Corey Day Proving Doubters Wrong; Takes First Career O'Reilly Pole

I feel like the questions swirling early in the season about whether Corey Day is deserving of a full-time NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series ride with Hendrick Motorsports should be completely quiet, now. Day, who has been one of the most consistent drivers in the series this season, after a couple of rocky races to start the campaign, took his first career pole position in Friday's qualifying session at Rockingham Speedway.

Day ripped off a 22.717-second (148.963 mph) lap time in qualifying, which allowed him to best Jesse Love, the defending series champion, by 0.064 seconds to secure his first-ever pole position, and it comes in Love's 19th career start.

Heading into the eighth race of his championship defense, Love will have his eyes set on claiming his first win of the 2026 season. Love initially won this event at Rockingham a season ago, but was disqualified from the win in post-race inspection. Love would love to avenge that disappointment.

Parker Retzlaff, who started second and finished second in this race a year ago, will start from the third position this time around, in his first season with Viking Motorsports. The driver of the No. 99 Chevrolet continues what has been an impressive start to the season.

Justin Allgaier, who comes into this race with two consecutive wins and three wins over his last four starts, will roll from the starting grid in the fourth position on Saturday afternoon.

Carson Kvapil, Allgaier's JR Motorsports teammate, was able to secure the fifth starting spot, as he continues to chug through a full-time campaign, which has seen him split time between multiple rides this season.

Taylor Gray, Sam Mayer, Brandon Jones, Sheldon Creed, and Brent Crews rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Saturday's North Carolina Education Lottery 250 at Rockingham.

Cleetus McFarland, making his NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series debut, will start deep in the field, as he was only able to muster the 35th-fastest lap time in the session. McFarland, a YouTube personality, is driving the No. 33 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.

Official NC Education Lottery 250 Starting Lineup

1. 17-Corey Day
2. 2-Jesse Love
3. 99-Parker Retzlaff
4. 7-Justin Allgaier
5. 1-Carson Kvapil
6. 54-Taylor Gray
7. 41-Sam Mayer
8. 20-Brandon Jones
9. 00-Sheldon Creed
10. 19-Brent Crews
11. 21-Austin Hill
12. 39-Ryan Sieg
13. 88-Rajah Caruth
14. 18-William Sawalich
15. 96-Anthony Alfredo
16. 24-Harrison Burton
17. 51-Jeremy Clements
18. 26-Dean Thompson
19. 8-Sammy Smith
20. 45-Lavar Scott
21. 28-Kyle Sieg
22. 48-Patrick Staropoli
23. 87-Austin Green
24. 44-Brennan Poole
25. 92-Josh Williams
26. 42-Nathan Byrd
27. 31-Blaine Perkins
28. 5-JJ Yeley
29. 27-Jeb Burton
30. 91-Alex Labbe
31. 32-Andrew Patterson
32. 02-Ryan Ellis
33. 07-Josh Bilicki
34. 74-Dawson Cram
35. 33-Cleetus McFarland
36. 35-Joey Gase
37. 55-Blake Lothian
38. 0-Garrett Smithley