Corey LaJoie gets long-awaited Hendrick Motorsports shot
— Corey LaJoie is finally Madison, Ill. getting a chance to drive for Hendrick Motorsports this week.
He wanted so badly to drive for the team a few years ago, that when it became common knowledge Jimmie Johnson was retiring as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver, LaJoie used his best cursive penmanship to write a letter to owner Rick Hendrick asking for the job.
It didn't work out then — Alex Bowman got the No. 48 car — but it may have laid the groundwork for this week.
When it appeared that Chase Elliott would be punished for his intentional wreck of Denny Hamlin at Charlotte, the team put LaJoie on standby. And when the one-race suspension was handed down, taking NASCAR's most popular driver out of the No. 9 car for today's race at World
Wide Technology Raceway, LaJoie finally got the call he'd long sought.
"I missed the call," he said, by way of clarification. Turns out he fell asleep early. But at least Hendrick left a message.
"He was like, 'Hey Corey, it's Rick Hendrick here. Just wanted to thank you for filling in under these circumstances. I appreciate the help and I know you'll do a good job,'" LaJoie said Saturday. "I feel like it's a video game. You start your career mode on the bottom team, and you get called up to the next team and the next team, and then you get the call-up from Mr. Hendrick.
"That's how I felt," LaJoie said. "I was laying in bed and I told my wife, 'My life is like a video game right now.'"
Elliott, who popped into the St.
Louis area for some fan events this week, denied deliberately hooking the rear of Hamlin's car during the rain-rescheduled Charlotte race on Monday.
Hamlin countered by posting a stream of data on social media backing up his claims, then pointed out that Bubba Wallace — who drives the car Hamlin owns with 23XI Racing — was suspended last year for deliberately hooking Kyle Larson during a race in Las Vegas.
"You never want to see Chase out of a car by any means," Bowman said, "but I understand why NASCAR has got to be consistent with things, and then also excited to see how Corey does. It's a big opportunity for him."
LoJoie was hired by Spire Motorsports — which will have Carson Hocevar in its No. 7 on Sunday — when he didn't get the No. 48 ride a couple of years ago. The team has steadily improved thanks in part to a working relationship with Hendrick Motorsports, and LaJoie was fourth earlier this year in Phoenix and has two other top-15 runs.
He knows expectations are greater with Hendrick, though, where his father Randy made nine starts some 25 years ago.
Hamlin reacts
Hamlin said he's been in contact with Elliott this week but wanted to keep the conversation private. But like most drivers at the speedway Saturday, he believed that NASCAR made an appropriate decision to sideline Elliott this week.
"I think they kind of put their line in the sand of what they deem acceptable and what they don't," said Hamlin, who was still a bit sore from the head-on wreck. "All drivers probably recognize now, you know, what you can do and what you can't do."
More penalties
Stewart-Haas Racing was penalized 120 points in owner standings and Chase Briscoe's driver standings while getting stripped of 25 playoff points after NASCAR found a counterfeit part on the No. 14 car during a spot check from Charlotte. Crew chief John Klausmeier also was suspended six races and fined $250,000.
The penalties, the harshest NASCAR imposes under its deterrence system, came after the team had used an illegal part to create more downforce on Briscoe's car. That particular part must be from a single-source vendor for the Next Gen car.
"We're all a team, right? I mean, my name is on the penalty but we're all a team," Briscoe said. "I make mistakes every single weekend in the car, literally multiple times. So you know, mistakes happen. I mean, I got their back."