NASCAR is a cutthroat business. This is a fact well-known by everyone, that it isn’t talent or skills or promises that take you far, that sustain you in the sport, but success, and success only. But then again, is this true for everyone? Does this apply to everyone equally? Because Corey LaJoie would beg to differ with a Chase Elliott example.
Advertisement
LaJoie, who has been racing in the Cup Series for over 5 years now, recently opened up on how different situations and their outcomes can be for drivers like him, who drive for small teams like Spire Motorsports, compared to someone like Elliott, who drives for arguably the best organization in the sport.
Corey LaJoie on the “very situational” aspect of NASCAR
During a segment of ‘Driver Pressure’, a short film by Fox Sports and NASCAR, LaJoie shared his thoughts on the segment of ‘Is it too much?’, which focused on balancing the risk factor in racing with personal life. “You risk your life every time you climb through that window. You have to take risks, and you have to do things that normal people wouldn’t do,” LaJoie said.
This led to Ryan Blaney also sharing his take on the subject as he claimed that just because the sport is dangerous and full of risks, that doesn’t mean drivers will shut down their personal lives completely and be done with things they enjoy. However, LaJoie added that it differs from driver to driver.
“I think it’s very situational too. Chase Elliott can go snowboarding and break his leg and come back to his seat in 6 weeks with no problem. I don’t know if I’ll have a seat in 6 weeks,” he described. “My situation isn’t as concrete and set up as the most popular driver.”
LaJoie on the advantage Chase Elliott and others have at Hendrick Motorsports
The Spire Motorsports driver, who was recently called on to replace Elliott after his one-race suspension for the race at WWT Raceway, described the differences between his team and Hendrick Motorsports which left him stunned. “I thought that I knew what we didn’t have at Spire Motorsports, but I had no idea,” he said as per NBC Sports.
“There’s tools that those guys have, intellectual properties specific to Hendrick Motorsports, that even some of the other teams don’t have.”
Yet despite these technical differences, the biggest thing which LaJoie noticed at HMS was the people and their attitude of “the pursuit of perfection.”
He claimed that while other teams have the same data, HMS has “an unbelievable way” of taking that same data and applying it across the different positions in the organization.
