Big fire breaks out in Corey LaJoie’s pit stall at Texas Motor Speedway
Ty Gibbs had to run extra laps before pitting under green in Stage 1 due to a fire on pit road just before his box from Corey LaJoie’s crew. The NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas is underway and already there are issues for drivers.
It appeared to come from Corey LaJoie’s box, but it could have been Austin Cindric’s box where the fire originated. Pit crews got things put out with leaf blowers, but the damage was done to Ty Gibbs.
Instead of pitting when he wanted, Gibbs ran an extra couple of laps. Then, he had a bad pit stop that set him back after establishing himself as one of the fastest cars on the track.
Ty Gibbs has a very fast car. However, the incident from Corey LaJoie and his crew put him in a hole early. This is a car capable of winning, but now he’s going to have to do it the hard way – driving through traffic in a Next Gen car at Texas.
As for Corey LaJoie, he doesn’t have much to write home about in this one. Early in this race, Zane Smith is the top Spire Motorsports driver followed by Carson Hocevar. The two rookies lead LaJoie in Stage 1 after a fiery start for that 7 team.
Kyle Larson, the pole winner, is the fastest driver by far in this race. However, he is going to have to fight off a slew of Toyotas if he wants to win at Texas. Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, and Ty Gibbs if he can get his track position back.
Corey LaJoie in for a long day
Ever since that P4 finish at Daytona, Corey LaJoie has been lost in the Cup Series. He was P13 at Atlanta. It felt like he was turning a corner. A new and improved Spire Motorsports was beginning to flex their new muscles.
Since Atlanta, LaJoie has four finishes of P32 or worse. Only one of those is a DNF. His best finish in that time was P21 at Bristol. At Texas, things look like they are going to continue on that same trend.
Rookie Carson Hocevar has two top-15 finishes and two more top-20 finishes. His counterpart, Zane Smith has a best finish of P13 and was P19 at COTA. His results reflect more of what LaJoie has done this season than Hocevar.
LaJoie and his pit crew have been inconsistent. This Spire team is still growing. They just added a third team and went from a small operation to a much larger one. Growing pains are really painful right now, but this team could turn the corner soon. Fires on pit road won’t help that, though.