Daytona 500: Corey LaJoie gambled his kids' college fund to make NASCAR's Great American Race

Corey LaJoie badly wanted to be a part of the field for Sunday’s 67th running of the Daytona 500.

How bad? Well, according to Jenna Fryer of The Associated Press, LaJoie was willing to gamble his kids’ college fund to secure a seat. LaJoie, let go from Spire Motorsports near the end of the 2024 season, spent the final seven races piloting the No. 51 Ford for Rick Ware Racing. RWR opted to put Cody Ware in the seat for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

With no guaranteed spot and no sponsors on board a month out from the Daytona 500, LaJoie was willing to front the cost it would require for RWR to field a second car in the biggest race of the season. LaJoie said he handed over the money “in January to make sure nobody else got the car.” The cost, per LaJoie, was “four zeros, one comma.”

“I was probably dumb enough to let my chips ride on the table and try to make this race on my own dime,” LaJoie said. “It was all of my kids’ college fund rolled into one race.”

Fortunately for LaJoie, he received a manna from heaven.

Corey LaJoie races his way into Daytona 500

“But luckily for me, [sponsors] DuraMAX and Take 5 came in at the last minute. And took me off the hook,” LaJoie said.

He added, via Nick DeGroot of Motorsport: “I felt like the last four months of my life in general with some doors shutting that I was praying to get shut and doors opening that I was praying to get opened. Some of the ones that I didn’t anticipate getting opened. I felt like the Lord has been in every step. [I] was at peace with letting that amount of money go as a bit of a faith tester.

“It was like every day for weeks. And it got down to the 11th hour, right, and he delivered that sponsor. I don’t think it’s coincidence. I think that that partnership was meant to be.”

With a ride and sponsors secured, LaJoie now needed to race his way into the Great American Race as a non-chartered driver. With Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. locking into the field on speed and Helio Castroneves taking the open exemption provisional, that left two spots up for grabs among LaJoie, Justin Allgaier, Anthony Alfredo, B.J. McLeod, Chandler Smith and JJ Yeley.

LaJoie finished sixth in Thursday’s Duel 2 at Daytona, giving him one of the final spots in the 41-car field. The 33-year-old will start 12th in his ninth Daytona 500 start. LaJoie’s future remains uncertain; But he will be racing on Sunday.

“I’m not sure what the future holds quite yet,” LaJoie said. “But I’m excited that the first box we set out to check was coming down here. And making the Great American Race, and that’s what we did.”