5 Points to Ponder: Corey LaJoie Belongs in the Cup Series

1. Is Legacy Motor Club back on track?

Legacy Motor Club didn’t come away from the banks of Daytona International Speedway with a trophy, but given all that the organization endured last year, it may as well have felt like one.

Let’s call 2024 for this group what it was: a disaster.

John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones combined for six top-10 finishes, and Jones was the group’s highest points finisher in 28th. As for Jimmie Johnson’s part-time foray in the No. 84 car? He had an average start of 28th and a finish of 30th. That, as they say in some parts, “ain’t it, chief.”

You don’t want to anoint someone a title contender based on one race weekend, but it should be a reasonable ask for Legacy to be able to run strong regularly, especially with a driver like Jones who has proven his mettle as a race winner in the No. 43 and contender at other times.

But what LMC did during Speedweek is show that it has the wherewithal to do so. Jones was an ill-timed caution flag from winning Thursday’s second Duel. Then came Sunday, when Johnson was in the top 10 prior to a pit-stop exchange within the final quarter of the race. Even when he was slowed getting out of the pits, Johnson rallied to finish third, reminding long-time fans of the former No. 48 driver of the way he would pull a top finish out of thin air.

For a team coming off a year of struggles, you need a weekend as a whole group showing a proof of concept. Sunday’s results as a group showed that with Jones also coming through the late melees with a 12th-place finish.

Legacy didn’t cure all of its ills at Daytona, but it showed that it may have turned the corner.

2. The sport needs another dose of Helio Castroneves

Watch any Helio Castroneves interview, and the odds are good that you will see someone who is optimistic and energetic, always finding a way to see the good side of things.

But this past weekend may have tested that outlook, as Castroneves was caught up in incidents in Thursday’s (Feb. 13) Duels and Saturday’s (Feb. 15) ARCA Menards Series race. And as if that wasn’t enough, his Daytona 500 also ended early. If you were an avid listener of MRN Radio back in the day, then you could probably agree that Castroneves was well-deserving of a “Goody’s Headache Award” last week.

The question for Castroneves now is when he’ll be seen around NASCAR again. For all of its prestige, the Daytona 500 is not the best test of driving talent given the current superspeedway package. There is a case to be made for Castroneves to find his way as a road-course entrant, but why limit it to that? If you want to see how Castroneves can stack up, why not take a swing at a 1.5-mile track? Or, to take it a step further, why not try the Coca-Cola 600 to have the prestige of running both of America’s Memorial Day Weekend Crown Jewels?

Daytona may have been Castroneves’ first NASCAR foray, but it should not be the last.

3. Corey LaJoie proved that he belongs

Damaged goods.

It’s a phrase that no driver wants to have associated with them. But when a driver — in the last two years — has had a one-race opportunity of a lifetime not pan out before losing a full-time ride the following year, only to not have another full-time ride lined up this year, it’s hard for the outside perception not to be the case.

But after this year’s Daytona 500 and events leading up to it, rumors of the demise of Corey LaJoie’s career have been greatly exaggerated.

LaJoie came to Daytona betting on himself. Before sponsorship rolled in, he had to dip into his kids’ college fund to drive the Rick Ware Racing entry. With no charter to fall back on, LaJoie had to first race his way in via Thursday’s Duels. After doing that, he went on to run a respectable race, going on to raise quite a few eyebrows as the race went on. LaJoie didn’t just find himself in the top 10, he led the restart with eight laps to go and remained in the mix until he got taken out in the last-lap melee en route to a 22nd-place finish.

It was already a successful Speedweek for LaJoie after he raced his way into the Daytona 500 and had a clean race. Leading laps was just the icing on the cake. It was a span of days in which the driver proved that, yes, he belongs in the NASCAR Cup Series.

4. Is it Rowdy vs. the field in the Atlanta Truck race?

If announcements of drivers’ race schedules had soundtracks, then, Spire Motorsports needed Darth Vader’s theme music on Monday (Feb. 17).

Kyle Busch’s 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule was announced on Monday, and the first of those five events will be this Saturday (Feb. 22) at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where Busch has been rather good in the Truck Series.

Not only has Busch won half of the 14 Truck races he has run in Atlanta, but he has also finished in the top five in all but four of those races.

And seeing as Busch won in Atlanta for Spire last year? The idea that he’ll will win again on Saturday would be regarded as a very safe bet.

5. Is Atlanta Motor Speedway the best place for the second race of the season?

The second points event of the NASCAR season is this weekend at Atlanta, but it’d be hard to know it based on all you saw and heard over the past week’s TV broadcast. Other than a few side mentions, it was all about the Daytona 500, a challenge that Atlanta faces now just like it previously did when it was the second race of the season.

Unpredictable February weather does not help, but at least it does not look to be snowing this weekend.

The bigger piece is that this is not the track’s biggest race of the year. Yes, I am sure it is for NASCAR On FOX’s TV ratings, but fans bundled up in the cold could likely care less about that. The bigger Atlanta race this year? That will be June’s night race, a much livelier setting than Georgia in February that will also serve as the opening round for the new In-Season Tournament.

This is not to suggest taking a race away, but it is a case to ask the question: is it a good thing to run two races in a row to begin the season with a similar style of racing?

Brad Harrison

Brad joined Frontstretch.com in 2020 and contributes to the site's 5 Points To Ponder column and other roles as needed. A graduate of the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has covered sports in some capacity for more than 20 years with coverage including local high school sports, college athletics and minor league hockey. Brad has received multiple awards for his work from the Georgia Press Association.