Corey LaJoie is getting good at turning sour lemons into delicious lemonade. After his surprise release from Spire Motorsports last season, LaJoie has had trouble finding a new ride in either the NASCAR Cup or Xfinity series. He’s had three fill-in starts with Rick Ware Racing, but LaJoie really shined recently during his five-race stint as an analyst on Amazon Prime’s NASCAR Cup telecasts.
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By most reviews, LaJoie was a hit behind the mic, even though his heart has been and always will be behind the wheel. With Prime’s part of the Cup schedule now history until it returns next season, LaJoie feels reinvigorated from his broadcast work as he prepares for another one-off start in this Saturday night’s race at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway).
LaJoie calls racing at Atlanta like “a speedway on steroids,” because the track is a smaller version of Daytona or Talladega. There’s lots of pack racing, speeds routinely exceed 200 mph and big wrecks are commonplace. “Things happen so quickly, and you can get yourself into a bad spot,” LaJoie said earlier this week to Speedway Media.
LaJoie feels Atlanta still owes him a win
Not only is LaJoie excited to get back inside a Cup car — driving again for Rick Ware Racing — he returns to Atlanta still feeling he has unfinished business.
It was back in 2022 that LaJoie almost earned his first-ever career Cup win. And even though the track has been resurfaced and revised, he still feels the place kind of owes him — and he’s back to collect on Saturday night.
“We led the final restart of the day, and then Chase Elliott got a big push, got to the lead, and I should’ve worked a bit harder to block that run for the lead,” LaJoie said. “I thought I made the right move on the last lap to get to his right-rear quarter, but he just threw his block a bit later, and he threw the block to win, right?
“It didn’t work for me and the help didn’t go my way, but that was pretty close to career victory number one. But that’s why I keep showing up, especially here at Atlanta. I feel that we can find ourselves in the same spot.”
However, driving is a very different experience from sitting in front of several TV cameras alongside co-hosts and a slew of technical help, show directors, and producers. “Driving the racecar can be a really lonely place,” LaJoie said.
“You have all this weight of expectations to deliver for your team and your sponsors and yourself and your fans, and when you feel like you’re not doing that, it feels like everybody is looking at you.
“But what I realized these last five weeks during my time on Prime, I’m intently watching the race, but I’m really only focused on three guys’ races. The other guys who are there grinding away, unless they somehow factor into the main storylines of the race, they’re not top of mind.”
LaJoie ready to race after 10-week hiatus
LaJoie, who will be making his first Cup start since April 13 at Bristol, enjoys racing for Ware and his team. And LaJoie comes into this weekend with a different and better frame of mind as a driver, thanks to his time as an announcer.
“Now that I’m back in the seat, I’m going to enjoy it,” said the 33-year-old LaJoie, who also hosts a popular weekly podcast, Stacking Pennies.
“I really like the atmosphere at Rick Ware Racing, and now we’re going back to a place where I’ve been close to winning before. It’s a great opportunity for me to run well and have some fun.”
