Corey LaJoie Has Found His Voice at Prime Video, and He’s Ready to Tell a Story

The phrase “a change of scenery” has become a proverb of sorts in the sports world. Whether it’s an athlete, coach, crew chief or other personnel starting fresh, it can be a benefit to some or the demise of another.

There are also the wrinkles in time where both a sport and its athletes go through a change that loop each other together. Look no further than NASCAR’s broadcasting aspect and Corey LaJoie.

As part of a $7.7 billion media rights deal landed in 2023, Amazon Prime Video became of the broadcast partners of the NASCAR Cup Series in a unique, game-changing moment for how the sport is presented to the masses. Prime Video is in the midst of its second season presenting Cup Series races, and it has quickly become a fan favorite.

On the same note, one of its analysts is LaJoie, who is back for his second season with the Prime Video crew. LaJoie is experiencing a new venture himself, returning to full-time racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for Kaulig Racing and new manufacturer, RAM.

Both roles have featured exciting opportunities and daunting challenges for LaJoie. From helping RAM build its notebook to helping Prime Video tell the story of Kyle Busch following his unexpected death days before the Coke 600, there’s been little time for LaJoie to take a breath.

The Charlotte, N.C., native sat down with Frontstretch ahead of the Michigan International Speedway weekend to discuss the adjustment to Truck racing, where RAM currently stands in its return, the fun he’s having on the Prime Video team and paying homage to Busch.

Luken Glover, Frontstretch: You’ve jumped back into full-time racing, this time with Kaulig Racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. How has that adjustment been getting back to that schedule versus what you did with the Cup Series?

Corey LaJoie: It’s apples and oranges. The Cup schedule is seven days a week, 24 hours a day. You’re thinking about how to get better or you’re working on how to get better. The Truck Series, being with RAM and a new OEM, they don’t have driver in-the-loop simulation set up yet, so I don’t have a whole lot to do during the week. The workload is considerably different than the Cup Series.

Glover: Where are y’all at (RAM and Kaulig) compared to when you first jumped into the truck and when you had those conversations with Kaulig?

LaJoie: There are some weeks where I’m like, “Oh, we’re in the ballpark here and a couple things away from — not the front row — but we’re in the ballpark of contending sixth to 10th on pace,” and then there’s weeks where I’m like, “Oh my goodness, we’re legitimately a half-second off the pace.” Kaulig had to buy pretty much any truck they could get their hands on in the offseason just to get going. With trucks, every single one is different. Not in a good way, right? You’re trying to make parts and pieces that they aren’t made for just to get trucks on the track.

[Kaulig] bought most of those trucks that I finished [2024] with at Spire [Motorsports], and I didn’t think they were particularly strong. On a good day we’d run eighth, and that was with all the Chevy support and all the sim time we could get to get our balance right to unload. So we’ve got those trucks, new noses that we don’t have a lot of notes on and no simulation to get our balance closer by the time we get there. That’s been a struggle because we finish the weekends pretty close to where we should be unloading, and having to do that, we can be where we should be. I feel like we’re always kind of fighting on our back foot and don’t have as many opportunities to get our balance right. As we build our notebook, I think we should be more competitive. I don’t know if that’s the end of this year, I don’t know if that’s over the offseason when we start building some newer trucks, so that remains to be seen. But I think we can still go in there and compete for a top five.

Glover: One of the controversial topics here lately is that you were denied a waiver (for Chase eligibility). What was your initial reaction when you heard that news?

LaJoie: I didn’t even know they submitted the waiver to be honest with you. I don’t think we’re good enough right now as a team to be in the Chase anyways. We’ll certainly compete and try to go get our way in on owner’s points. I think that’s a realistic goal, still not sure we’re able to chase top 10 points yet.

It’s irrelevant for me. I came in four, five races in. I didn’t get points for the first couple of races of the year, so that wasn’t one of our goals or boxes to check, so I wasn’t too upset about it. Now, I don’t really understand the reasoning as to why they didn’t grant that, but that’s another conversation for another day.

Glover: You’re also back with Amazon Prime. First of all, how does it feel to be back on the stage and be a part of the team again?

It’s unreal man, I feel so much more settled this year. I feel like that seat is mine to go swing it and have some fun. I’m always sitting next to Hall of Famers and I don’t feel like I belong. Through the confidence that Alex Strand (Prime’s senior coordinating producer) and the entire Prime team give me, and all the way to the top, those guys have really gave me the confidence that I deserve that seat, I’m good enough for that seat, and that’s allowed me to really have some fun up there.

Getting the responsibility to tell Kyle’s story and the news to the fans on the Coke 600 weekend, I was like, “Oh my, my first weekend up and we’ve got to cover this? Holy cow, I just wanted to have a nice fairway drive and get kind of settled in.” But through so many professionals that work on-camera with Danielle [Trotta], Carl [Edwards], Dale [Earnhardt Jr.], Steve [Letarte] and [Adam Alexander] and everyone behind the scenes, I felt equipped to be able to tell that story well and do him honor, and do the sport well, and give fans their respect on a sensitive topic with Kyle. I hoped that seemed to come across well, it went as good as it could have been bearing the bad news that was.

Glover: Speaking personally, [the Prime Video broadcasts] feels like the broadcasts from when I was a kid and NASCAR was still in its prime. How are y’all really just able to change the landscape of NASCAR broadcasting, and even for the long-term future, how does that impact the sport?

LaJoie: I think NASCAR is a great fit for Prime with just the streaming in general, the flexibility of it. There’s so many different variables that go along with our sport that we’ve kind of been handcuffed with linear television — in a good way, right? You want to put it in prime time where the most amount of people can watch your sport. On the other side of that, everybody is walking around with a television right in their pocket these days, so to be able to fire up our phone and watch the race anywhere is the future. Super blessed to be able to come on the front side of this as we build this and build out what the fans are reacting to in a positive way. It’s really cool to have a little bit of that influence, and it’s interesting now that I get a peek behind the curtain to realize how a very small group of people influence how millions take in the race. It’s really a 15-person think tank of, “These are the storylines we need to tell, this is how we need to cover what the drivers are fighting during the race” and then you inherently build that story around those ideas and stream them to the masses. So that’s interesting and a great responsibility that I don’t take lightly.

To be able to do both, to be able to drive the Mopar truck — that’s one of my all-time favorite trucks as a kid, all-time favorite sponsors. Whether it be on Kasey Kahne‘s Cup car or Ted Musgrave‘s truck, Dodge RAMs always stood out to me growing up. It’s really neat to be able to compete in those. We’ll get that ultimately better and we’ll start competing for wins like we deserve to be. And then to be on the TV side too, I think the sky’s the limit for what the sport and Prime can do together. Excited to be a part of it right now and hopefully can be a part of it in the future.

Glover: There aren’t many people like you and the drivers that can speak to Kyle [Busch] better. Any memories or lasting impacts that he left on you from the time you got to spend around him?

LaJoie: I think Trevor Bayne said it; there’s a group of 30 people, 40 people (Cup drivers) that were close enough to the fire of Kyle Busch (every week) that your relationship [with him] was challenging. Your relationship was only based in competition.

Off the track, Busch supported my charity event; I supported Samantha and Kyle’s Bundle of Joy campaign as well. Off the track, we were cool.

But [on it], the lens that I saw Kyle Busch through was a mortal enemy. And instantly, when somebody’s story is cut shorter than what anybody anticipated, it certainly shakes you to the ground. I saw him as a competitor only, and rarely do you get to see until after your career is over and you hang the helmet up and you can go race with your kid that you see the true person. I didn’t get a chance to see a whole lot of that Kyle. I saw a lot of Kyle at the racetrack.

I had the utmost respect for him and what his ability was not only behind the wheel, but [the way] he built an exceptional Truck team, he had an incredible shop that Spire races out of now. He’s built the lasting impact in the garage for people that were working for him. He’s certainly going to have an impact on how we proceed going forward with how we conduct ourselves on the racetrack and off the racetrack. I’m glad that I was around him in real time, and I’m incredibly brokenhearted that he’s gone, and my heart goes out towards his family. It’s been a tough year for our sport. We’re going to keep rubbing, we’re going to keep racing and having fun and paying respect to those guys who deserve it.