Corey LaJoie has stacked his pennies, now he is cashing in with Spire Motorsports

For years, Corey LaJoie has grinded away in the NASCAR Cup Series. He has slowly built better results each season, stacking his pennies, as he says. He’s stuck by Spire Motorsports when everyone else thought it was a losing bet.

In 2024, LaJoie is cashing in on his pennies with his long-term wager on Spire Motorsports. He signed an extension last season that looked like another ill-advised decision. Then, things started to change.

Spire went on to add Gainbridge and Group 1001 as big partners. They then bought the Live Fast Motorsports charter for $40 million. Soon after that, they went out and bought Kyle Busch Motorsports, the CNC shop, and the entire facility that housed KBM. LaJoie even finished in the top-25 in the points.

Not to mention, Spire added Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith (via Trackhouse) for this season. They are two exciting rookies with superstar potential. Most recently, LaJoie signed with Kevin Harvick’s KHI Management.

Even with all of the changes, LaJoie heads into the Busch Light Clash with a familiar sponsor.

“Man, it’s such an honor to continue to have Celsius be a part of my growth as a driver [and] our team’s growth as we continue to grow to be a race-winning organization in the Cup Series,” LaJoie said in an interview with On3.

That is the goal. Take all of the new additions, pair them with what got Spire and LaJoie to this point, and put the 7 car in Victory Lane.

Tired of being written off

Going back through his career, LaJoie has had success in different motorsports pursuits, including the ARCA Menards Series. That was when it was the K&N Pro Series. He is in the same class as Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, and others

For one reason or another, those other drivers have seen more success. They have won in the Cup Series, and race for big-name teams. Things just never worked out for Corey like they had his peers.

Now, all of a sudden, it looks like Corey LaJoie has seen this coming the entire time, and when the finishes start to back up the offseason additions, don’t act shocked. And don’t forget the road LaJoie took to get himself and this team to get here.

“I just,” LaJoie paused for a moment. “I’m tired of getting written off. I think people, it’s easy to forget or not realize what work I signed up to do when I came to this team that had no employees, to build it to a race team that was actually respected in the garage.

“You know, people want to judge you by your statistics. Well, I willingly threw statistics away for however long it took to get our team to this point. So I’m tired of the media thinking I’m not capable, because I’ve been successful in every single thing that I’ve done in my life, and the Cup Series is going to be no different.”

Corey LaJoie isn’t wrong. He has increased his overall points total in each year he’s been with Spire. LaJoie has also added more top-10s and top-5 finishes, culminating in a career-best finish of 25th in the points standings last season. Not to mention zero DNFs.

LaJoie has sacrificed, in his words, “the prime years of my career,” to help build Spire. Starting this weekend, he’s after results.

Corey LaJoie ready to put growth to the test

Of course, the only thing that matters in NASCAR is where you finish on Sunday. You can have all of the funding in the world, but if you don’t put your car in the right position to win, it doesn’t matter. The work and preparation have been done. All that remains for LaJoie is to race.

This weekend, the new era of Spire Motorsports begins. New sponsors, new equipment, and new crew members will be valuable. A renaissance for a long-suffering organization.

What better stage for the debut of the new Spire than Los Angeles? The City of Angels. The LA Coliseum, one of the most historic venues in all of sports, remade in NASCAR’s image for this moment.

“Hopefully, all of the improvements and additions that we’ve had over the offseason can start paying dividends,” LaJoie said. “Even this first one here at the LA Clash with Celsius on our car, hopefully, we can start our season off with a bang.”

To finish our conversation, I asked the Cup driver “What is going to surprise people the most about Corey LaJoie and this team this season?” He knows many will be surprised, but he also knows others won’t be. The ones who have been with him the whole time.

Those are the people who helped get him here. They will be right there for the next chapter, too.

“This year, there’s going to be a lot of surprised people, but there is going to be people that have been with me all along, riding with me, that have seen the journey, that aren’t going to be surprised at all.”