NASCAR free agent off the market after signing extension

May 25, 2024

Corey LaJoie, Spire Motorsports, NASCAR (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Corey LaJoie is in his third NASCAR Cup Series season with Spire Motorsports, and he is set to return to the team for the foreseeable future.

Corey LaJoie is currently in his fifth full season in the NASCAR Cup Series season and his third with Spire Motorsports as the driver of the No. 7 Chevrolet.

The 31-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native has now confirmed that he is set to remain with the team for “more than a couple” years.

LaJoie confirmed the news on his Stacking Pennies podcast on Wednesday afternoon.

I’m not leaving. @SpireMotorsport pic.twitter.com/GfzPtq6XOt

— Corey LaJoie (@CoreyLaJoie) August 2, 2023

Driving the No. 7 Chevrolet, LaJoie secured his first career top five finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway last year and finished the season with a career-high 24.3 average finish.

He likely would have had another top five finish at the same track later in the season, as he led laps and ran second before last-lap contact with leader and eventual race winner Chase Elliott knocked him well down the order.

Amid an improvement in his team’s performance, LaJoie is having another career season in 2023, having posted an average finish of 21.2 through the first 22 races. He sits 153 points ahead of first-year teammate Ty Dillon, the only full-time teammate he has ever had at the Cup level.

LaJoie sits in 27th place in the point standings, which is higher than he has ever finished a season, and he has bettered his career-best finish with a fourth place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

He recently had the chance to fill in for the suspended Elliott at Hendrick Motorsports behind the wheel of the No. 9 Chevrolet at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and finished in 21st place.

While drafting tracks have been LaJoie’s obvious strength, given the fact that all six of his career top 10 finishes have come in superspeedway races, he has also recently emerged as a solid road and street course driver, having recorded five top 20 finishes, including an 11th place effort at Circuit of the Americas and a 12th place effort at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, in his six most recent starts at such tracks.