Ryan Blaney became the fifth driver to have multiple Cup wins this season at Pocono Raceway. All the attention and talk after the race, however, was about the late-race drama that unfolded between Corey LaJoie and Kyle Busch.

During a late-race restart, LaJoie and Rowdy were involved in a heated battle. LaJoie, frustrated with the aggressive blocks, decided to take matters into his own hands and clipped the bumper of the No. 8 car, thus igniting a multi-car wreck that ultimately ended Busch’s day with a DNF finish.

For the most part, Corey LaJoie has kept his hands clean to avoid unnecessary scuffles. So what prompted him to force the issue last Sunday? Going by the driver’s words, it was because his team demanded he go aggressive, thus, adopting the tactic, which he believes has now become the new norm in the Cup Series.

There is no more give-and-take approach with the Next-Gen car, says Corey LaJoie

LaJoie in the No. 7 Chevy has had a torrid time trying to navigate his way to good finishes in 2024. Running his eight full-time schedules, LaJoie is seen as the senior driver at Spire Motorsports, leading the charge for the team. With the playoffs hopes slowly fading away, LaJoie was asked to go elbows out with his approach at Pocono. And he certainly didn’t hesitate to throw caution out of the wind by taking Busch out of commission.

“I’ve been getting poked and prodded by team that I be more aggressive on restarts, putting guys in the worst spots and putting myself in a leveraged position. So I just made a commitment; just take the run this several weeks and go and force the issue like a lot of the other guys are doing.” Lajoie explained this while speaking in an interview with SiriusXM Nascar Radio.

He also shed light on the change in the dynamics of racing with the Next Gen car, and how parity racing has forced drivers to adopt a more aggressive style of racing. “The Cup Series is you take all the time; no matter what, no matter first lap, last lap, or any lap in between for first or for dirty first, you’re racing your a** off. So it’s been a little bit of an adjustment for me to just turn up the selfishness meter or the give-and-take model, where you had a little bit of give-and-take with the old car. This car there’s all take.”

Despite the NASCAR community going all ballistic against the Spire Motorsports driver, he isn’t fazed by the criticism and the opinions online. However, he did accept that he perhaps pushed the needle too much, racing hard against Kyle Busch.

This is how LaJoie viewed the crash from his perspective

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Those who watched the replay of the wreck multiple times were quick to lay blame on Corey LaJoie. After coming to blows for track position on the restart, it was clear that the No. 7 car bummed the No. 8, sending it into the grass and crashing into safer barriers. However, there’s more to the whole incident, according to the 32-year-old.

“His car stopped having forward progress at the same time I was going to merge in behind him and essentially hooked him, wiped out a bunch of cars in the process. It’s not the outcome that I wanted … I think it’s easy for the people on Reddit and people watching the broadcast to just assume that whatever that was malicious, whether it was intentional or not. But I’ve come to learn that none of those opinions matter, to be honest with you,” he added.

As far as Kyle Busch is concerned, he remained tight-lipped about the whole incident. And this is not a good sight for Rowdy fans out there, as he’s possibly having his worst season so far in his NASCAR career.