Corey LaJoie Earns Career Day At Atlanta With Top-Five Finish

Corey LaJoie Earns Career Day At Atlanta With Top-Five Finish

by March 22, 2022 0 comments

HAMPTON, Ga. – Have you ever seen a car get airborne and still finish inside of the top-five? Corey LaJoie did just that as he battled back for a career-high, fifth-place finish in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday.

LaJoie, driver of the Spire Motorsports No. 7 Fraternal Order of Eagles Chevrolet has kicked off the 2022 season with great momentum. In the Daytona 500, Lajoie brought his car home in one piece with a solid 14th-place finish and two weeks later, he captured another top-15 by finishing 15th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Fast-forward to Atlanta, LaJoie rallied all the way back from a 33rd-place starting spot to finish fifth.

“We did exactly what we set out to do today,” LaJoie said. “We made Atlanta Motor Speedway like a superspeedway. We missed the wrecks and put our No. 7 Fraternal Order of Eagles Camaro ZL1 there at the end and got a top-five finish.

The competitive effort however, didn’t come without its challenges. On Lap 146, a massive crash that involved a total of 13 drivers sent LaJoie sliding across the frontstretch grass. As his car glided along the frontstretch, he got airborne when the grass transitioned to asphalt, and crazy enough, he kept the car rolling.

The accident certainly didn’t seem to hinder his car’s performance and he drove to the front of the pack to capture his best-ever finish in the NASCAR Cup Series in 169 starts. LaJoie’s previous best finish was a sixth-place effort in the 2019 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona.

“It’s great to start our season with three top-15’s and now one top-five,” LaJoie said. “Hopefully, we can maintain the momentum over the next couple of weeks and put ourselves in a good points position through the summer. Thank you to everyone at Spire Motorsports and the No. 7 team for all the hard work to continue to build fast Chevy’s.”

Now, LaJoie and his team look forward to this upcoming weekend’s race at Circuit of the Americas, a track where he finished 20th last season in the series’ debut at the road course in Austin Texas. The team did suffer a DNF in Phoenix, but so the season hasn’t been without adversity, but Austin provides the team with another opportunity to capitalize on this year’s unique schedule.

The NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix will broadcast live on FOX at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com

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