BROOKLYN, Mich. – Spire Motorsports had an eventful Monday (Aug. 19) at Michigan International Speedway in the NASCAR Cup Series, as two drivers ended up with top 10s while the third ended up flipping.
On lap 137, Corey LaJoie approached Noah Gragson off turn 2, and as he attempted to pass him, on a windy day, the two made slight contact and LaJoie’s No. 7 Chevrolet went airborne.
“Something did [lift my racecar],” LaJoie said after he was released from the infield care center. “Arms of an angel or what it was, but the thing was up quick. Probably should not try to flip in the first place; that would probably be the first thing to do. But yeah, it sucks. The grass ones are the hard ones, right? When it’s pow, pow, pow, but I was wearing a mouthpiece sensor.”
When LaJoie’s teammate Carson Hocevar asked what happened to LaJoie, he was told, “car took off on him.” Hocevar’s response? “Jesus.”
LaJoie wound up with a 32nd-place finish, dropping him two positions in points to 31st.
As for rookie teammates Hocevar and Zane Smith, they ran well at MIS. Hocevar led three laps and was in eighth when a caution sent the race into overtime. Smith was in 14th at the time.
The race went into a second overtime, so when the checkered flag flew, Smith finished seventh and Hocevar came home — in his home state, too – 10th.
“That last restart I just got myself stacked up and stuck in the middle,” Hocevar told reporters post-race. “But Zane was able to do what I was trying to do so that worked out really well for him. So to have two Spire cars [in the top 10] is really beneficial.
“It feels good. Especially from where we were yesterday just felt like nothing could go right. … I think we could’ve got more positions there on the final restart I just got stacked on the final restart. Worked out really well for us, able to put together a really strong car. A top 10 is pretty big especially my only experience here in anything was the [NASCAR] Xfinity [Series] car. I had about five laps before that went upside down.”
The feat is even more impressive considering both Spire rookies made their MIS Cup debuts.
“It’s huge,” Hocevar added. “We haven’t done anything from February other than just improve our processes, especially on this No. 77 bunch. Finished super well and everything. We work and gel really close and, you know, to be able to put this together before we make all these personnel changes, technical directors and buy more cars and expand and grow, all our processes and people, to have this type of speed that we would expect to have next year, I think shows we can win some races.”
Smith scored his career-best Cup finish earlier this season at Nashville Superspeedway when he finished second. That was a five-overtime affair compared to the double-overtime one at MIS.
“Yeah, I feel like you just got to go into it never knowing what to expect,” Smith said. “It’s going to be chaos so hopefully you’re on the right side of it. Fortunately, that last restart worked out for us choosing the top lane and being able to roll outside of some guys and keep our momentum up. That really was the main thing, so fortunately we survived through those and were able to get a good finish out of it.
“The No. 7 was fast before the backstretch there. So hope he’s alright. We were not good at the start yesterday at the start of the race and we made gains every single time on our car. And we recovered really well late in the race from having a speeding penalty. So just really proud of my group and something to build off of, for sure.”
Neither Hocevar nor Smith improved upon their points position, but for both, the Irish Hills added to their top 10 totals. Hocevar scored his fourth of the season and Smith earned his third.
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.
A lot of luck is needed to finish in the top 10 and that usually means not getting involved in wrecks that take out the usual drivers who finish well. They fall back to normal in the next version of the product.