Some of the underdogs had a harsh time this season. The Xfinity Series saw NASCAR’s sole woman racer getting ejected abruptly, as Hailie Deegan lost her ride with AM Racing. Many people pointed fingers at the team itself, which made some wrong decisions in inducting her. Then the Cup Series witnessed a long-standing fixture coming loose – Corey LaJoie was ejected from his four-year-long stint with Spire Motorsports.

And like Deegan, the reason tilts slightly to external circumstances. LaJoie’s performance was dismal, to begin with, but all Spire needed was a mirror to measure their cars’ competence. So once they got that mirror in the form of Carson Hocevar‘s presence, the team became convinced about its decision.

Corey LaJoie bowed to a rookie

LaJoie had a slow start to the Cup Series, as is expected from newcomers. But he could not improve much over time either. In 2019, Corey LaJoie fetched two top-ten finishes under Go Fas Motorsports’ banner. Joining Spire Motorsports‘ fold did little to change things, although 2023 was arguably his best year. His average finish was 20.8, having collected two top-fives and three top-tens. LaJoie’s popular presence on his ‘Stacking Pennies’ podcast also pulled crowds. So after officially announcing the ejection, Spire’s co-owner even slipped a hint of regret on letting him go.

But a strong reason remained within the Spire Motorsports team. On an episode of Dale Jr Download, Jeff Gluck explained the initial outlook on LaJoie’s prospects. Stewart-Haas Racing’s veteran chief seemed to be joining Spire to overturn LaJoie’s performance. “It felt like Corey was about to get this big breakthrough moment…where he was going to be with Rodney Childers, go from stacking pennies to a winning, contending car with a championship crew chief. It seemed like he was this close to getting that, and then it doesn’t happen.” 

Corey LaJoie gained two teammates this season – Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar, both rookies. However, one of them proved that Spire’s cars can be wielded better. Gluck emphasized that as the primary motivating factor for Spire owners to ask LaJoie to leave. “Once the benchmark kind of got moved, and Carson Hocevar was the one having the most speed, I think the team starts looking at Corey a different way…’There’s probably more in these cars than we’re seeing from him. We’re investing all that money and making these moves to get all those resources. Is he really the guy?'”

Carson Hocevar holds four victories in the Craftsman Truck Series, and his immense prowess allowed him to jump to the Cup for this season. The 21-year-old rookie shone in his first year – he has an average finish of 19.4, better than LaJoie’s 22.7. Hocevar has also earned 84 more points in 22 races and has 17 lead-lap finishes to LaJoie’s 14. Clearly, Gluck’s theory stands for good reason, as Hocevar handed Spire officials a yardstick to measure their progress.

Despite Hocevar’s obvious hand in his ejection, Corey LaJoie had sided with his rookie teammate during the Nashville dust-up.

Corey LaJoie stood up for his detractor

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Carson Hocevar is known to be one of the rowdy drivers. Everybody is well-versed with his iconic encounter with Corey Heim at the Craftsman Truck Series championship race. This year, he lived up to his chaotic name on the Cup Series level as well. On lap 244 of the Nashville race, Brad Keselowski crashed and brought out a caution. Under the yellow flag, Carson Hocevar aggressively ran into the back of Harrison Burton, eventually turning him to the right and collecting other cars as well. NASCAR handed Hocevar with a $50,000 fine and docked him 25 points.

However, not long before Corey LaJoie learned about his ejection, the No. 7 driver stood up for his teammate. LaJoie suggested that the SMT data offers a different perspective: “Yeah, he is super fast, super aggressive. But I think, I’ll agree with that take to an extent, where you watch the video and you’re like, ‘Oooh, that doesn’t look good.’ Then you look at SMT and you kind of scrub through it and you see the 21 hitting the brakes. At the same time, the 77 hits his bumper and it looks less incriminating on SMT, but there’s only 50 people that can see SMT, right?”

That note of good faith has hardly paid off for Corey LaJoie’s own situation. As Carson Hocevar gains ground on the Cup Series, let us see if LaJoie can pull off a late-season miracle.