NASCAR: Corey LaJoie stacking too many ‘pennies’

Just when it seemed that his 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season was turning around, Corey LaJoie was again bitten by misfortune at Martinsville Speedway.

Spire Motorsports’ Corey LaJoie entered the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season knowing that this was his best chance yet to make a splash in the series, given his history of competing for backmarker teams, and he was confident that he could make that happen.

Spire Motorsports have partnerships with both Hendrick Motorsports and Chip Ganassi Racing, the top two Chevrolet teams in the sport, and LaJoie has long been considered to have some of the most untapped potential in the garage.

He said before the season began that he felt he and the #7 team could secure a playoff spot on points if there weren’t able to break through with a win.

His season got off to a strong start, and it looked as though he may be a contender to win one of the superspeedway races at some point.

His history in such races has been solid, as his career-high finish of sixth place came at Daytona International Speedway in July 2019.

His only other career top 10 finishes also came in those races. He finished in seventh place at Talladega Superspeedway in October 2019 and eighth in the 2020 Daytona 500.

LaJoie finished in seventh place in his Bluegreen Vacations Duel race to qualify for this year’s Daytona 500, scoring four points in the process, and he finished in ninth in the Daytona 500 itself.

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It was arguably the team’s best overall race ever, with teammate Jamie McMurray finishing in eighth place after bouncing back from an earlier incident.

But since then, things have been going wrong for LaJoie, and in a big way.

The driver known for his motivational catchphrase — and now his NASCAR podcast — “Stacking Pennies”, which stems from the perseverance he has had throughout his career working with fewer resources than most, has stacked more “pennies” this season than any other driver.

That is, four times in the last six races, the 29-year-old Concord, North Carolina native has scored just one point.

Needless to see, these pennies aren’t the ones he wants to be stacking.

No other driver has turned in more than two of such results all season.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola, who has also been bitten by tons of misfortune, Front Row Motorsports rookie Anthony Alfredo and Rick Ware Racing’s Josh Bilicki are the only points-eligible drivers who have scored just one point in multiple races.

And again, LaJoie has done it four times.

His top finish since the Daytona 500 is a 27th place finish at Phoenix Raceway. That finish is one of only two top 30 finishes he has recorded since then.

After the Daytona 500, in which he scored 28 points by placing ninth, he had 32 points to his name and sat in an 11th place tie in the point standings.

In the two months since then, he has only scored 28 more points — barely enough pennies for a quarter.

And it hasn’t been all on him, either. In fact, much of it hasn’t, and even that’s an understatement.

Martinsville Speedway was yet another example of the misfortune that has mired him back in 30th place in the point standings, already a whopping 130 points below the playoff cut line and effectively in a must-win situation if he and the team still have postseason aspirations.

He had been slated to start in 34th place before a pre-race penalty dropped him to 36th on the grid, and he worked his way up to 11th.

It was right where he had expected to run far more frequently coming into the year.

But sure enough, it didn’t last.

Contact in the pits between his #7 Chevrolet and the #8 Chevrolet of Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick ended his race.

Result? 37th place — last.

One point — second race in a row.

Another cent in the penny jar.

But LaJoie is keeping his head up as the series heads to Richmond Raceway for another short track race, where he figures to be strong again.

In his last three starts at the four-turn, 0.75-mile (1.207-kilometer) oval in Richmond, Virginia, LaJoie has finished in 26th, 29th and 27th place, so perhaps he can finally get that signature breakthrough performance of 2021 in better equipment. He could certainly use it after yet another devastating outcome to a solid race.

The Toyota Owners 400 is set to be broadcast live from Richmond Raceway on Fox beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 18.