One of NASCAR's remaining free agents now has a ride. Third generation driver Corey LaJoie and Spire Motorsports announced yesterday that the 29 year old would be behind the wheel of their newly announced #7 team for both the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Spire had already been expected to announce a full-time driver for their #77 Chevrolet team. No announcement has been made in regards to the future of that car.
LaJoie has raced in NASCAR's Cup Series since 2014 and has earned 3 top 10 finishes in 129 career starts. All of those came in the #32 Ford for Go Fas Racing, which shut down full-time operation at the end of the 2020 season for a smaller, part-time schedule.
Spire states that their goal is to compete, but development on their 2022 efforts are specifically focused on the next-gen car. Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports tweeted that Spire will purchase vehicles from both Chip Ganassi Racing and Hendrick Motorsports to ensure they have a fleet large enough to support the addition of a second team. Spire also announced the purchase of Leavine Family Racing's assets earlier in the year and confirmed the sale was complete as of November 30th.
Spire's operations will be relocated to the same shop where 1992 Alan Kulwicki's team built his championship winning cars that season, racing the same car number.
"I’ve been an Alan Kulwicki fan my entire life," stated LaJoie. "To compete with the No. 7 on the roof and door is an honor for any driver at any level, but to have it here on our car in the NASCAR Cup Series is taken very seriously."
"We’re thrilled to pay tribute to Alan Kulwicki and Geoff Bodine by running the No. 7 and racing out of that shop," added Puchyr. "Alan had a unique way about him and took a very unconventional route to winning a championship. Everyone knows the story. He didn’t have a ton of money and did more with so much less than many of the most well-heeled teams of that day. We see a lot of parallels between Spire Motorsports and Alan’s approach. At the same time, I grew up in the northeast and the No. 7 was synonymous with the Baldwin family so, it’s a proud moment to tie all that history together and compliment the No. 77 we’ve run the last two years."
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