Sports

NASCAR: Corey LaJoie won’t be back at Spire Motorsports in 2025

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3 months ago

July 25, 2024

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NASCAR: Corey LaJoie won’t be back at Spire Motorsports in 2025

Corey LaJoie won’t return to Spire Motorsports in 2025. He’s been with the team since the start of the 2021 season. (Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Corey LaJoie will not be back at Spire Motorsports in 2025.

LaJoie said in a statement to the Athletic that his time with the team would end at the end of the 2024 season. LaJoie, 32, is in his fourth season with the team and is currently 28th in the points standings.

From the Athletic:

“I won’t be driving the 7 car next year,” LaJoie said. “I take a lot of satisfaction from having an integral part of building Spire into a respectable team on the grid, but unfortunately the future won’t involve me. We will finish the remainder of 2024 strong, continuing to deliver for my partners, my guys who work hard to build good cars, family, fans & friends who have supported me since day one in the Cup Series.

“This chapter ends after Phoenix and I’m excited to see what the Lord has in store for my family next.”

LaJoie, the son of former Busch Series champion Randy LaJoie, has four top-five finishes and nine top 10s in 258 Cup Series starts. However, all of those have come at drafting tracks. LaJoie has never finished inside the top 10 at a track that isn’t Atlanta (in its current configuration), Daytona or Talladega.

He’s also being outrun by his rookie teammate at Spire. Carson Hocevar is four spots and 59 points ahead of LaJoie in the standings. He also has two top-10 finishes to LaJoie’s one.

LaJoie has spent much of his Cup Series career in backmarker equipment and has clamored for a shot in a better ride. He’s gotten that in 2024 as Spire has slowly improved as an organization in large part to the current Cup Series car introduced in 2022, and also when he subbed for Chase Elliott for Hendrick Motorsports at Gateway a season ago.

However, LaJoie qualified 30th and finished 21st in the No. 9 car while Hocever, the driver who was filling in for LaJoie while he was Elliott’s injury replacement, ran well ahead of him before a brake failure ended Hocevar’s day.

The news that LaJoie is out at Spire ahead of next season also comes weeks after the team announced that Rodney Childers would take over as the crew chief of the “No. 7 team and driver Corey LaJoie in 2025” on July 9. Childers served as Kevin Harvick’s crew chief at Stewart-Haas Racing for a decade and the two won the 2014 Cup Series championship together.

Childers’ arrival and LaJoie’s departure makes the No. 7 car an appealing option for a driver looking for a ride next season. However, it’s unclear who that driver could be at the moment. The Cup Series driver market appeared to be settled. Will LaJoie’s departure shake it up?