NASCAR: Corey LaJoie lands full-time ride for 2021
By Asher Fair
Corey LaJoie is set to compete full-time in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season behind the wheel of the #7 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports.
Corey LaJoie opted not to return to Go Fas Racing for what would have been a third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series season behind the wheel of the #32 Ford in 2021, effectively making the same gamble that Matt DiBenedetto made when he was in his second season competing for the team back in 2018.
LaJoie, one of the top remaining free agents on the market, had been tipped to drive the #77 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports as the team’s first ever full-time driver.
He is indeed set to drive for the team, he confirmed on Monday, but behind the wheel of the #7 Chevrolet.
Just getting started. #s7ackingpennies pic.twitter.com/xTKdgGoLO0
— Corey LaJoie (@CoreyLaJoie) December 1, 2020
He is set to become their first full-time driver since they entered the sport in the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season, as expected.
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LaJoie has spent the entirety of his Cup Series career driving for backmarker teams.
While a ride with Spire Motorsports doesn’t necessarily change that right away, they are at least in a position to improve from where they have been throughout their first two seasons at the Cup level, two seasons in which their lone top 10 finish was a shocking upset victory, arguably the biggest in Cup Series history, by Justin Haley at Daytona International Speedway in July of 2019.
Spire Motorsports have partnerships with both Hendrick Motorsports and Chip Ganassi Racing, which could foreseeably put LaJoie on their radars for future ride considerations depending on how well he performs.
He did, after all, pen a letter to Hendrick Motorsports team owner Rick Hendrick before the 2020 season asking to be considered as Jimmie Johnson’s replacement following his retirement. While that didn’t work out, the door may not be shut entirely.
In 129 starts over five seasons, LaJoie has recorded three top 10 finishes, all with Go Fas Racing. He finished in a career-high sixth place at Daytona International Speedway in 2019 before going on to finish in seventh at Talladega Superspeedway later in the year. He finished in eighth in the 2020 Daytona 500.
LaJoie finished in a career-high 29th place in the championship standings in the 2019 season, but he recorded a career-high average finish of 25.6 en route to a 30th place finish in 2020.
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The 63rd running of the Daytona 500 is scheduled to kick off the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season on Sunday, February 14, with Fox set to broadcast the race live from Daytona International Speedway.