Corey LaJoie’s Dramatic Michigan Flip Could Have Resulted from a Gust of Wind & Here’s How

The NASCAR Cup Series race at the Michigan International Speedway saw a concerning accident as Corey LaJoie went upside down during the 400-mile-long event whose conclusion was eventually drawn on Monday after rain delays over the weekend. The Spire Motorsports star made contact with the #10 Chevrolet driven by Noah Gragson which flipped his car upside down before landing right side up in the infield grass. It was a scary incident but the roof of the Next-Gen was sturdy enough to not cause any injuries to the driver.

With how easily LaJoie’s car seemed to flip over once it went sideways, people from the stock car racing fraternity took notice as to why it happened. Cars going airborne is not a regular occurrence in modern-day NASCAR. The reason why it came to pass on Monday could be Mother Nature.

Reports suggest that according to the nearest National Weather Service weather station to the track, winds from the north were blowing in Michigan at 15 mph gushing up to 29 mph during the event. When LaJoie went sideways after making contact with the #10 at 190mph, wind gusts of up to 30 mph could have caused a similar lifting force as if the car was traveling at 220 mph.

The claims of strong gusts of winds were also backed up by the spotters on duty during the event. All in all, this could be one explanation as to why the Spire Motorsports car took off the way it did. NASCAR has yet to make an official statement on the same. Eminent motorsports journalist Jordan Bianchi called it an odd incident on a recent episode of The Teardown.

“This was very odd”

Speaking on how LaJoie‘s flip from Michigan International Speedway reminded him of a wreck from the sport’s old days as well as how peculiar the incident in question was, Bianchi elaborated, “There was a time period there 2015-2016 was like we were getting a lot of flips, right? This was very odd and the one thing that reminisced this is Cale Yarborough’s qualifying lap at Daytona like 1983-84. He’s going through turn four on this record run and the car just comes off the ground and it kind of reminded me of that.”

The #7 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will most likely be analyzed by NASCAR’s R&D Center for probable causes of the incident. With the strides made by the governing body ever since the introduction of the Next-Gen Cup car, it will not be surprising to see changes come about to prevent such incidents if something in the car’s design is found.

However, as it appears, it might just have been a stroke of luck where Corey LaJoie was unfortunate enough to have been caught out by Mother Nature’s wrath, as was the sport on Sunday.