CONCORD, N.C. -- NASCAR will not penalize Corey LaJoie for contact with Kyle Busch that triggered a multi-car crash during the final stage of Sunday's Cup race at Pocono.
NASCAR has issued penalties in recent weeks for contact on the track. Bubba Wallace received a $50,000 fine for door-slamming Alex Bowman on the cooldown lap at Chicago. Carson Hocevar received a fine and a points penalty for hooking Harrison Burton under caution at Nashville. Layne Riggs was held for two laps at Nashville for reckless driving.
According to competition officials, the contact from Lajoie that sent Busch spinning did not rise to this level. This is why NASCAR chose not to penalize the Spire Motorsports driver.
"We're in race, we're in competition," Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, told media members Tuesday. You've got two guys racing hard. You listen to the in-car audio on the (No.) 7, and you don't hear anything from the driver.
"There's some comments made by the crew chief and spotter, but neither one of them are driving the car. I've had those guys in my ear before. They're not driving. Didn't hear anything from the 7."
Sawyer added that NASCAR will have a conversation with LaJoie before this weekend's Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to make sure that "he's in a good place."
Questions about potential penalties swirled after the Pocono incident.
Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran acknowledged this during a Tuesday appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio when he said that the sanctioning body didn't believe the contact was intentional but that they would do their "due diligence" before making a decision.
As Sawyer explained to media members at the NASCAR Production Facility, NASCAR wanted to wait and get all of the possible information before making a decision.
They looked at the data and watched the in-car cameras. They listened to radio communication, which included LaJoie's crew chief saying that Busch "got what he deserved" after the crash.
"From an officiating standpoint, our goal was to try to be fair, but again, every situation is a little bit different," Sawyer said.