Corey LaJoie posts in-car footage of wild flip, wreck at Michigan
So, you wanna be a NASCAR driver, eh? Well, if that’s in fact true, perhaps you should get a look at Corey LaJoie’s in-car footage of his wild ride at Michigan on Monday.
With the speed these cars go, wrecks are bound to happen. It’s a part of the business. But flipping over and sliding across the racetrack is far less common, yet that’s exactly what happened to LaJoie on Lap 136 as he was jockeying for position inside the top-20 with Noah Gragson.
LaJoie revealed Wednesday the real-time footage of his flip from inside the racecar and as you can see, it was quite uncomfortable for him.
LaJoie recounted his experience inside the car as it all went down during Tuesday’s “Stacking Pennies” podcast. As LaJoie went for the pass on the inside, next thing he knew, he was having a Ricky Bobby “I’m flying through the air” moment.
“So, I hit him, and I started spinning out, I’m like damnit. Just lock it down, try to keep this thing going,” LaJoie said. “I’ll drive around with flats on, and we’ll put tires on it, and we’ll still try. I was thinking about that all in the span of it getting sideways. Then it picked up and I’m like, ‘Oh sh*t, I’m flying through the air.’”
Corey LaJoie goes for wild ride at Michigan
Making matters worse for LaJoie was that his visor happened to be open as his car turned over. As he slid through the grass, rocks, dust and dirt flew into his eyes — certainly a ride he’ll never forget.
“There’s like rocks and dust and dirt and my eyes are kind of like closed because my stuff, like there’s sparks and stuff hitting me in the face,” LaJoie said. “I’m like why am I getting stuff in my eye here, I’m like, ‘Oh, my visor’s open.’ So I shut my visor and I’m like holding my visor like this, then I hit the wall upside down and the wheel like rips out of my hand and I was like, ‘Oh, shoot, I’m still going pretty fast, let me grab my seatbelts.’ Then I got to the grass and it was like ugh, ugh, ugh. Bigger than a softball size clump of grass landed right in my lap.”
Thankfully, LaJoie avoided any injuries from the accident. LaJoie’s car will now go back to the R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, to be inspected. As you could imagine, NASCAR wants to take a deeper look at how the Next Gen car took flight so easily.