Instead of being his breakout year, Corey LaJoie’s 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season has devolved into a series of unfortunate events bordering on an avalanche of increasingly absurd and miserable developments. Compared to when CBS Sports last spoke to LaJoie in February, where his belief in Spire Motorsports’ growth was quickly validated by a fourth-place finish in the Daytona 500 and a top-15 finish at Atlanta, 2024 has taken LaJoie’s ambitions and turned them — quite literally — on their head.
On Monday at Michigan, a seemingly routine spin to the inside of the racetrack while racing for position turned into LaJoie’s latest lowlight, as his car suddenly went airborne and flipped onto its roof, sending him sliding upside down along the backstretch and into the inside wall before his car tumbled twice in the infield grass entering Turn 3. Coupled with another flip coming to the finish line at Talladega earlier this year, LaJoie became the first Cup driver to flip over in more than one accident in a season in 31 years — an unfortunate accomplishment highlighting a year that has seen LaJoie go from set to take the next step in his career to having to find a ride for 2025 after Spire Motorsports informed him he will not return to the No. 7 Chevrolet next year despite having had a contract to do so.
LaJoie spoke to CBS Sports again Wednesday before a trip to NASCAR’s R&D Center in Concord, N.C. to examine his Michigan car, saying he was interested in seeing if the installation of air jacks on his car (NASCAR allowed teams to install such parts starting at Michigan to prevent cars from being stranded with flat tires) had anything to do with creating the lift that sent it skyward. He was more frustrated than hurt, with his ride down the Michigan backstretch the latest incident compounding his disappointment with the way his season has gone.
“It’s been abysmal,” LaJoie told CBS Sports. “There’s too many mistakes on my end, whether that’s trying to push too hard trying to get a little more than what the car’s capable of, or just making mental errors or whatever it is, not giving myself enough margin for error against other guys … It sucks and it’s unfortunate.
“It’s been probably the worst year that I can recall besides having mechanical failures. We finally got a lot of the seams ironed out with our team at Spire with getting some better processes in place with our cars to build them. We had a lot of mechanical failures with the first year of the Next Gen car as well. We get a new shop, and what was best and setting the benchmark for the first three and a half years of the team isn’t good enough anymore, and they made a change. Of course, it’s a competitive-based business, and if you don’t run good you’re gonna get the axe.
As bad as LaJoie’s season has gone, the timing of his being put in the free agent pool for 2025 is arguably worse. His options are not what they could have been, as a number of high-profile rides at Joe Gibbs Racing, Front Row Motorsports and Wood Brothers Racing have already been filled after a sequence of events following May’s announcement that Stewart-Haas Racing would close at the end of the year.
LaJoie indicated he wants to remain in the Cup Series, but that whatever door he goes through next is “is gonna be one that I’m not forcing open,” citing past experiences and how the best opportunities he’s gotten are ones he’s been presented with as opposed to ones he tried to pry his way into.
Working in LaJoie’s favor is his experience in building Spire from a back-of-the-pack team into a contender, as well as some of the existing partnerships he has from a sponsorship standpoint. Not only has LaJoie had longtime support from Schulter-Systems, but he has also become marketable enough to attract partners like Celsius, which will be on the hood of his car this weekend at Daytona.
“Luckily for me I’ve got a pretty good data set of getting a team from the outhouse to a pretty good position like where I’m at currently,” LaJoie said. “Having that experience of building positive reputation in the garage, outside the cars and inside the cars, takes you pretty far on Sundays in the eyes of some owners. But funding is super important.
“We’ve had some great partners that have been with me from the jump, with Schulter-Systems being one but also Celsius has been with me now for multiple years. And that’s probably one of the best brands to be an ambassador for, just because for me living fit is just part of my daily routine. Whether it’s in my fitness life or podcast life or just at the racetrack, it’s an easy brand to swing and talk well about.
“I’d love to be able to continue to work with those guys, but some of the situations that I’m talking to don’t necessarily hinge on that. But you’re up against other candidates that might have just an open checkbook ready to write a check and deposit it. It is a funny game that we’re all playing here.”
The matter of LaJoie’s reputation is an important one, as public perception of LaJoie — and his competitors’ perception of him — has been collateral damage in his season.
As the son of two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Randy LaJoie, as well as being the outspoken sort with his own podcast produced by NASCAR itself, LaJoie is aware that he is under a microscope and invites criticism. Last month, after LaJoie turned Kyle Busch in front of traffic to create a multi-car crash on a restart at Pocono, it was open season on him. Certain fans have made a pastime out of attacking LaJoie online, while Busch called LaJoie a “liar” and said that payback would be coming his way during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show.
Driving past LaJoie’s crash on Monday, Denny Hamlin — likewise outspoken and polarizing — remarked over his team radio that “Corey LaJoie is just out of control, man … He’s his own worst enemy.”
When asked directly about what Hamlin said, and about whether his supposed reputation has hurt his efforts to find a ride for next year, LaJoie conceded Hamlin’s assessment was an accurate one.
“I’ve certainly set myself up to be critiqued, whether it’s almost killing Kyle Busch and then almost killing myself this weekend. And I would agree — I would agree that I’m my own worst enemy,” LaJoie said. “I’ve made mistakes that are uncharacteristic to myself, because I probably am trying too hard. There’s nothing more in my life that I’ve ever worked at to try and be a competitive Cup Series driver.
“Driving a race car is such a subconscious and a conscious balance back-and-forth of just constantly trying to be on the tire and maximize hundredths of a second. If your mind is thinking on where you want to go and what you want to do in the future and it’s thinking about stuff that’s happened in the past, you’re not living in the present. Even though I feel like I’m focused, inherently (you aren’t) when you’re carrying the weight of wanting to remain in the Cup Series and wanting to be what some people might consider successful or not. But I know that I have the pace, the experience, and the race craft when I’m loose and when I’m focused and with a group that is giving me the information that I need to be able to attack the race with the right intensity at the right time. I can do it. I’ve been doing it since I’ve been 14 years old.
“… This year has been abysmal and I’ve made a lot of mistakes that I wish I could go back and change. But racing around Kyle Busch, I don’t know if that’s a good thing for me or a bad thing for him or a combination of both. But they keep having me come back and drive this unit in circles every week and there’s people still wanting to call me and drive their unit in circles in the future. Until that stops, then I’ll figure out something else to do.”
The final 12 races of the 2024 season give LaJoie an excellent opportunity to prove himself, as three races over the final three months will be speedway races at Daytona, Atlanta and Talladega, all tracks at which he has had top-five finishes before. There is a chance that this weekend, LaJoie can take his Celsius Chevrolet to the front, stay there, and gain a NASCAR playoff spot despite everything.
Even if he doesn’t do that, there are things LaJoie has already gained from the adversity that 2024 has presented him with.
If anything, I’ve probably got more fire and more clarity on what I want to do with my life and my career, and I want to stay at the highest level of the sport,” LaJoie said. “I feel like any given Sunday I can be a top 15 guy, and with the right group and the right people and the right resources around me I feel like I can settle in a little bit more and put together complete races, have the pace that it takes to run inside the top 15 and top 10 that we’ve gotten up and shown glimpses over the last several years.
“Nonetheless, we’ve got 12 to go. Still a lot of work left to do. And Daytona is certainly a place we always have circled for a chance for us to be the upset.”
