Corey LaJoie (7), racing under Brad Keselowski at the Ambetter Health 400. (HHP/Andrew Copley)
Corey LaJoie scored a career-best result in the NASCAR Cup Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday.
LaJoie brought home the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in fourth place. It was his second top five finish of his career, surpassing his fifth place finish in last March’s race at the 1.54 mile superspeedway.
It was the sixth top 10 finish in the career of the third generation racer in the Cup Series.
“It feels good. It’s like this taboo, second sucks. Fourth is great. Fourth is great for our Celsius Camaro and our little team. Just a great points day,” said LaJoie, who finished in fourth this season of the five races finished in the top 20. “We started the year on West Coast Swing, really solid. To come back here, kinda like a crapshoot. To hit another career best here… I don’t expect to show up and immediately win a race.
“You have to keep putting yourself in those positions, like Joey. That’s why he wins all the time, because he’s ahead all the time,” LaJoie continued. “When I get a little more confidence, ride around these guys, those guys see me running with them up there, our day will come.”
• Christopher Bell finished third on Sunday and scored in the Joe Gibbs Racing no. 20 Toyota his fourth top 10 result in five races.
Still, Bell was disappointed in his decision making in the final laps.
“I got a good result and I’m happy with it. I don’t know, I had the position that 22 (Joey Logano) had and I decided to forego that and go on top,” Bell explained. “To be so close is disappointing but very happy with a third place. We’re going to the next one.”
Tyler Reddick (45) goes three wide with Joey Logano (22) and Austin Cindric at Atlanta Motor Speedway. (HHP/Andrew Copley)
• Ty Gibbs rode in Atlanta from Sunday 35th to Sunday ninth.
“I feel like we made really good progress from start to finish,” said rookie Joe Gibbs Racing driver. “The team, my group of 54, never gave up on me and we had great stops all day. We had a very fast Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD that just ran out of laps there. We could probably have worked our way up a bit and been more aggressive but that comes with experience but we do plate races and that’s just part of it and it’s just learning and we’ll carry on and go to the next race. ”
• Both Legacy Motor Club entries enjoyed top 15 finishes in Atlanta. Erik Jones finished eighth in the #43 Chevrolet while Noah Gragson was twelfth in the #42 machine.
“Happy to get a top 10 for the #43 Allegiant Chevy,” Jones said. “We needed that. We just needed a good finish. We haven’t had one this year so it was nice to do that. I hope we keep it going. We just sort of squeaked that out there at the end, with a few things working out for us in the last two laps. But content with that; proud. I’m happy that hopefully we can get some momentum and keep rolling.”
• Ryan Blaney fought back from several laps down after being handed a speeding penalty at green flag pit stops. Blaney brought his team Penske Ford home in seventh.
• Sunday’s 260-lap race saw 20 lead changes among 13 drivers, with winner Joey Logano leading 140 laps five times. There were also five yellow flags eating up 34 laps.
• Logano’s victory on Sunday was the two-time series champion’s 32nd Cup Series triumph and his first at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
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