Editor’s note: This is Part I of a two-part series detailing the No. 17 NASCAR Xfinity Series team and Corey Day. Part II is scheduled for publication on Oct. 15, 2025.
The No. 17 holds a special place in Rick Hendrick’s heart. It was the number that his son, Ricky, drove while competing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2000 and 2001.
With limited practice over the last handful of seasons, Hendrick Motorsports’ Cup Series drivers believed additional on-track action would benefit the entire organization. With JR Motorsports — the powerhouse Xfinity Series program co-owned by Rick — consistently fielding four full-time cars with drivers vying for the title, it would be difficult to field another entry for Cup drivers. Instead, Hendrick opted to revamp its own Xfinity program in 2022 after not competing for more than 13 years.
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“It’s an opportunity for me to get better,” 2020 Cup champion Chase Elliott said ahead of the Pocono Raceway weekend in June. “It’s an opportunity to race, and I only had one on my schedule this year, and when they talked about adding another one, I was super open to it and wanted to get involved.
“I think the car is in a really good spot, and everybody on the Xfinity side of the shop has done a really good job of getting this thing really where it needs to be. It’s been fun to be a part of that process.”
Since the start of 2024, Elliott, Kyle Larson and William Byron have all visited Victory Lane in the No. 17 entry, with a Byron triumph at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May the most recent. Up-and-coming drivers, including Corey Day and Jake Finch, in addition to Craftsman Truck Series regular Rajah Caruth, have also piloted the Chevy.
The No. 17 machine — which will compete in a total of 21 races in 2025 — is operated within the confines of Hendrick’s Concord, North Carolina, headquarters. The team is managed by 10-time Cup Series winning crew chief Greg Ives. Adam Wall, former engineer for Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet, re-joined the team in-house before the 2025 season to serve as crew chief. The program goes through a myriad of the same departments as the Cup teams. Most of its crew members, however, are separate.
“There are a lot of shared resources, and we’re hoping to bring the next 20-something-year-old engineer who is hungry and wants to move on to the Cup Series,” Jeff Andrews, Hendrick Motorsports president and general manager, said. “You look at that as a ground to grow them.
“When you go to the race track and you walk into the hauler and look at the team on pit road, it is the Hendrick way of doing things and is the Hendrick standard, which is a great opportunity for young people to get into that culture.”
Ingraining the work ethic that Hendrick Motorsports demands of its employees is crucial for the No. 17 team. NASCAR’s version of the New York Yankees is always looking to improve, searching for the next breakout driver, crew chief or pit-crew member.
“We felt like having our own car and team on campus allows the ultimate training ground for guys that have been in the Hendrick system and see the things that we do on the Cup level and put that into the Xfinity program but with more responsibilities, more pressure and see how they react and evolve in that position,” Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, said. “Ultimately, that’s what is going to get them to the succession plan that we have at Cup.
“This allows us to get that experience right here within our walls and do it at the Xfinity level and then make the natural progression to the next step, which is to do those types of positions at the Cup level. That’s drivers, crew chiefs, mechanics, engineers, you name it.”
The team’s relationship with JRM (currently in a title hunt and winners of 17 of the first 29 Xfinity races), meanwhile, remains paramount. Day and Wall accompany JRM’s competition meetings weekly to go over the previous race weekend. Having the two entities united makes both organizations thrive.
“We want to complement each other; we don’t want to be competing with them on a head-to-head basis,” Andrews said. “We want the five or six programs involved to be better because of the relationship from us running a car. Certainly, we have gotten a lot of benefit from them this year running our car. Likewise, they have as well.”
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The No. 17 car’s primary emphasis in 2025 was on enabling prospect Day to acclimate to NASCAR racing as he transitions from dirt cars to pavement. After finishing 22nd at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval last weekend, Day will return to the No. 17 car this Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He will also compete in the final two events of the season at Martinsville Speedway and Phoenix Raceway.
Logging such starts will not only give the young Day more experience but also continue strengthening the No. 17’s goal in building a talent pipeline.
“I think the competition level in [Xfinity] is good,” Andrews said. “From our perspective, it needs to grow. We need some more young talent in that series — young men and women who have their eye on the Cup Series. We feel like being a part of that and having the opportunity to bring some of those younger names to the Xfinity Series now and in the future only benefits that series.”
