HAMPTON, Ga.: Corey LaJoie survived the chaos in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway to earn his first career top-five finish in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Article by Chris Knight, Catchfence
LaJoie, the son of two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Randy LaJoie, a native of Norwalk, CT, utilized an extremely fast No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE in the draft and a strategic plan for the 325-lap race that was executed well, especially in the closing laps at the newly repaved race track.
It wasn’t easy though.
LaJoie recovered from briefly going airborne through the frontstretch grass after leader Tyler Reddick blew a right rear tire on Lap 145 which thankfully caused minimal damage to his No. 7 Fraternal Order of Eagles Chevrolet.
180 laps later, LaJoie earned his best finish in 169 Cup Series starts and collected his fifth career top-10 overall.
“We did exactly what we set out to do today,” said LaJoie. “We made Atlanta Motor Speedway like a superspeedway. We missed the wrecks and put our No. 7 Fraternal Order of Eagles Camaro ZL1 there at the end and got a top-five finish.”
LaJoie finished 14th in the season-opening Daytona 500 and followed it up with a top-15 finish two races later at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway – but after less-than-ideal finishes at Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway and a 36th place finish last weekend at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway, Atlanta’s performance was a welcomed boost.
“It’s great to start our season with three top-15’s and now one top-five. Hopefully, we can maintain the momentum over the next couple of weeks and put ourselves in a good points position through the summer.
“Thank you to everyone at Spire Motorsports and the No. 7 team for all the hard work to continue to build fast Chevy’s.”
(Photo Credit: Sean Gardner | Getty Images)
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
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