While fans were expecting the first road course race of the 2024 Cup season to be chaotic, no one expected it to kick off on the very first lap! As the drivers gunned it down to turn one, William Byron maintained his lead over Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs. However, the man who qualified fifth wasn’t so lucky. Corey LaJoie dropped like a stone through the pack on the opening lap and eventually hit Bubba Wallace after Martin Truex Jr tried to needle the gap.

All three drivers had qualified within the top ten, but the contact dropped LaJoie back to 25th. Unfortunately, Wallace and Truex Jr fared far worse, both exiting the top 30 after the first 10 laps. Naturally, the drivers weren’t too pleased with their first-lap disaster.

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Corey LaJoie was looking competitive in qualifying but started to fall back immediately on the start, allowing drivers to squeeze past when Martin Truex Jr ended up turning the two into each other. As a result, Truex Jr’s #19 Camry XSE suffered major damage to the left front.

Taking to X, Joe Gibbs Racing revealed the extent of the damage, “Truex is forced to pit on lap 2 for a broken left front wheel caused from contact from the No. 7 and No. 23 cars.” Wendy Venturini also shared an insightful photo of Truex Jr’s wheel, showing just how damaging the contact was.

After pitting for fresher rubber and fixing the damage, Truex Jr is running down in 37th, almost 1 and a half seconds behind leader Christopher Bell. Reflecting on the incident, Truex Jr shared his frustration; “I don’t understand it. The first lap man.” 

Truex Jr. managed to recover from the setback to secure a 10th place finish. Though he would be disappointed and left wondering what could have been. Truex Jr. has not had the best of seasons. However, his 51 stage points overall help him lead in points despite zero wins.

Bubba Wallace didn’t fare much better in the #23 Camry either, ending up down in 32nd after pitting alongside Truex Jr. The 23XI Racing star was infuriated with the contact. He was quoted by Jayski insider Dustin Albino on X, “Somethig is f****** bent. It’s always f****** something.“

During the break, Wallace was 32nd. Toward the end, Wallace was up to 13th with a possible top-10 finish in sight. But he eventually ended up 15th. While he would be disappointed, Bubba Wallace reached the finish line of a NASCAR Cup Series race at COTA for the first time in four starts.

While Corey LaJoie still had a better recovery than Wallace and Truex Jr, the insider also shared the plight of the #7 Spire Motorsports Chevy, “Corey LaJoie has dropped 20 spots from his fifth-place starting position. Both left-side wheels are damaged, he believes.” LaJoie eventually ended up in the 25th place as he picked off a few positions in the final few laps of the race.

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However, even after dropping 20 places owing to the incident, LaJoie took a rather neutral stance after analyzing the replays.

Despite feeling ‘used and abused’, Corey LaJoie dismisses Bubba Wallace and Martin Truex Jr as culprits

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At the end of the Echo Park Automotive Grand Prix, Corey LaJoie was seen lying by the side of the #7 Chevrolet, after what could have only been an exhausting race. But when the Spire Motorsports driver made a full recovery, he was quick to look back on his drawbacks during the race and settled the dust on the Wallace-Truex Jr incident.

Speaking to FrontStretch, LaJoie stated, “It wasn’t anybody’s fault. I thought the #19 was clear bottom. I thought he was going to at least give me a lane to merge and he couldn’t because the #23 was on his door. So when I tried to merge, he kind of got me in the left rear and turned me into traffic.”

From that point on, the race was ‘an uphill battle’ for Corey LaJoie. The 32-year-old Charlotte native couldn’t make much of a recovery. Despite pointing out that – “from there and then I just felt like I got used and abused multiple times,” LaJoie was also critical of his own shortcomings. He concluded, “It just wasn’t a good day. Made a lot of errors, made a lot of mistakes. Car was fast, it was just a little bit of a you-know-what show from 14th on back in the race and we weren’t the beneficiaries.” 

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Whilst it is safe to say Bubba Wallace and Truex Jr weren’t sounding too happy on the team radio, Corey LaJoie was highly critical of his own performance at COTA.