Corey LaJoie describes ‘pretty wild ride’ of flipping on final lap at Talladega

Corey LaJoie experienced the wildest finish in his NASCAR Cup Series career at the Geico 500 on Sunday. While speaking to reporters after the race, the NASCAR veteran driver talked about being involved a wreck on the final lap that led to his car ending up on his side and proceeded to stay that way across the finish line.

“Pretty wild ride,” LaJoie said. “Just never could quite get it in the right spot at the right time there at the end. You just know you’re just waiting to pile them up.” LaJoie went on to say that he’s fortunate he didn’t “bounce around too much” on his way to finishing 18th.

“I did a full rotation, so I did left side on the ground for a bit,” LaJoie added. “Then it kind of stopped, then it flipped over, hit the seat, hit the roof, landed on all fours and the all-four hit was pretty big. I’m glad I slid past the finish line so I didn’t have to run past it like I was Carl Edwards. At least I made it past our finish line.”

When asked what happened, LaJoie said he was “committed to the fuel, somebody gets into you and you smash into somebody else and hit the wall” while hoping “you’re not the one upside down.”

Corey LaJoie looking for more success in the Cup Series

LaJoie’s finish on Sunday is one of his best at Talladega. With the 18th-place finish, he has now recorded two consecutive top-20 finishes at the track, earning fourth place at Talladega in October. For the 2023 season, LaJoie is in 30th place in the NASCAR Cup Series standings.

Earlier this year, LaJoie spoke to On3 about earning respect in NASCAR. “I’m tired of getting written off,” he said. “I think people, it’s easy to forget or not realize what work I signed up to do when I came to this team that had no employees, to build it to a race team that was actually respected in the garage.

“You know, people want to judge you by your statistics. Well, I willingly threw statistics away for however long it took to get our team to this point. So I’m tired of the media thinking I’m not capable, because I’ve been successful in every single thing that I’ve done in my life, and the Cup Series is going to be no different.”

On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this report.