DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.: A visibly calm and confident Corey LaJoie on the outside knows the pressures of the task at hand on the inside to secure a spot in “The Great American Race.”
He knows that he will have to earn his way into the race either by producing one of the two fastest laps of the “open” team qualifiers or by being the top seed in his respective Duel race Thursday night at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
The driver of the No. 01 Take 5 Oil Change | Dura Max Ford knows that his best and most sure way of getting locked into the race will come in the duel races. He understands the importance of racing in the Daytona 500.
“Everybody comes down here for this,” LaJoie said Wednesday afternoon during Daytona 500 Media Day. “You don’t have a media day for any other event besides this time of the year, besides Phoenix.“
Aware of the importance of his commitment to Rick Ware Racing, his partners and himself, he stated, “This is why you see nine cars coming for five spots. Everyone wants to throw their name in the hat and be in the, what is this? 69th Daytona?”
Continuing to explain the importance of earning one of the available starting positions on Sunday, LaJoie added, “You don’t know how special an event this is until you continue to get down here but also when you have to work for it on the qualifying days Wednesday and Thursday.
“It gives you a whole lot of appreciation for it when you’re not guaranteed into the show. It makes you want to race for something on Thursday night.”
Love or leave him, the Concord, N.C. native is still determined to race on Sundays. “I should be able to be in a Cup race a month. We’ll see.“
With sponsorship being a huge boost to his future races for this year, a great finish or, better yet, a win would secure the races he does have scheduled, with the possibility of more.
LaJoie did not intentionally denigrate the lower levels of NASCAR racing when he expressed his reasoning for wanting to race only on Sundays.
“I have done everything I possibly can to stay on Sundays and develop my skills and to gain relationships on Sundays,” LaJoie spoke.
“Going down, spending as much, if not more for a good quote, unquote Xfinity car to go potentially win some races or a Truck it just never made any sense to me to do that. “
Agreeing that it may be sensible for other drivers who have more flexible funding and budgets with sponsors behind them to go racing on Sunday, he admits that he does not have that luxury.
“I have actual partners that have actual marketing budgets that they have to justify to their boards. It is hard to convince them to go doing something else,” sounded LaJoie.
“Would I love to have the normal typical development path where you end up surrounded by good teams on the luxury level, surrounded by a good team? Yeah, but that’s not what was available to me.”
Corey LaJoie’s next task is qualifying for the Daytona 500 on Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m., followed by the Duel Races on Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway at 7:00 p.m. on FS1.
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