NASCAR: Could Corey LaJoie land his best opportunity in 2021?

Corey LaJoie has been in NASCAR for several years, but he has never driven for a top-tier team. Could that change in the 2021 season?

After making his NASCAR Cup Series debut for Randy Humphrey Racing back in the 2014 season, Corey LaJoie, the son of two-time Busch Series champion Randy LaJoie, did not get another opportunity to compete at NASCAR’s highest level until the 2017 season.

The Charlotte, North Carolina native, then 25, landed a part-time ride with BK Racing. He competed in 32 of the 36 races on the schedule before moving to TriStar Motorsports for the 2018 season. His part-time deal with the now defunct organization led to him competing in 23 races throughout the years.

LaJoie landed the first true full-time ride of his career last year with Go Fas Racing, and he had his best year yet. He entered the season with a career-high finish of 11th place at Daytona International Speedway and just one other top 20 finish in 57 career starts.

More from NASCAR Cup Series

Last season, he racked up seven top 20 finishes behind the wheel of the #32 Ford, including a career-high finish of sixth place at Daytona.

He added finishes of seventh and 11th place at Talladega Superspeedway to continue the trend of performing his best on superspeedways, and he even finished in 12th at intermediate track Charlotte Motor Speedway. So far this season in what is Go Fas Racing’s first season having a technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing, LaJoie has had even more success. The 28-year-old finished in eighth in the Daytona 500 before posting a solid 16th place result at intermediate track Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

His 29th place finish at Auto Club Speedway and 27th place finish at Phoenix Raceway were somewhat disappointing after his good start to the year, but he still sits in 23rd in the championship standings. His finished in 29th last year.

But LaJoie, while certainly content with where he is at right now, has not been shy about his desire to move up to a competitive team in the near future, and he has earned that right after several seasons competing for some of the sport’s lesser teams.

When Kyle Busch, out of frustration, said that he had “sent in his resignation” to Joe Gibbs Racing during last year’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, LaJoie quipped back, joking that he would be more than willing to apply for the vacancy.

Now there is a confirmed vacancy with another top-tier team, and that team is Hendrick Motorsports.

After the 2019 season ended, seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson confirmed that the 2020 season would be his 19th and final season as a full-time driver in the sport.

He has driven the #48 Chevrolet in each and every one of the 651 races that have been contested since the start of his rookie season in 2002. No driver has a longer active streak.

But that streak is set to end in 2021, and Hendrick Motorsports will need to hire another full-time driver. The team have confirmed that they are not yet actively pursuing a replacement for one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers of all-time, but there are several possible replacement candidates who have been discussed.

Is LaJoie one of those drivers?

He knows he isn’t the frontrunner, but he believes he should at least be on the list considering how much experience he has accrued at NASCAR’s highest level after several seasons of making the most out of his opportunities with some of the sport’s least competitive teams.

And to show it, he penned a handwritten letter to team owner Rick Hendrick — in cursive — and delivered it to him at the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Induction Night prior to the start of the 2020 season in January.

Here is what he had to say about the matter a few weeks later, according to NASCAR.

"“I mean, I think you’ve kind of got to stand out. It’s hard to stand out on the race track, especially in the Cup Series, because they’re the best stock-car drivers in the world, driving the best-prepared cars by the best, most-qualified people.“So it’s hard to take a 30th place car and make yourself known. … I don’t think that I should be necessarily the leading candidate, but I would like to think I’d be on the list because just the experience and all the stuff I’ve gained by doing it the hard way. I think I can kind of fit in their mold pretty well.”"

Next. Top 10 NASCAR drivers of all-time. dark

Could Corey LaJoie have positioned himself for the opportunity of a lifetime with Hendrick Motorsports in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season with his handwritten letter to Rick Hendrick? If not, where will he end up next year, and who will Hendrick name as Jimmie Johnson’s replacement?

Home/NASCAR Cup Series