Drivers wrecking each other during NASCAR races is not an uncommon sight. Neither is seeing them hold grudges for such incidents and take revenge both on and off the track. The brawl between Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. after the All-Star race serves as the most recent testament to that. With their fight in hindsight could tension be brewing between Jimmie Johnson and Corey LaJoie?
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The question pops up when reviewing certain incidents that transpired between the two lately. The first went down during Lap 176 of the race in Kansas earlier this month. Johnson was in his fourth Cup Series start of the year in it. Racing hard ahead of LaJoie, the 7X champion saw smoke ahead of him and eased off on the throttle.
The Spire Motorsports driver couldn’t react in time and made contact with Johnson’s car from behind sending him into a spin. LaJoie too spun and collided with the wall. Johnson was credited with a last-place finish at the end of the race. He maintained in his post-race interviews that he slowed down just to make the turn considering the traffic ahead of him.
He noted, “I’m definitely not happy. I know it wasn’t intentional. I know Corey and I know a lot of these guys out there. They’re not just going to dump you going on the turn. A little bit more awareness in that situation would have been good.” Providing his take on the incident on his podcast, LaJoie put forward how restarts have changed in the game of late and that Johnson had eased off his throttle too early at the sight of a little puff of smoke.
Corey LaJoie finds trouble with Jimmie Johnson once again, in Charlotte
Despite the justification that he provided, LaJoie did apologize for wrecking Johnson in Kansas. But his words held good only for a few weeks until he had to furnish another apology after finding the icon during the Coca-Cola 600 again. Coming off Turn 1, LaJoie gave too little space for Johnson’s #84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota and shoved it into the wall.
He said on his podcast that he was ashamed of his altercations with Johnson and that he’d been wrong in crowding him too close to the wall at a high speed. He lamented, “He ended up finishing a couple of spots in front of me. But I just waved like, ’Dude, I am so sorry.’ For three laps I’m out like, ‘Oh, please don’t wreck me when you get to me.” How calmly Johnson has taken to the incident is yet to be seen.
