“I’m gonna get paid for that place tonight”: Corey LaJoie confident for his NASCAR future following top-10 finish at Darlington

Corey LaJoie brimmed with confidence regarding his NASCAR future after posting a ninth-place finish at Darlington's 'Too Tough To Tame' track. The Spire Motorsports driver was recently sacked from the team and is without a Cup Series seat for the next season.

LaJoie started his 2024 season with a fourth-place finish at the season-opener Daytona 500. However, as the season progressed, his performance plummeted, and he struggled to keep up with the leaderboard toppers. After the Darlington outing, his stats show a solitary top-5 and two top-10s from the season.

The 32-year-old started the Southern 500 from 19th with stage finishes of 22nd and 23rd. However, with the transpiring cautions, the field ahead of LaJoie cleared and he climbed for a shot at the top 10.

Unlike his Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway race, where he got wrecked out in late-race incidents, Corey LaJoie safeguarded his run on Darlington's complex egg-shaped oval and finished ninth.

After posting a promising result on one of NASCAR's toughest tracks, LaJoie is confident about "getting paid" for his top-10 finish, as the Chevy driver revealed during a conversation with Frontstretch.

"I go with intention to do this every week. We've been in plenty of spots in the top ten. Nashville's one where we got a crash in third," Corey LaJoie said. "So, to actually put one in the notch is nice, hit the hardest track that we go to in the longest race. So, you know, there's a lot of people chirping, but nonetheless, I'm gonna get paid for that place tonight and my phone's gonna keep ringing when people want me to drive their car." [00:49]

LaJoie is 32nd on the Cup Series standings and can't fight for the championship in the playoffs.

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Corey LaJoie will not return to Spire Motorsports in 2025

In August last year, Corey LaJoie inked a multi-year deal with the Mooresville-based outfit. He's been driving for the No. 7 team since 2021 and was supposed to be with Spire for years to come. Moreover, Stewart-Haas Racing's championship-winning crew chief, Rodney Childers, was set to join the 32-year-old from 2025 onwards.

However, things took a turn after the Brickyard 400 race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A few days after LaJoie's 14th-place finish at the crown jewel event, the team announced on July 25 that he won't return to the #7 Chevy's seat in 2025.

LaJoie opened up on his final year with the team and said (via The Athletic):

“I won’t be driving the #7 car next year. I take a lot of satisfaction from having an integral part of building Spire into a respectable team on the grid, but unfortunately, the future won’t involve me. We will finish the remainder of 2024 strong, continuing to deliver for my partners, my guys who work hard to build good cars, family, fans and friends who have supported me since day one in the Cup Series."

"This chapter ends after Phoenix, and I’m excited to see what the Lord has in store for my family next,” he added.

Drivers such as Harrison Burton, who will be replaced by Josh Berry in 2025, and Austin Cindric, who signed a contract extension with Team Penske in 2023 with the length of the deal unknown to the public, could replace Corey LaJoie in the #7 seat.