“Go Back to the Corn Fields” – Corey LaJoie Makes a Blunt Admission While Discussing Dirt’s Future in NASCAR

Last weekend, the Cup race at the Bristol Motor Speedway concluded. However, as opposed to a regular race on the tarmac, the drivers were racing on dirt. Though the dirt race is a bit of a novelty for the younger fans, the old-timers remember such races well. As such, there have been some demands from the community to include more dirt races. In light of this, Corey LaJoie served up a brutal reality check to them. According to him, it is not so easy to just approach a track, add it to the calendar, and everything magically falls in place.

The Spire Motorsports driver recently appeared in an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, where he talked about the matter. He said “The Yankees don’t go to a Single-A stadium for a game. There’s a lot of great dirt tracks out here for dirt racing, but the Cup Series needs the infrastructure, needs the prestige of ‘the show is here.’

“These are the big guys, this is the pinnacle of motorsport.

“I’m not going to say anything about dirt tracks, as there are 100s of great ones all over. But just because it’s a nice dirt track, doesn’t mean that we need to take the Cup Series to a dirt track. I think Bristol works because it has the infrastructure of a Cup Series track. Has the video boards, the stuff, pit road, garages, media centre, place for Goodyear, the infrastructure to do a legitimate event.”

Feb 16, 2022; Daytona, FL, USA; Feb 16, 2022; Daytona, FL, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Corey LaJoie (7) talks to the press during Daytona 500 media day at Daytona International Speedway. Mandatory Credit:Mandatory Credit: Mike Dinovo-USA TODAY Sports

Corey LaJoie has an interesting example to back his point

The #7 driver cast his mind to the upcoming All-Star race at the North Wilkesboro Speedway. This story is particularly well-documented because of Dale Earnhardt Jr‘s tireless efforts to restore the track. In the end, it all paid off when the iconic short track was included in the Cup Series calendar as the All-Star race. However, there was a lot of hard work behind the scenes to make that possible, and lightning may not strike twice.

LaJoie continued, “Even North Wilkesboro. The majority of the time SMI [Speedway Motorsports] has spent at Wilkesboro is to make the infrastructure capable of suiting what now is the Cup Series.

“So you can’t say, ‘Oh! Take them to Eldora, take them to Knoxville.’ It might be fine for the Knoxville Nationals, but it’s just different for the Cup Series.”

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He admitted that all the talk about moving to a dirt track is just to check a box, saying, “We haven’t progressed 75 years of NASCAR to go back to the corn fields with 10,000 people on the grandstands, with one funnel cake trailer. Let’s not downgrade it to check a box.

“So I’m on the side of being all out and let the World of Outlaw dirt late models, the Lucas Oil dirt late models, or sprint cars—these guys, their cars are built and suitable and draw the right amount of crowds for the capacity of the venues—just let them do their thing.

“We don’t need a little bit of their stuff. Let their stuff be good. Let our stuff be good. Let’s continue to hone it.”

In essence, he does not want the sport to take backward steps on the progress front. LaJoie believes that the classic NASCAR tracks should not just simply return for the sake of sating fan nostalgia.

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