Alon Day to make NASCAR Cup debut at Sonoma with BK Racing

Last year Alon Day gained notice during the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Mid Ohio running in the top 10 for most of the race and finishing 13th in just his second start in the series.

Day, who has finished second and third in the final standings of the Whelen Euro Series over the past two seasons, will become not only the first driver to graduate from the Euro Series to Cup, but also the first Israeli driver to compete at NASCAR's top level. BK Racing will field the No. 23 Earthwater Limited Toyota for Day in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 next week at Sonoma Raceway.

"I'm very excited to make my debut in the Cup Series," said Day. "There's no better way for me to make my debut than on a road course and I can't wait to get behind the wheel of the No. 23 Toyota."

Day, 25, was recently crowned "King of Brands Hatch" by winning the Whelen Euro Series race last Sunday in the UK. He currently sits second in the points standings in NASCAR's only sanctioned series outside of North America.

“I am very thankful to the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series for the many opportunities and the exposure the series keeps generating for me and I’ll be proud to be the first NWES driver to race in Cup and represent the championship at Sonoma,” Day added. “I hope we can take advantage of all our road course experience to bring home a good result"

NASCAR Whelen Euro Series President and CEO Jérôme Galpin stated: "We are very proud of Alon being the first driver of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series to reach the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series level. This is a great achievement for the development programs we built with NASCAR and shows to every driver outside of North America that the American NASCAR career dream can become real.

"We have very talented drivers coming from all over the world to compete in Euro NASCAR to make this championship one of the best in Europe.

"Alon is a great driver and very nice guy who really deserves this opportunity. We wish him the best for this event and expect lots of our drivers to follow his footsteps.”