Confrontations and beef between drivers are common when it comes to NASCAR, sometimes leading to outright fistfights. Other times, it’s just drivers exchanging words and then moving on. In the case of Corey LaJoie and Erik Jones, the latter part seems to be the case more often than not. Following the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, LaJoie ended up having his race ruined after Jones wrecked him.
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But instead of lashing out at each other the pair seemingly had the calmest beef between each other. Speaking about the feud between the two drivers, LaJoie recently explained the rather hostile on-track history between the two.
Corey LaJoie explains his beef with Erik Jones
While speaking on his podcast, LaJoie stated, “He’s wrecked me like three times and I race him hard because he has wrecked me before in the past several time, Bristol Dirt, Dover last year. A couple of other places, he just – I think him and I race each other super tight. But he’s came out on the better end of it a couple of times. So if you are following somebody straight on you’re a little bit tight.”
“But if you start showing your right front headlight, or right side door, it piles a bunch of front downforce in it. And that’s what makes you looser. So if I was need to block a run on top, I would have to put myself in a worse aero position and less load.”
“Because the banking, like as you go higher the load of the car is less and less. So I just couldn’t cover and found myself in the middle. The #43 tried to hold it wide open and got in the left rear and then it was over for us.”
Did LaJoie speak with Jones following the Atlanta Wreck?
Following the wreck, LaJoie had to limp back to pit road but managed to keep on running after his pit stop. However, whatever momentum and confidence he was carrying up to that point was done for, hence ruining his weekend. While speaking on his podcast, his co-host asked if he had the chance to speak with Jones regarding the crash. LaJoie explained that they did, although he did not specify what exactly they talked about.
LaJoie mentioned, “Well, got crashed right? Boom boom. Bounced back and forth. My guys got the toe somewhat back straight we rode around and finished the race until it start raining. I get out and I was walking to the pit box and in between the pit box, and my car was Erik Jones and his crew. Him and I exchanged some words. I don’t anticipate him driving me quite as hard.”
LaJoie’s incident did not only ruin his weekend run, but others such as Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick were too caught up in the mess. They all had to head back down to pit road after losing out on their tires during the incident.
