman ran out of fuel. “So yeah, I would need the bottom to kind of slick off, and it was just getting better. I tried what I could, but it was gonna be tough.”
But maybe the biggest winner with the track slicking off and becoming technical was defending Kubota High Limit Racing champion Brad Sweet who drove from 11th to 3rd. He was able to use some of his past experience at the Las Vegas dirt track to drive through the field in his Kasey Kahne Racing Napa Auto Parts 49 car.
“That’s just a lot of experience, and got the car good,” Sweet explained. “Handling good in traffic, and was able to make a couple good moves, and restarts were really challenging. But I just think ultimately, when you have a good car, sometimes you can make up a lot of ground on those restarts. And tonight we did, and kind of got into eighth, and got into sixth, and then I was able to make a move and kind of got up into that top four. And once you kind of get up there, you can, you can make moves a lot easier.
In the main event, 27 cars started. The high mark set last season was with 28 at Placerville. Full-time High Rollers Tanner Thorson, Sye Lynch, and Chase Randall all took provisionals to bring the field to that size.
This was also the first national touring sprint car race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway dirt track since 2019 when the World of Outlaws last visited. With it being after the NASCAR Xfinity Series race, there was a good turnout and lots of new fans who had never been to a sprint car race before. This also comes after winds and then the truck race running long caused the Thursday show to be canceled.
“I mean, obviously the fans were here and cheering us on, and you could feel that there’s a great crowd and a lot of energy,” said Sweet who is part owner of High Limit. “So it’s just nice to get a night of racing in. I know a lot of hard work’s gone into this weekend, and weather didn’t play nice, but we finished on a strong note, and that’s all you can ask for.”
Larson also agreed that it was nice to return to the dirt track on NASCAR weekend with the series that he co-owns.
“I thought it was a great atmosphere,” he explained. “I thought with the NASCAR race being here, the crowd was awesome. The weather today is great too. A little bit cold, but nothing like the last couple days.”
Kubota High Limit Racing will be back in action on Wednesday night from Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare.
