“Don’t drag me into this”: Corey LaJoie responds to Chase Elliott’s post amid NASCAR Mexico race promotions

Corey LaJoie, the part-time NASCAR Cup Series driver for Rick Ware Racing (RWR), recently responded to a playful social media post made by Chase Elliott. The Hendrick Motorsports driver recently tagged LaJoie in a post on X, suggesting that the RWR driver was a Mexican wrestler. LaJoie responded by asking Elliott to leave him out of it as he wasn't even present with the HMS driver in Mexico.

Elliott, along with Ryan Blaney, Daniel Suárez, and Christopher Bell, had traveled to Mexico as part of NASCAR’s initiative to promote its first points-paying Cup Series race outside the United States since 1958. The race will take place on Father’s Day, June 16, at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, a track that previously hosted NASCAR Xfinity Series races from 2005 to 2008 but has never held a premier Cup Series event.

During the promotional tour, the four drivers participated in various activities, including a city tour, a visit to a wrestling event, and a press conference. They also took a ride around the racetrack in a golf cart. Chase Eliott posted a picture of all four drivers posing with a wrestler while wearing masks. He hilariously tagged Corey LaJoie as the wrestler among the five and asked the fans who would win if they were to wrestle.

"Left to right: 🙋🏻‍♂️, @Blaney, @CoreyLaJoie, @Daniel_SuarezG, @CBellRacing. Who’s taking the belt? 🤣" Elliott jokingly wrote on X.

Not long after, Corey LaJoie reshared the post with his own lighthearted response saying that while he is not present with them, he and Ryan Blaney could hold their own if paired in a tag team match. He wrote:

"Don’t drag me into this, I’m in Charlotte. But gimme @Blaney as a tag team partner and we would hold our own."

These promotional tours are a result of the Driver Ambassador Program introduced by NASCAR in 2025 which rewards drivers with a cash prize for their efforts in promoting the sport other than the designated media duties each driver has to carry out.

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Corey LaJoie opens up about the potential for running more Cup races in 2025

With a permanent switch to Rick Ware Racing in 2025, Corey LaJoie had to let go of his full-time spot on the NASCAR Cup Series grid. He is scheduled to take part in eight races this season. Notably, RWR is a significantly underfunded team compared to the big ones like Hendrick Motorsports, Team Penske, and Joe Gibbs Racing.

This means that LaJoie has to prove the team's worth to its existing sponsors by getting decent results in a relatively underperforming machinery. But on the other hand, he also has to actively participate in acquiring funds to keep the No. 51 RWR team alive. His outing at the season-opening Daytona 500 was certainly a good show for the sponsors as he led the race in the closing stages, between laps 186 and 192. However, he later got shuffled back and eventually finished in P22.

Ahead of the race in Atlanta, Bob Pockrass from FOX Sports asked Corey LaJoie if his strong race pace at Daytona would lead to some extra opportunities in the season.

"Certainly helps, anytime you can run good and contend for wins, that gets your existing partners fired up. Also, it allows you to put together some cool marketing decks with ‘0-1 lead in the field at the 500’ to try and sell a couple more. I think collectively between Rick and I, there’s a balance between having my car be an asset towards what the #51 (the second RWR team) is trying to do without bogging the shop down," Corey LaJoie explained in a video shared on X.

"We’re having some really good conversations with partners, and we want to make sure we’re choosing and picking the right races to go," he added.

LaJoie also joined Prime Video last year as a NASCAR analyst and he will continue to juggle between racing and his role as an analyst throughout the 2025 season.