NASCAR: 5 replacement candidates for Clint Bowyer in 2021
By Asher Fair
Clint Bowyer 2021 replacement candidates: Corey LaJoie
Corey LaJoie announced over the summer that he would not be back behind the wheel of the #32 Ford for Go Fas Racing next year, as he is seeking a better opportunity in a more competitive car.
With Go Fas Racing having a technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing, he also cannot be ignored with it comes to replacing Clint Bowyer.
There were rumors that Stewart-Haas Racing would utilize that technical alliance to promote Cole Custer from their Xfinity Series team to the Cup Series in 2020. While Custer did end up in the Cup Series this season, he did so as a Stewart-Haas Racing driver, as LaJoie was able to maintain his ride with Go Fas Racing.
That alone should indicate that Stewart-Haas Racing consider him to be a more than capable driver, and why shouldn’t they? He has proven many times over the years that he is capable of extracting the most out of inferior equipment.
In his first year with the Archie St. Hilaire-owned team last season, he racked up seven top 20 finishes, including a career-high sixth place finish at Daytona International Speedway, a seventh place finish at Talladega Superspeedway, and perhaps most notably, a 12th place finish at the intermediate track of Charlotte Motor Speedway. He finished on the lead lap nine times.
This season, he has improved his average finish to a career-high of 25.2 with an additional eighth place finish at Daytona International Speedway, and he already has 11 lead-lap finishes.
Even if LaJoie doesn’t get this season, his gamble to leave Go Fas Racing is poised to pay off in some fashion.