Corey Lajoie

Corey Lajoie

32-Year-Old Driver  
Spire Motorsports
Spire Motorsports
2023 Fantasy Outlook
The six-season veteran will return to the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in 2023. Lajoie grabbed one Top-10 finish in all of last season and posted a 24.3 average finish, which was a career-best mark. As per recent history, the intermediate and larger ovals were his best tracks on the circuit. Lajoie will look to reduce the number of DNF's (8) and hope to find better week-to-week consistency in 2023. Most of the team, including crew chief Ryan Sparks, returns to help Lajoie to this end. Spire Motorsports will continue to get technical and engine support from Hendrick Motorsports, so fast cars will hopefully continue to roll out of their garage each week. Lajoie showed some improvement on the short tracks and road courses over the last half of last season, and hopefully that's a trend that continues into the upcoming season. Read Past Outlooks
Fifth-Place at Talladega
NASCAR Cup
October 1, 2023
Lajoie finished fifth in the YellaWood 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway Sunday afternoon.
ANALYSIS
The Spire Motorsports veteran showed his smarts and skills in pack racing once again. Lajoie came from deep in the field at 36th-place on the starting grid. He'd avoid the two multi-car crashes and push into the leaders at the end. Lajoie would scoot ahead of crashing cars coming to the finish line and hold off Austin Cindric to grab a strong fifth-place finish at Talladega. It was his second Top 5 of the season and third of his career.
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Racing Stats
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Track Stats
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Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Corey Lajoie See More
NASCAR DFS:  YellaWood 500
65 days ago
Erik Jones might not be in the playoffs, but has shown speed recently and Talladega is one of his best tracks. C.J. Radune gives his other top value plays along with two different lineup options for the race.
NASCAR Barometer: Denny Hamlin Lands Third Bristol Victory
76 days ago
Denny Hamlin knocked some of the recent bad luck off and picked up his third win of the season at Bristol. C.J. Radune breaks down Saturday night's race and reassess the drivers ahead of the Round of 12.
NASCAR Barometer:  Chris Buescher Heads RFK Racing One-Two Finish at Daytona
97 days ago
RFK Racing finished 1-2 at Daytona with Chris Buescher getting his third win of 2023. C.J. Radune highlights some of the other big stories from Daytona and how some of the top drivers stack up for the playoffs.
NASCAR DFS:  Coke Zero Sugar 400
100 days ago
The wildest race of the season is the playoff cutoff race at Daytona. C.J. Radune highlights some of the best plate racers in the Cup Series and his top value plays for Saturday night's race.
NASCAR DFS:  Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart
149 days ago
Chase Elliott returns to his home track needing a win to secure his spot in the playoffs. C.J. Radune thinks the driver of the No. 9 is trending and provides his other top value plays for Atlanta.
Past Fantasy Outlooks
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
Lajoie is expected to return to Spire Motorsports for another season in NASCAR's top division. The 30-year-old veteran is now up to 164 Cup Series starts and has quite a bit of experience at this point in his career. Lajoie peddled to just one Top 10 in 2021, but finished a career-best 29th-place in the points with a career-best 24.9 average finish. All expected marks for a small, underfunded race team. Spire returns the No. 7 Chevrolet squad fully intact with the same faces and crew chief Ryan Sparks. Lajoie will try to build on the good things they did, and emphasize those going into the 2022 campaign with the new race car. The return of practice and qualifying will help in that regard. Still, due to team size/sponsorship, Lajoie has a low ceiling and small potential to take a big leap from here.
Lajoie is one of a handful of off-season movers climbing into new race cars this season. He left Go FAS Racing at the conclusion of last season and brought his crew chief, Ryan Sparks, with him to Spire Motorsports. Lajoie will pilot the team's No. 7 Chevrolet and look to build this small race team's performance. Last season saw a host of different driver's in this cockpit and with it a general lack of performance and consistency. The driver conglomerate could only manage two Top-25 finishes. Lajoie brings four full seasons of Cup Series experience to the table and three-career Top-10 finishes. The 29-year-old driver's strength is superspeedway and intermediate oval racing. Those events will be his best starts, while short tracks and road courses are his definite weakness. Those are facts to keep handy when considering weekly lineup formats.
The 28-year-old is returning for season two at Go FAS Racing. Lajoie had a career-best Cup Series campaign in 2019 and grabbed his first two Top-10 finishes. They were both superspeedway events, but great accomplishments none-the-less. Lajoie also posted career-best marks in terms of average start and average finish, so last season was a good effort for this small race team. Randy Cox has departed the crew chief role, so Lajoie will have a new crew chief in 2020. At the time of this writing it has not been announced who will be taking over that very important role. Now approaching 100-career Cup Series starts, this driver is beginning to sort some things out. Depending on who GFR brings in to crew chief for Lajoie that will largely dictate any potential growth and improvement in the upcoming season.
Lajoie is joining Go FAS Racing for the 2019 season and taking over the No. 32 Ford. Sponsorship is coming up just a bit short (10 races), but it's a better situation than it has been in recent seasons. Lajoie comes over from the No. 72 team of TriStar last season. He made 23 starts for that team last season in what was a real mixed bag of performance. Lajoie would net just three Top-25 finishes for that small race team against seven DNF's. The move to GFR is a definite improvement, and a more stable situation for Lajoie. It's easily his best team situation since starting his Cup Series career in 2014. Randy Cox returns to the team as crew chief and will be a good leader and mentor for Lajoie in this transition.
Lajoie's fortunes will ride with what happens with BK Racing in 2018. He made 32 combined starts for this team's two cars last season. In his time bouncing back-and-forth between the No. 23 and No. 83 Toyotas Lajoie earned just four Top-25 finishes. He did have an impressive 11th-place showing in the summer Daytona race, but little else made impact. If BK Racing can get one or both teams back in action in the upcoming season, Lajoie should figure into the picture in some way. - February Update - Lajoie has signed with TriStar Motorsports to race most of the schedule in combination with Cole Whitt in the No. 72 Chevrolet.
Signed to drive part-time for BK Racing in their No. 83 Toyota Camry. It will be only a 14-start schedule for this second generation driver. He will share this team with Gray Gaulding and an array of other drivers. Due to Lajoie’s lack of experience in the Cup cars and his very limited schedule this season, his impact in fantasy racing is expected to be near zero.
More Fantasy News
Signs Extension
NASCAR Cup
August 3, 2023
LaJoie signed a multiyear extension to remain with Spire Motorsports for "several" years in the NASCAR Cup Series, he confirmed Wednesday on his podcast.
ANALYSIS
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Driving for Hendrick at Gateway
NASCAR Cup
May 30, 2023
Lajoie will drive the No. 9 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in Sunday's Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway after Chase Elliott was suspended for one race, Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports reports.
ANALYSIS
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Top-5 Finish in Atlanta
NASCAR Cup
March 19, 2023
Lajoie finished fourth in the Ambetter Health 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday afternoon.
ANALYSIS
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Fifth-Place at Atlanta
NASCAR Cup
March 20, 2022
Lajoie finished fifth in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday afternoon.
ANALYSIS
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Crew Chief Suspended
NASCAR Cup
March 15, 2022
NASCAR has released the post-race penalty report from the race weekend at Phoenix Raceway. There were two lug nut penalties in the Xfinity Series, and Ryan Sparks, crew chief for LaJoie has been suspended four races.
ANALYSIS
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