Pit road miscues doom Corey Day at Rockingham

What could've been forever marked as the day Corey Day scored his first career NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series victory instead turned into a day where Day and the No. 17 team are wondering what could've been. 

Day, a 20-year-old NOAPS rookie driving for Hendrick Motorsports, won the pole and swept the first two stages in a dominant performance. Over the first half of the race, there wasn't a driver or car capable of touching Day's No. 17 Chevrolet. 

Pit road miscues doom Corey Day's chances of winning

Unfortunately for Day, his pit crew quickly brought him back to earth. 

Day lost five spots just before the start of stage 3 after a slow pit stop and fell outside the top-10 on his next trip down pit road. The next time Day came down pit lane, he was forced to make an extra stop so his pit crew could get all of his lug nuts tight. 

That combination of crippling errors saw Day nearly fall outside the top-20, though he did claw his way back into the top-15 and barely nipped Austin Hill for 10th at the checkered flag. 

Still, it was a somewhat disappointing result for Day on an afternoon that could've yielded so much more. Day is now fifth in the O'Reilly Series standings through eight races and has seven consecutive top-10 finishes.