It’s pretty likely Corey LaJoie won’t be receiving a Christmas card from Ryan Newman this year.
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With 50 laps left in Thursday night’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at Richmond Raceway, Newman was in the lead and on the outside of the front row to take the green flag on a restart, only to almost immediately be punted from behind by LaJoie into the outside retaining wall, severely damaging Newman’s car and ending his night prematurely in 16th position.
“I spun my tires a little bit but it’s Modified racing and you kind of have to expect some of that,” said Newman, who is now retired from the NASCAR Cup Series. “Corey didn’t expect me to spin it, I guess, because he drove right through me…
“It’s unfortunate. We took a car that qualified eighth and was leading the race with 50 (laps) to go. I had a good strategy and, like I said, I spun the tires, but I wasn’t the only guy who spun my tires on the restart. So, I got drove through, got up into the fence, knocked the radiator out of it and we’re done.”
Newman’s last Cup win came in 2017 at Phoenix. When asked if he could have returned to victory lane again had it not been for the tangle with LaJoie, Newman was unequivocal in his answer: “We were leading, we had a car capable. We were one of the five cars on the lead lap at the time. So yeah, we were capable of winning. That’s why it really, really sucks.”
Ryan Newman on the incident with Corey Lajoie as the leader on a late Modified Tour restart at Richmond pic.twitter.com/nZqSSzG43g
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) August 15, 2025
LaJoie: “I feel terrible” about wreck with Newman
LaJoie, meanwhile, went on to finish fifth, coming back from a transmission failure suffered earlier in the day during first practice.
“I would have loved to cut him (Newman) a break, but it just happened so quickly,” LaJoie said. “I feel terrible about it. I even told myself to give a gap because I got wrecked at (North) Wilkesboro leading the same way…
“He spun ’em. I hit him and tried to get off him, but I think I hit him in the left rear bumper square enough to where it bit and hooked it right. I feel terrible. He had a good day going and I hate to wreck that. I hate to wreck him, I hate to wreck anybody.”
