Effective this weekend at Kansas on September 29th, 2024, Corey LaJoie will drive the No. 51 NASCAR Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Rick Ware Racing (RWR). Despite the fact that LaJoie knew his former team, Spire Motorsports, would not sign him for 2025, the late-season switch came as a bit of a surprise, and he took to his podcast to voice his thoughts on the matter.
“Wild turn of events,” LaJoie said on the latest episode of Stacking Pennies. “Normally, you have some sort of an inclination that things are gonna happen in this business… there’s no [real] surprises. But this, I was a little bit caught off-guard.”
LaJoie explained that he learned that he would be swapped with former RWR driver, Justin Haley, on the night of Tuesday, September 17th. He said he heard rumblings that something was going on around 6:30 p.m., and the shoe finally dropped at 8:15 p.m., effectively upending his career trajectory.
After two phone calls, LaJoie finally learned the news. “The first call was, like, business as usual,” he said. “‘Couple good runs last couple weeks, let’s keep this thing going, hoo-rah, go team.’ Couple hours later, ‘And you’ve been traded.'”
Even though he was caught off-guard, LaJoie said that he really doesn’t see any downsides to joining RWR for the remainder of the 2024 racing season.
“To get in with another process, new people who are excited to have you over there… to integrate with that system, to get in the Ford camp, to get the feel of their simulator and how it correlates to reality – I think there are a lot of positives to jump in a car that you know you’re going to be able to work toward a future with with seven races to go.”
It’s important to note, however, that RWR has not yet announced if it will sign LaJoie to drive one of its NASCAR Ford entries for 2025. Robby Benton, president of RWR, indicated that the team will reevaluate its 2025 plans once the 2024 season is complete.
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