NASCAR made yet another controversial decision this week when it chose not to penalize Spire Motorsports driver Corey LaJoie for spinning Kyle Busch at Pocono. Busch, along with the others he crashed into, were unable to finish their races due to the move. With LaJoie refusing to apologize for it in his post-race interviews he has now provided further reasoning as to what made him race so.
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In an appearance on SiriusXM, he said that he has got to where he is in the Cup Series by racing clean throughout his career. The NextGen car, however, has forced him to tweak that approach. He quipped, “Now, the Cup Series does not race like that. Now the Cup Series is, no matter what, no matter it is the first lap, last lap, or any lap… for first or for 31st, you’re racing your a** off.”
️ “You had a little bit of give and take with the old car. This car, there’s all take.”@CoreyLaJoie joined #SXMOnTrack to further explain his perspective on the @KyleBusch incident at @PoconoRaceway.
Full Interview with the @SpireMotorsport driver → https://t.co/MKhd9eLXG8 pic.twitter.com/xkSm4RhOa4
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) July 17, 2024
“So, it’s been a little bit of an adjustment for me to just turn up the selfishness meter. You had a little bit of give and take in the old car. This car, there’s all take.” In response to the detest that he has been getting from the fandom, he noted that the negative opinions didn’t matter since it’s only the one in the car holding the controls who can know what the intent behind a move is.
LaJoie was able to continue with his race in the Tricky Triangle and come home in 19th place. Busch, Harrison Burton, Ryan Preece, and others suffered DNFs. NASCAR’s refusal to levy a penalty was because the incident happened during the race and that he hadn’t displayed any motive to crash others. However, this cutting-edge nature that the sport is developing might not end up being beneficial.
‘They don’t give a c**p about anybody but themselves.’
Talking on the Hot Rod Pod show back in January, Cup Series legend Tony Stewart bashed the extreme driver aggression that was becoming the new normal in NASCAR. He said that drivers today don’t care about anyone but themselves and lack etiquette when compared to the drivers of the old days.
“It was about what Dale Sr., Dale Jarrett, Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, what all these veteran drivers taught me when I came into NASCAR,” he said. “Then you got all these new guys coming in and they don’t care about etiquette. They don’t give a c**p about anybody but themselves.”
The extreme competitiveness that the NextGen car has enforced is beneficial on many fronts. But when there are lines that it cannot cross. Ultimately, it is up to the drivers to be mindful of that.
