Corey Day: William Sawalich 'Told Me to Go F--- Myself'

After a mid-race crash with William Sawalich at Darlington, Corey Day, a championship contender, will likely have to watch his back for the rest of the Chase.

Sep 5, 2026; Darlington, South Carolina, USA; Joe Gibbs Racing driver William Sawalich (18) pulls alongside Hendrick Motorsports driver Corey Day (17) during a caution after the two collided during the Fleetio 200 at Darlington Raceway. Jim Dedmon | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Tempers flared in the opening race of the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase for the championship between a championship contender, Corey Day, and one of the drivers who narrowly missed the Chase, William Sawalich.

While Day would go on to finish runner-up in the race, bolstering his bid for the championship, as he moved from seventh to fifth in the Chase Grid at the end of Saturday night's Fleetio 200 at Darlington Raceway, the Hendrick Motorsports driver didn't get there without controversy.

On Lap 68, Day seemingly ran out of patience and got into William Sawalich, which sent Sawalich's No. 18 Toyota into the outside wall. As Sawalich hit the wall, Day's No. 17 Chevrolet got into Sawalich's car once again and sent Sawalich spinning.

.@WilliamSawalich hits the wall to bring out the caution. pic.twitter.com/YV8VDrVzTM

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Sawalich, who saw his race come to an end 41 laps shy of the finish, got dressed into street clothes, stuck around, and confronted Day on pit road after the race was over.

.@corey_day_ and @WilliamSawalich have some words after the race at @TooToughToTame.

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After several minutes of heated discussion on pit road, Day conducted his post-race interviews with the media, where he opened up about the incident and the conversation with Sawalich.

According to Day, the reason his move, which caused the crash, seemed overly aggressive is due to the fact that he and Sawalich have driven each other dirty all season long, and prior to the incident, he took exception to how Sawalich had run him on the track.

"Obviously, the first couple of weeks of the year, we had some run-ins, and some things that I've owned up to and apologized to him about. And I feel like all year long, he still races me like I wreck him every week," Day explained. "He doesn't ever -- he'll go pass someone clean in front of me, but before that, he was running me out of room, and packing air on me."

Day said that in their conversation, Sawalich threatened to exact revenge by crashing him in a race during the Chase.

"He threatened to wreck me, and said, 'We'll see how the rest of your Chase goes.' And yeah, I don't doubt that he will wreck me or whatever the case in one of these races where it obviously means a lot to me, and nothing to him. Yeah, if that happens, I really won't be surprised at all. But I tried to plead my case, and why I feel the way I feel, and why he's to blame for some of this as well, and he doesn't see my side of it in the slightest."

Day continued, "He told me to go f--- myself, so, I think that's where we're at."

Sawalich, who felt he had possibly the second-fastest car on the track late in the race, was upset to get crashed from the race by his rival, and even more upset that the argument Day made in the conversation after the race was an attempt to point the finger back at Sawalich.

"Just hate it for our 18 guys, we had a really fast car. We were faster than basically everybody but [Sheldon Creed]. I think we were able to pass everybody but him. So, they brought a really great car. I hate that it got that damage and we had that incident. I don't know; his argument just didn't really make sense," Sawalich said. "We'll see."

As for what happened in the incident, Sawalich said, "[Day] ran me up basically almost into the wall. I kind of checked him so he wouldn't hit me into the wall. And then, got cleared of him, or I thought, off of [Turn] 2, and then he just didn't lift through my back bumper, and had me turning right, and that's kind of why I went to the wall towards his bumper. And he said I ran him into the wall earlier in the race, too. I don't really know. It sucks."

Whether Sawalich actually exacts his revenge on Day remains to be seen, but the driver of the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet will likely drive with that thought in the back of his head for the remainder of the season until Sawalich does it. If he doesn't, perhaps Day will carry the thought that he has one owed to him into next season.

Either way, on a night where he came away with a runner-up finish, Day possibly hampered his championship hopes by reigniting a fued with Sawalich at Darlington.