Kyle Busch has been suffering from the worst string of races in his career these past several weeks. Part of his dismal results was the DNF in the Pocono Raceway. The accident happened with 40 laps remaining in the race and was induced by Spire Motorsports star Corey LaJoie. Following the mishap, Busch went on The Pat McAfee show and called LaJoie a “liar” for his altering explanations about what went down.
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This obviously did not sit well with the No. 7 driver and he hit back in an interview with The Athletic and admitted that he was angry at Busch for being negatively vocal on a large platform. Busch had also threatened LaJoie by mentioning on the show that “payback was coming.” To this, the Spire star said that he anticipated him to try wrecking him at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
In the Brickyard 400 that went down last Sunday, there was a fleeting moment after a restart when it looked like Busch might crash into LaJoie. Talking about the same on the Stacking Pennies podcast, LaJoie noted how he was praying to god not to have any trouble. Fortunately, Busch glided past him without choosing to deploy any attack and the moment passed unscathed.
LaJoie continued to express that he would be expecting retaliation for the Pocono incident throughout the rest of the season. However, Busch choosing to not wreck him in Indianapolis offers some comfort about his intentions. Also, the No. 8 driver is in no position to risk wrecking himself in the process of foiling the day of another. His sights will be more on finishing the regular season on a high.
Busch’s threat to LaJoie after the Pocono race
The wreckage in Pocono had occurred when LaJoie was trying to get past Busch in Lap 121. The field was coming off a restart to Turn 1 when LaJoie hit the No. 8 car’s left rear and sent it spinning across the track. Multiple drivers were collected in the hit. LaJoie did not express any regret in his post-race interviews and maintained his own explanation for the move.
Though Busch wasn’t high on words in the aftermath he was just saving them for later. He said on the Pat McAfee Show, “Instead of just blending in behind me and making sure that he doesn’t crash the whole field, he clips me. He texted me and then he called me. I didn’t even reach back out because he changed his story four times, so I’m like, ‘You’re just a liar. You wrecked me.’ I get it. It’s fine. Whatever. Payback’s coming.”
Neither LaJoie nor Busch have great chances to qualify for the playoffs at this juncture. They do however have plenty else to race for. The most crucial part of Busch’s list will be to get through the rest of this season without any more wrecks.
