Corey LaJoie Records Much-Needed Ninth in Southern 500 at Darlington
When racing in a series as competitive as the NASCAR Cup Series, there are a multitude of different objectives for various drivers on any given weekend, and for some drivers and teams, those goals don’t include being in Victory Lane.
Don’t get it twisted, Corey LaJoie would love to be celebrating a victory, and a secured spot in the NASCAR Playoffs, but a ninth-place finish in Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 is exactly what the doctor ordered for he and the Spire Motorsports No. 7 team.
In doing so, LaJoie becomes the 299th driver in the history of NASCAR’s premier series to secure 10 finishes inside the top-10. However, Sunday’s result was more significant than that, even, marking the first for the Concord, North Carolina-native on a non-drafting track.
“I go with the intention to do this every week,” LaJoie told Frontstretch’s Stephen Stumpf after the race. “We’ve been in plenty of spots in the top-10 late, Nashville is one where we got crashed running third, but to actually put one in the notch is nice, at the hardest track we go to and the longest race.”
"There's a lot of people chirping, but nonetheless, I'm gonna get paid for that place tonight and my phone's gonna keep ringing when people want me to drive their car."
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) September 2, 2024
Corey LaJoie finishes ninth at Darlington.
📹@stephen_stumpf pic.twitter.com/FxS8AwPEQX
It’s a much-needed showcase of speed for the 32-year-old son of NASCAR Busch Series champion Randy LaJoie, who enters the final 10 weeks of the NASCAR season searching for a seat in 2025 after Spire Motorsports confirmed during the Summer break that the team would be going a different direction with the No. 7 entry starting next year.
"There's a lot of people chirping, but nonetheless, I'm gonna get paid for that place tonight and my phone's gonna keep ringing when people want me to drive their car."
- Corey LaJoie, after P9 in Southern 500
“There’s a lot of people chirping, but nonetheless, I’m gonna get paid for that place tonight and my phone’s gonna keep ringing when people want me to drive their car,” LaJoie added.
The result continues a great stretch of momentum for Spire Motorsports as an organization, with LaJoie’s ninth place result now marking the fifth straight race that the three-car operation has placed an entry inside the top 12.
Between the team’s three full-time drivers (LaJoie, Zane Smith, and Carson Hocevar), Spire has managed to record nine top 10s this season, which equals the combined total from the organization’s first five seasons of NASCAR Cup Series competition.
Ryan Sparks, Spire’s resident multi-tasker as Competition Director and crew chief of the No. 7 Chevrolet, made a great call as LaJoie got back on the lead-lap, bringing the Chili’s-sponsored machine to pit road, putting on tires that were three laps fresher than the leaders.
The final 15 laps of the Southern 500 were run under green, and LaJoie was able to maneuver through some competitors that took older tires, crossing under the start-finish line in ninth place.
It wasn’t just a good strategy decision, though. For that to even be an option in the race’s closing laps, LaJoie needed to remain on the lead-lap, something he was able to naturally accomplish throughout the entire race until a slow pit stop under green-flag conditions lost him a chunk of time.
“Yeah, I mean, you expect that, cautions breed cautions. There was a lot of green-flag runs and we worked hard to kind of stay on the lead-lap all night,” LaJoie said. “Had a long stop under green, but the pit crew were great up until that, we had a hose get stuck under the splitter, we lost a lap cause of that.”
“[We] took the wave, got back on the lead-lap and then we were kind of on a tire advantage cycle there towards the end and a couple of guys crashed and we missed it, and we drove back towards the front.”
After the final race of the regular season at Darlington, LaJoie sits 32nd in NASCAR Cup Series point standings, but still within striking distance of several positions ahead of him in the standings.
Next on the docket for the NASCAR Cup Series is a return trip to superspeedway-adjacent Atlanta Motor Speedway, the site of two top five finishes for LaJoie, as well as a near-miss for his first career victory in the Summer of 2022.
LaJoie will be looking to play spoiler in the playoff opener next weekend at Atlanta, in hopes of bringing Spire Motorsports its second NASCAR Cup Series victory, and its first in four years.
JOSEPH SRIGLEY