Top Dog: Corey LaJoie
NASCAR’s Super Bowl has no hidden secret of being a prime opportunity for an underdog to strike early. An underdog won two of the previous three Daytona 500s, and Austin Cindric’s lone career win to this point in the 2022 running can be marked as an upset as well.
Following 500 miles to kick off the 2024 season at Daytona International Speedway, Corey LaJoie nearly made it three underdog wins in the last four 500s at the 66th running of the Daytona 500 (Feb. 19), which was postponed to Monday due to rain.
Sporting a new partnership with Chili’s, which included a humorous commercial during the race, LaJoie came up three spots short finishing in fourth.
LaJoie cut his starting position in half in stage one, finishing the stage in 14th after starting 29th. He remained in the front half of the field to conclude a tense yet calamity-free second stage in 11th.
In the final stage, the 32-year-old pulled his gloves tighter and went to work. The No. 7 stormed to the front, with LaJoie right in the thick of the lead battle, including taking the lead on lap 149.
The Charlotte, N.C. native got shuffled out in the closing stages of the event, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. That blessing? Dodging a massive 18-car pileup on lap 192.
A much thinner field allowed for LaJoie to restart in fifth with four laps to go. As the field came to the white flag, LaJoie bobbed out of line to get around Cindric for second place. Cindric threw a block, got loose and made contact with Ross Chastain, bringing out the race-ending caution and leaving LaJoie just short of his first career win.
The red hot chili pepper on LaJoie’s car was not the only spicy display after the race, as Cindric and LaJoie each had some words for each other in their post-race interviews.
Cindric told Frontstretch‘s Stephen Stumpf and other reporters “[LaJoie] finished fourth. Congrats! He tried to fit a car where there wasn’t a car.”
LaJoie responded in an interview with FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass, firing back with “I’ve seen him do a lot of dumb things too, and we’re not friends.”
Tempers aside, LaJoie was elated with his result, and he had every right to be. With two of his prior three top fives coming at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and the other coming at Talladega Superspeedway, the fourth-place run was his best Daytona 500…
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