Denny Hamlin suggests Corey LaJoie has 'lost his mojo'
Denny Hamlin believes Corey LaJoie has been slightly disappointing throughout the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign.
The No. 7 wheelman for Spire Motorsports was a sneaky pick to make the playoffs, and it hasn’t worked out that way for LaJoie in 2024. He has one top-five and one top-ten in 2024, and his average finish is 24.333 at the moment. That’s a far-cry from the goal of competing for wins that LaJoie had entering this season.
In fact, LaJoie has even been outrun by his teammate in Carson Hocevar’s No. 77 ride, something that Hamlin has been surprised by throughout the 2024 campaign.
“Carson, you’ve just got to start giving props to, because he’s out running Corey every single week,” Hamlin stated, via the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast. “I can’t think, you know, I’m just thinking in my head, I haven’t seen like, Corey ahead of him much at all this year. So, and Corey was saying for a very long time, ‘I’ve never had a teammate to like, even remotely challenge me,’ and I think, challenge accepted, if you’re Carson Hocevar.
“He’s accepted the challenge, and he’s certainly taking over as the top driver, it seems like performance-wise, on results this year over at Spire.”
Still, Hamlin recognizes LaJoie has been better than what we’ve seen this season over the last couple of years. He believes LaJoie lost a bit of his mojo somewhere, and now it’s up to the Spire wheelman to find it and get back to ascending in the Cup Series.
“Corey is not quite, you know, they’ve lost some mojo somewhere, somehow over this last year, I would say,” Hamlin added. “It’s only been like, kind of the speedways, where they would show up. And then you know, for whatever reason this No. 77 has gone from running like, dead-last last year to you know, they put Carson in and now he’s running P15 most weeks.
“You know, and then this week, he runs in the top ten. So, certainly, you know, a really good driver there that’s showing when he made it to the Cup Series that he’s certainly very deserving of that seat.”
Denny Hamlin and Corey LaJoie haven’t always been the most cordial, but it’s obvious the veteran driver is expecting more out of the Spire Motorsports wheelman moving forward. We’ll see if LaJoie can find some of what made the No. 7 go over the next couple of weeks, as the summer slate begins in the Cup Series.