Dale Earnhardt Jr. debuts as NASCAR crew chief, turns to TNT on TV
The guys break down Chase Briscoe’s win and Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief debut at Pocono. They also review the five-week Amazon Prime Video stint.
- Corey LaJoie, a NASCAR Cup Series driver, recently finished a stint as a broadcaster for Amazon Prime’s NASCAR coverage.
- He reflects on a near-win at Atlanta in 2022 and a missed opportunity driving for Hendrick Motorsports.
- LaJoie is content with his broadcasting role and selectively pursuing racing opportunities in the Truck Series.
Corey LaJoie is a race-car driver again.
For a while there, he traded in the firesuit for TV duds and joined the maiden NASCAR voyage of Amazon Prime Video, which ended its five-week midseason run last weekend at Pocono.
He’s a good talker and the camera likes him, so maybe his NASCAR destiny will include a microphone instead of a steering wheel. After some 25 years of sawing on that wheel and climbing the ladder, only to reach the upper rungs and stall, he seems fine with the possibility.
LaJoie started racing karts at age 5 and progressed through the normal types of cars and tracks, winning often enough along the way to keep the dream alive.
Unlike some young racers, LaJoie was always comfortable and familiar with the landscape atop the stock-car world. His dad, Randy, was a two-time champion (1996-97) in the Busch Series (now Xfinity) and a 15-time winner on that circuit.
Ironically, the second-generation LaJoie spent almost no time in the Xfinity Series, instead landing a job at the Cup level in 2017. He spent four seasons with three different teams that were going nowhere fast, before moving to upstart Spire Motorsports in 2021 and seeing some glimmers of hope with that upstart team, particularly at Daytona and Talladega.
The closest he came to a breakthrough was the 2022 summer race at Atlanta, where he lost the lead to Chase Elliott on the next-to-last lap, then got into the wall while attempting to retake the lead on the final lap.
The Spire relationship ended late last season when the team basically “traded” LaJoie to Rick Ware Racing for Justin Haley. LaJoie played out the season and, along the way, started meeting with officials from Amazon Prime’s new NASCAR broadcast team.
He was part of the pre-race and post-race shows alongside Carl Edwards and Danielle Trotta. But he hasn’t sold the helmet and has cobbled together a limited racing schedule this year, including several late-season Truck Series races.
LaJoie and wife Kelly live outside Charlotte, in Davidson, N.C. They have three sons, ages 1 to 5.
Here, LaJoie covers a lot of ground, particularly on the topic of reaching one goal (the Cup Series) but not another (doing well at that level), and how bittersweet it can be. Also, he tells us about the one phone call every driver wants to receive sometime in their career — the call that led to his very short-lived career on the other side of the tracks.
Corey LaJoie on his new NASCAR job with Amazon Prime Video
News-Journal: When and how did the deal come about with Amazon Prime Video?
Corey LaJoie: “I think it was around last October. My career was going through some transitions, and I wasn’t really happy with how things were shaping up. I was just kinda burned out on chasing the ghost and trying to be a race-car driver. They offered me a really enticing deal, and I think anything the Prime group touches … they do it at a high level. Getting in on the front side of that was important to me.
“Talking to my wife, she was the one forcing me into that open door when I was probably a little too stubborn to walk through it myself. But it’s ultimately become one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life.”
Corey LaJoie on what he remembers from his dad’s racing career
N-J: How much do you remember of your dad’s racing career?
LaJoie: “Some of my favorite memories were probably on the back side of my dad’s career — I was 9, 10, 11 — it was when dad’s good driving opportunities started to dry up. My favorite memories were going on motorhome trips, seeing the country. We’d just load up in the motorhome and be gone for two months.”
N-J: Were you old enough to remember your dad’s Buckshot Jones feud in the late-’90s?
LaJoie: “Oh yeah. I think it was around ’97 or ’98, I was about 6. They got into it at Bristol. I remember us being escorted out in a police golf cart, and fans were throwing beers at us. I was thinking, ‘Man, this is wild. Why are they throwing (stuff) at my dad.’
“People would send some Buckshot stuff to him every now and then, and my dad would throw it right in the trash. My dad isn’t one to hold a grudge, but there’s one person on Earth he does not like, nor does he ever care to put any work into a working relationship, and that’s Buckshot Jones.”
Corey LaJoie on his own NASCAR Cup Series career
N-J: During your Cup career, how difficult was it to keep showing up every week knowing your car was outclassed by the cars from Hendrick, Gibbs, Penske, etc.?
LaJoie: “Ah man, that’s a good question. I spent legitimately six years … I couldn’t make the amount of money that I made doing anything else. But you trade money for stress. When you dedicate your life to something … I had grown up and been successful and won races in every series I did, then you get to Sundays and you’re handicapped by what you’re driving. It eats away at your soul, because you’re apparently a competitive guy who wants to go run good. But on the contrary, you’re in a situation where you can’t, within reason.
“But I also feel the Lord shuts doors that are meant to be shut, and vice versa. There were two distinct opportunities I turned down to stay loyal to Spire and continue to build. And there’s this weird situation as a race-car driver, when you commit to build something, you commit to knowing you’re going to be a guinea pig. The cars aren’t gonna be any good, people are gonna be in and out leapfrogging for jobs. So the performance isn’t going to be there.
“So you work … you’re starting to build this car to ultimately where you want it, then you run good enough to where it’s appealing for someone else to come buy your job.”
N-J: You ever consider how much that changed everything in your life?
LaJoie: “I haven’t lost a wink of sleep about it, because if that deal doesn’t dissolve, then this opportunity with Prime doesn’t come, you know, and doesn’t really open up what the next chapter of life might look like … More time at home with my kids, or just a little bit more peace and commitment, not banging your head against the wall, trying to chase whatever goal you have as a race-car driver that you’re never gonna be able to accomplish.”
N-J: You ever wonder how your career might’ve changed if you had won that Atlanta race in 2022?
LaJoie: “Yeah, who knows? I probably spend more time thinking about that opportunity with the 9 car, when I got to fill in for Chase (Elliott). We went to a place where I wasn’t very confident, at Gateway. We’d blown up there the year before and didn’t get to run many laps. Hendrick (Motorsports) was off all weekend, and it was just a bad weekend, and we ran 20th or 21st.
“You legitimately work your entire life as a race-car driver to get a call from Rick Hendrick, and I got it. I actually missed the call, but he left a voicemail, and I still get to listen to that every now and then, which is cool. If we go to Dover or Bristol or somewhere where I have a lot of confidence, I have no doubt we could’ve contended for the win.
“I’m a pretty religious guy. Sometimes the answer of ‘no’ is for your own protection. Who knows what direction life would’ve gone after that.”
N-J: You’re keeping your foot in the gas with the few Cup races and several Truck races. What’s that future look like to you?
Lajoie: “I’m trying to take it slow. I think it’s important to take good opportunities and be selective with who you work with, this season more than ever, so that’s what I’m doing. I can work my fingers to the bone trying to figure out what’s next … I don’t think that’s where I’m supposed to be at the moment.”
N-J: Why did you do just a one-year deal with Prime?
LaJoie: I wanted to see if I liked it, and I think they wanted to see if they like me. I think we checked both those boxes. I honestly enjoy it much more than I anticipated. I would love it if we could run it back next year.”
Read the full article here