Corey LaJoie reacts to being traded to Rick Ware Racing for Justin Haley
Prior to last Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Spire Motorsports and Rick Ware Racing announced a move that we don’t see too often in the NASCAR Cup Series, a trade.
Corey LaJoie and Justin Haley will swap teams for the remainder of the 2024 season, as LaJoie will pilot RWR’s No. 51 Ford, while Haley will be behind the wheel of Spire’s No. 7 Chevrolet. The move starts next Sunday at Kansas. Spire confirmed that Haley will drive for Spire in 2025, while it remains to be determined if LaJoie will be with RWR next season.
It was already known LaJoie was on his way out at Spire, but what he didn’t know is that Bristol would be his last race in the No. 7. During the latest episode of Corey LaJoie’s Stacking Pennies, the freshly-minted RWR wheelman explained how he found out he was being traded, and what his mindset is moving forward.
“Wild turn of events, because normally you have some sort of an inclination things are going to happen in this business,” LaJoie said, regarding the move. “Normally, there’s writing on the wall, and some, you know, there’s no real surprises. But this time, I was a little bit caught off guard. Tuesday night was when it all went down, and from the time of about 6:30 p.m., when everything was just kind of chugging along, see what was happening, and then about 8:15 p.m., your entire setup of what you’re doing with your career changes.
“… The first call was business as usual, ‘Couple good runs last couple weeks. Let’s keep this thing going,’ you know, ‘Go Team.’ Couple hours later, and you’ve been treated. Right at the deadline, the wire came through right at the nick of time. So, for me, I’m a big T-chart kind of fella. When I make major life decisions, particularly with my career, it comes down to a T-chart — pros, cons, write it out. I don’t see very many cons in this situation, to be honest with you, because even though the No. 7 car and our team has had a great month, before I stuck it in the fence — I got some assistance getting stuck in the fence at Bristol. We were going to go for another top 10 day, which would have been three top 10s in the last month.
“To get in with another process, new people who are excited to have you over there and think their their cars are just as good as the one I’m driving, to integrate with that system, to get in the Ford camp, get the feel, the simulator and how that correlates to reality, I think there are a lot of positives, to be able to jump in a car that you know you’re going to be able to work towards a future with, with seven races to go, and just knock the new off of it.”
Alas, it’s easy to see why Corey LaJoie is excited for the change, as it seemed like his relationship with Spire Motorsports had grown stale. Moving forward, it’ll be fascinating to keep track of who gets the better end of the deal, and whether LaJoie can out-race his replacement in Justin Haley.