At last, Corey LaJoie believes he has reliable enough equipment to showcase his talents, having joined Go Fas Racing for the 2019 season.
The third-generation racer is the son of two-time Busch Grand National champion Randy LaJoie, and was a member of the first two NASCAR Next classes. He has won in both Late Models and the ARCA Racing Series. More impressive is that he has won many of those same races in cars that he built and maintained himself. At one point, before making his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut in 2014, JR Motorsports even offered LaJoie a job as an Xfinity Series car chief.
Making matters worse is that the first three years of his Cup Series career has not projected the best optics. It's true that he has failed to finish a good number of his starts — 13 of his overall 57 appearances. But LaJoie is adamant that is more indicative of what he drove at BK Racing and TriStar Motorsports over the past two seasons before joining Go Fas Racing for the 2019 season.
It was also a byproduct of his own inexperience, the 27-year-old said on FOX Sports' Pit Stop with Motte.
"When you go to the Cup Series, man, if you don't know how to pass, or how to make the most of your equipment or save your equipment, especially in positions when you're with lower level teams like BK and TriStar —
"People have this perception that I wreck a lot, which I did at the beginning of my career when I was figuring out that a 32nd place car can't be a 25th place car, it took me awhile to figure that out. I've always been able to make those spots up. In the Cup Series, if your car is 30th, you're running 30th, bud, that's what it is.
"But here's the truth. If I was a driver that crashed all the time, Ron Devine wouldn't have hired me. Bryan Smith at TriStar wouldn't have hired me. Archie St. Hilaire at Go Fas wouldn't have hired me.
"I've stuck around for three years, so I must not be that bad of a race car driver that everyone thinks I am."
LaJoie says a certain subset of fans aren't "educated" enough to understand the realities of the Cup Series and also have not followed the entirety of his racing career.
"They don't care to look at the situation you're in," LaJoie added. "They don't care to look at your results or your past performance. There are guys out there that haven't even won a Limited Late Model race in their life, but could stroke a check for 150 grand to drive a Kyle Busch Motorsports truck and they look good.
"These kids don't know what it takes to win. I haven't won in awhile, a couple of years because I haven't been in a situation to win. But I'm winning the small battles that aren't exciting."
.@CoreyLaJoie has a message for anyone who thinks that he wrecks all the time. pic.twitter.com/9aoYUYHyfv
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