NASCAR: Corey LaJoie won’t be penalized for Kyle Busch wreck at Pocono

Corey LaJoie will not be penalized for wrecking Kyle Busch during the Cup Series race at Pocono on Sunday. Per Dustin Long of NBC Sports, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said officials will talk to LaJoie ahead of Sunday’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The news comes shortly after the Cup Series managing director Brad Moran told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday morning that NASCAR will look into the wreck since “it got some folks attention.” It looks like NASCAR officials didn’t see any wrongdoing from LaJoie based on the footage they saw and the audio they listened to.

LaJoie spun Busch during the final stage of Sunday’s race after Busch’s No. 8 car blocked him twice. The wreck gave Busch his fifth DNF of the season, and LaJoie went on to earn a P19 finish.

“I got a big push from the 16, when you’re 20th back there it’s in the hornet’s nest and you’re seven-wide into [Turn] One,” LaJoie explained after the race, via Frontstretch. “If you’re not the guy on the bottom, somebody else behind you is going to jam it in there and put you freaking middle, right? So, I had a bit of a run the 16 gave me a big shot, I got to the left rear of the 8 and he blocked it once and I just kind of held the wheel straight and I was almost anticipating our bumpers kind of lining up and giving him a little bit of a shove but when he blocked the second time it just turned him across my nose. I hate that I tore up some good cars.”

Can Corey LaJoie turn things around in 2025?

LaJoie is not having the best 2024 season. After earning a P4 finish at the Daytona 500, the 32-year-old has not earned another top-five or top-10 finish. The hope is things can turn around for LaJoie in 2025 when Rodney Childers becomes his new crew chief.

“I would argue that there’s probably no driver on a greater hot seat than Corey LaJoie next year,” NASCR insider Jordan Bianchi said on The Teardown podcast. “He’s going to have the expectation of you can’t have a year like this. This has been a frustrating year, there’s been a lot of mistakes, they have underperformed this year. It has not gone well. There will not be any excuses next year.

“From what Spire has done in this move, I think it signifies they’re here to play. They are willing to spend money, they’re bringing in people; Rodney Childers, Michael McDowell, Carson Hocevar. They are going out, they’re buying a charter, they are committed to this.”