Ronnie Day shuttled to and from the cabinets inside the Jason Meyers Racing team’s transporter after Monday’s Front Row Challenge at Southern Iowa Speedway like a waiter serving a host of customers that loaded the tab with their latest requests.

His 17-year-old son, Corey, had just returned to the back pit area following another reputation-boosting run — on the podium with World of Outlaws travelers James McFadden and Carson Macedo — and there formed a line of fans to purchase a T-shirt … or two … or more.

“Yeah, he’s getting pretty popular,” Ronnie Day said. “He has a good following.”

Racegoers are seemingly all aboard the Day bandwagon these days, the NARC King of the West points leader and wins leader in California.

But popularity has especially risen after the top prospect flirted with victory lane last Tuesday with the High Limit Sprint Car Series at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway. And not only racegoers, but Kyle Larson, too: “He reminds me a lot of myself. … “He’s definitely the best to be in a winged Sprint Car at that age in a long time.”

It’s easy in any sport to over-hype a young athlete that has clear potential. In Day’s case, the attention he’s receiving is warranted because he’s pulling his weight against the sport’s best at an unusually young age and at racetracks he’s largely foreign to.

Monday at the Southern Iowa Fairgrounds half-mile was another example, where Day raced from 10th to third in one of the toughest exhibition events of the season. On Saturday, he charged from 15th to fourth in the Ironman 55, a night after crashing a race car.

Outside the mishap, Day has three top-four finishes against national touring fields in the last week as his Knoxville Nationals prelim night on Wednesday builds in anticipation.

“He just has the look of not a 17-year-old,” four-time WoO champion Brad Sweet said on the High Limit Room podcast last week. “He reminds me of things I’ve seen with Kyle at times with me watching. He has a long way to go. Who knows how he’ll develop. Everyone always wants to compare the new guy and the next guy.”

Development, as Sweet emphasized, is everything. And Ronnie, who had an accomplished driving career himself in California, safeguards that in regards to his son’s rise. Where there’s development, there’s a journey to behold.

“If you’re going to do this,” Ronnie tells his son pursuing a Sprint Car career, “you’re going to have to wait until after high school.”

That’s not until next spring, which means Day can’t technically hit the road full-time until 2025. In the days of online schooling and ever-growing stock, why the wait? Ronnie wants his son to simply be a kid before the days of boyhood are long gone, his full focus bound to be overtaken by the demands of chasing Sprint Car superstardom.

“The worst thing that he could tell me is, ‘Dad, I’m mad at you because you took my childhood away from me … and made me race,’” Ronnie Day said. "I don’t make him race. This is something that he wants to do.

“I would be just as content in a boat to go to the lake, or if he wanted to play baseball or soccer … he’s always had those options. It’s never been pushed on him that we have to race. I got to do this for 30 years. I could walk away from it any time. But it’s what we do as a family. We’ve sat down and had conversations about the dangers of it. We’re all good with it.”

All kinds of adjectives have been used to described Day’s driving style. Those rounding to first impressions are commonly left thinking one word: fearless.

His upbringing racing dirt bikes is responsible for that character trait. Hard falls, crashes, and broken bones never stopped him from pressing into action sports. At age 9, he broke his arm  racing dirt bikes competitively, and that was the end of his competitive motocross journey.

When Day says he fears nothing, he means it.

“Not really, no,” said Day, who then went into other skills dirt bike racing fostered. “The motorcycle helped me a lot with throttle control and a feel for the race car. On the motorcycle, everything you feel is through your ass. In the race car, it’s no different. That’s definitely helped me a lot.”

Day’s fearlessness that’s displayed in a Sprint Car is really just the adventurous side of him on a platform. When he’s home in California, dirt biking’s one of his hobbies. There’s an abandoned motocross course a half-mile from Day’s home where he’ll escape with friends for hours at a time. Day’s even taken the family excavator to construct his own dirt bike course on their two-and-a-half acre property.

If it’s not dirt biking, he’s wakeboarding or waterskiing along Millerton Lake in Southern California’s Central Valley. Whatever it is, “he’ll push the boundaries of things,” Ronnie Day said through a laugh: “He’s just a 17-year-old that wants to have fun and hangout with his buddies. He's still being a kid.

“It’s fun to watch them hangout together. … After they graduate, you know how things work. You get a girlfriend and you stop hanging out with your buddies. And then pretty soon you get married. He’s enjoying all that.”

The teenaged Day concurs.

“This year’s been really good for me in the race car … mostly just because I’m getting to be a kid and a race car driver,” said Day, whose 10 wins are tied for third in the nation. “During the week, before I left for this trip, all my friends and I were on summer (vacation).

“So I’d hangout with them and go to the lake; just mess around and be a kid. Then on the weekends it’s time to go to work. It’s been a good year. There hasn’t been much pressure on me really. We’ve been really good since the start of the year. Things have been flowing."

Of the 100-plus drivers registered for this year’s Nationals, the fresh-faced Day may have the most gain without much to lose. He is, of course, aboard Meyers’ No. 14 machine, the very ride of the former World of Outlaws champion, with Shane Bowers as crew chief. Bowers guided Meyers to the WoO title in 2010.

But being from bullring-centric California, Day is hardly comfortable on half miles. Failing to make the big dance would only mean another learning lesson to look back on.

Last year, for instance, he started from the pole on Friday’s Hard Knox Night when he clipped the berm and spun out of a would-be transfer spot.

As embarrassing as that was for Day — “Hard Knox Night … I don’t even want to talk about that one,” Day said as he shook his head — it was one of those experiences marked by growing pains.

Ronnie Day’s never been one of those dads to gloat about their child. He doesn’t discount his son either. He realizes Corey is moving into his greater destiny as he grows up in front of the entire Sprint Car world.

“As dad, in this sport, I’ve raced … I’ve seen the best of the best on both ends of that,” he said. “You don’t always want to brag about your kid, but now he’s showing what he’s capable of. He’s 17 years old, but he’s 25 when he sets in the race car. Sometimes he’s 12 at home.”

“Being with him all his life, he’s a different kid. Anything that’s got wheels on it, or whatever needs balance, he excels at it. He’s an exceptional bicycle and motorcycle rider. He’s really blessed with seat-of-the-pants feel … and no fear. It’s good. He’s not a daredevil. Just very confident in his ability. I don’t think we’ve seen it all yet.”