Corey LaJoie explains how Daniel Suárez messed up his shift at Sonoma

Corey LaJoie and the Stacking Pennies podcast reviewed Sonoma weekend and that includes Daniel Suárez’s strange misstep. Before the NASCAR off week officially started, LaJoie and his podcast crew got together to go over that and much more from Wine Country. So, how does a NASCAR driver miss a shift?

To understand why Suárez made that bad shift in the very beginning of the Sonoma race, you have to know what is up with the gearbox. In the Cup Series car, it is a sequential shifter. You pull it back towards you to shift up a gear and slap it forward to shift down.

This is a lot like those slap shifters they put in automatic cars now so you can pretend to know how to drive a car.

Meanwhile, the Xfinity Series is still on an H-pattern. This is the typical gearbox that you would see in a manual vehicle. The gearshift is moved up and down, as well as to the side in order to go into gear.

“They can take like almost like an unloaded, that much RPM but they sure don’t like it,” Corey LaJoie explained on his podcast. “And also if it’s sustained it’s not gonna last. But if he’s used to all day long, Saturday, taking his hand because you’re leaving, I don’t remember exactly where it was, I think, [Turn] 7 right before the essess.

“He was used to in an Xfinity car taking his palm and pushing it away from him, second to third. … You go for the first lap of the Cup race and you’re not pushing it from second to third, you’re pulling it from second to third. We’re humans man, brain farts happen all the time.”

Just a bad time for muscle memory to kick in.

Corey LaJoie back to the No. 7 Chevy

Of course, Corey LaJoie is getting a bit of a reset this off week after a wild couple of weeks. LaJoie went and subbed in for Chase Elliott in the No. 9 Chevy. It was a decision that Hendrick Motorsports came to after Elliott was suspended for wrecking Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600.

LaJoie didn’t have the day that he had hoped for. He fought hard over 300 miles just to get a P21 finish at Gateway. It showed that LaJoie had a lot of determination and he definitely didn’t quit. But now he’s back in the No. 7 Chevy for Spire Motorsports, it is back to normal.

While LaJoie was floating around the playoff bubble, he has slipped in recent weeks. Now down to 22nd overall in the Cup Series standings, the driver is chasing Austin Cindric and AJ Allmendinger to get into the top-20.

Corey LaJoie is a grind-it-out kind of guy. So, that’s what he is going to do. When NASCAR returns next week, he will have a chance at a strong finish. Nashville plays a bit into his strengths. So, what can we expect from LaJoie for the rest of the season?