How Corey LaJoie, Carson Hocevar did at Gateway
MADISON, ILL. — Corey LaJoie and Carson Hocevar each did a fill-in stint Sunday at Gateway after NASCAR suspended Chase Elliott for the Cup Series race.
LaJoie filled in for Elliott, driving his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Meanwhile, Hocevar filled in for LaJoie, driving his No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Carson Hocevar
Hocevar started 26th and stayed there for most of the first stage one.
Then, as stage two began, the young gun jumped to 20th on lap 58. On the subsequent 32-lap green-flag run, he even moved up to 16th.
That run, however, ended on lap 90 when Hocevar blew a brake rotor and hit the wall in turn one.
Hocevar finished 36th – last – and out after 91 laps. Despite the poor result, he drew praise from NASCAR dignitaries such as Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Corey LaJoie
LaJoie started 30th after scuffing the wall multiple times during his qualifying lap.
In stage one, the second-generation driver struggled. He dropped to 32nd, just behind Kyle Larson who appeared to miss the setup too.
LaJoie finished 30th in stage one.
LaJoie struggled during the rest of the race. He finished 25th in stage two and ran around there for much of the race as the team tried anything they could to help him.
One of the omnipresent issues of the races was a fiber outage at the track. That took away teams’ SMT data and telemetry that could help with changes.
Under caution, after Tyler Reddick’s lap 174 incident, LaJoie even apologized and wished he could give crew chief Alan Gustafson more info to work with. However, Gustafson said there wasn’t much he could do either without the data.
In the end, LaJoie finished 21st on the lead lap. While the race was disappointing, he matched Chase Elliott’s 21st-place lead lap finish in last year’s Gateway race.
The next race for LaJoie is the June 11 NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway. Hocevar returns to the driver’s seat June 23 at Nashville Superspeedway in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com