Corey LaJoie was informed last week that he would not return to Spire Motorsports in 2025. He has now weighed in while saying that he is at peace with the team's decision.
The veteran driver provided the comments during an episode of his podcast, "Stacking Pennies." He provided a timeline for when he learned that he had "been fired" but did not provide many details about the situation.
LaJoie noted that he had made too many mistakes behind the wheel this season, some of which took the No. 7 team out of contention for good results. He also said that his time at Spire Motorsports went as expected with some hard days, and some unexpected issues, but also some good finishes.
"There's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that are probably not worth being in the public view, but I did want to start that I am super appreciative of where I'm at in life, financially," LaJoie said.
"My career went way different than I ever expected it, and it's never been easy. My entire NASCAR career has not gone how I thought it was going to go, so why would I expect anything different?"
“It’s never been easy.”@CoreyLaJoie on not returning to the No. 7 in 2025. pic.twitter.com/UXwdcCip7Q
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 31, 2024
LaJoie added during the podcast episode that the website Racing Reference does not have the best stats under his name. This is something he expected when he signed up to help build Spire Motorsports, a team that LaJoie said didn't have a 9/16" wrench in the early days.
The veteran driver said that the stats would be worse as part of the building process. However, he acknowledged that the stats this season were not deserving of a seat at the Cup Series table. LaJoie pointed to his DNF at Phoenix, as well as multiple other races where the No. 7 team struggled.
"I can lay my head down at night knowing that I did all I possibly could to build Spire with the things that I had," LaJoie said. "Could I have been more assertive in certain meetings and around certain people? Probably so.
"Could I have made less mistakes behind the wheel a couple different instances and get us some better finishes on occasion? Sure. But that's just how it goes."
LaJoie added during the podcast episode that he remains motivated to put a "real" win banner on the walls at Spire Motorsports. The team has one Cup win, which Justin Haley secured with a timely decision to stay out on the track under caution at Daytona International Speedway in 2019. The rain fell and ended the race, making Haley the winner.
"They have a trophy, but that wasn't really a real team back in the day," LaJoie said. "So it's a real team now, still want to be the first one to put a trophy in the trophy case on the Cup side there and continue to finish this thing strong in the last 14 races."
What happens after the season ends at Phoenix Raceway in November? LaJoie does not have that information just yet. He doesn't know if he will return to the Cup Series or if he will drop down to the Xfinity Series or Craftsman Truck Series. Maybe he will spend the season building race seats or coaching T-ball.
What LaJoie knows is that he has 14 races remaining to put the No. 7 team in victory lane.