Corey LaJoie will remain with GoFAS Racing for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Corey LaJoie will remain full time in the NASCAR Cup Series after revealing an extension with GoFAS Racing on Tuesday during his weekly “Sunday Money” podcast.
“I don’t know if everybody was expecting that because it took a little while to get done, a little longer than both sides probably would have liked,” LaJoie said on the podcast. “I’m … super-excited to go back.”
The deal is just a one-year extension that will run the life of the current-generation car and the resulting technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing.
“Archie (St. Hilaire, owner) likes doing one-year deals, which I think is OK because things can change periodically, right?” LaJoie said. “I think this is a crazy, crazy time in the sport with people retiring or moving around. The best I can figure, there’s probably only legitimately seven or eight cars that have their drivers committed for 2021.
“Everybody else is up in the air. So hopefully I can position myself the following year to be in something really good. But I am concentrated fully on 2020 with Go Fas.”
LaJoie hopes having a more modern fleet will make him more competitive than the 25.9 average he recorded in 2019.
“We got some Stewart-Haas cars coming into the shop today,” LaJoie said. “I’ve heard they’re going to get two complete cars. Rolling, no motor. … It will have current suspension, rear end, truck arms. I would hope it will be pretty close to what they would send to the racetrack. That remains to be seen. … They’ll definitely be better than the 4-year-old Front Row-Roush cars. … The newer cars we had were 4 years old.”
The team is still searching for a crew chief with Randy Cox leaving the organization.
“We’re talking obviously with the Stewart-Haas Xfinity guys; nobody really knows what’s going to go on there,” LaJoie said.
The team has yet to declare what it will do with its Xfinity Series program, which was fielding cars for Cole Custer and Chase Briscoe. Custer has moved up to Cup, controversially replacing Daniel Suarez in the No. 14 Ford Mustang.
Briscoe’s entry is co-owned by Fred Biagi, with Tony Stewart expressing during the Cup Series finale last month that he hoped to keep the Ford development driver in the fold.
LaJoie also confirmed that he had other option on the table, including a move to Front Row Motorsports to replace the retiring David Ragan.
Ultimately, he chose to build upon the foundation he established in 2019.
“There’s lots of stuff involved in that, there’s lots of stuff involved in all the deals; I just felt like the best team to go with and the best continuity and the best relationships I’ve had was to go back to the 32,” LaJoie said.
H/T NBC Sports for the transcription
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