Motorsports are seldom compared to stick-and-ball sports, and whenever such a comparison comes up, fans are quick to point out that motorsports are vastly different than stick-and-ball sports.
One thing that stick-and-ball sports has that motorsports almost never does is trades. The front office makes transactions that usually involve sending one or more of their players or draft picks to another team in exchange for one or more of that team’s players or draft picks.
Motorsports almost never does trades – most of the time when a driver changes seats, it’s through free agent signings.
The key word here is “almost.” While it is a rarity, it is still possible. And on Friday (Sept. 20), one of those rare trades took place.
Two NASCAR Cup Series teams announced an even driver-for-driver trade. Justin Haley, current driver of the No. 51 for Rick Ware Racing, will head to Spire Motorsports to drive the No. 7. The current drive of the Spire No. 7, Corey LaJoie, will head to RWR to take over Haley’s No. 51.
The trade will take effect following this Saturday’s (Sept. 21) race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The drivers will be seen in their new rides in the next race at Kansas Speedway on Sept. 29.
This type of move is unprecedented. Very rarely does a full-time driver leave a team for another midseason, let alone two drivers being traded. As such, it’s worth breaking down how the trade will fare for both parties.
Most stick-and-ball trades have their analyses, so let’s break down this once-in-ab-a-blue-moon driver swap. We’ll take a look both sides of the trade and ultimately figure out who may benefit most from this trade.
Justin Haley Heading to Spire Motorsports
After signing a multi-year deal with Rick Ware Racing, which likely put him in the RFK Racing pipeline, Haley won’t even see that contract through one year before jumping ship from Ford to Chevrolet. In fact, Haley himself brought up the idea of moving to Spire to RWR’s upper management according to the joint press conference.
Pro: A reunion three years in the making
The best thing that could happen to Haley in this trade is that he isn’t going somewhere unfamiliar to him. Haley’s first career Cup starts came with Spire while he was still a full-time driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Kaulig Racing.
He drove the No. 77 back when Spire was still largely a one-car backmarker team. However, in just his third start, Haley and…
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