Steamrolling into another exciting race week after the massive success of the organization’s first-ever Street race, NASCAR nation is presently all in for another Superspeedway action. With NASCAR Rewind taking the community back a year to the Quaker State 400 here in Atlanta, Spire Motorsports driver, Corey Lajoie recently revealed how his last-minute disaster last year gained him a significant advantage as he is headed to an iconic track on Sunday.

While Corey Lajoie halted his dream run, the Georgian Native, Chase Elliott added his third win, picking off a stellar last-minute turnaround to get in front, cruising his way into victory in 2022. Though Lajoie wrecked horribly out of the race that day, the #7 Chevrolet driver recently revealed how Ross Chastain‘s inability to finish the race taught him a valuable lesson.

Despite last year’s impressive performance by the Hendrick Motorsports driver, this season hasn’t been one of his best as he is still chasing his first win of the season.

Corey Lajoie recalls his dream run turning into a disaster in 2022 Quaker State400

Heading into the final laps of the race, it indeed was a dream run. The 31-year-old Chevrolet driver was just minutes away from his first-ever Cup win until things went from “pretty good” to absolutely horrible. Leading the pack at the front, the #7 Chevy fended off attacks from the rear but a bump from #43 Erik Jones caused the #7 into the fence to wreck out catastrophically in a multi-car collision.

With NASCAR Rewind adding on the hype as we head to another QS400 in Atlanta, Corey Lajoie recalled how Chastain’s razor-thin loss to Elliott got him an advantage heading into Atlanta this year. Speaking to Alex Weaver rewatched his run last year, Lajoie recalled a “wrecking ball” Chastain fierce on his tail, “Ross Chastain was in a hell of a damage because he hit everything but land on a lottery that day so he was a good push,”.

While Lajoie was trying his level best to fend off the attack from the rear, Elliott pulled off a stealthy move at the last minute, finding a gap he got through with a timely push from Aric Almirola to the front. Elliott then efficiently controlled the pace and distance to hold off the pack while things went bad to worse for Lajoie in the back as he wrecked out going from 2nd to 22nd in a split second.

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Though he lost the race awfully, that day taught Corey Lajoie a valuable lesson that would give him an advantage as he head to another QS400. Recalling the late wreck he said, “Right here, I thought it was a pretty good spot but the #43 hits me a little bit too hard right here and I couldn’t go to the bottom so I thought I was gonna spin out go to the right rear corner. And got in the fence and then wrecked my ass off and that’s how our day ended unfortunately but I know what to do next time.”

Despite being in a rut this season, last year’s Atlanta winner, Chase Elliott is still a huge favorite with +1200 odds favoring him.

Elliott is still a favorite despite his bleak journey

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2023 certainly hasn’t been the best for Elliott, with him 55 points from his playoff berth, the driver desperately needs a win to keep his championship hopes alive. Recently the driver has admitted his shortcomings, and inability to win races despite being at the front.

An unfortunate accident left the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro driver out of 6 races while an unnecessary move against veteran Denny Hamlin handed him a one-race suspension, leaving the 2020 champ in a shaky position, desperately needing a win. Elliott is presently 24th in rankings just 8 points below Lajoie with 323 points, coming off of just 5, top 5 finishes.

While the numbers and analytics tell us a different tale, predictors and fans seem to have an opposite outlook on Chase Elliott. As we head to Atlanta, NASCAR golden boy, Chase Elliott is the second favorite to win the race in his hometown with a +1100 odds favoring him.

WATCH THIS STORY: 5-time NBA All-Star and Former Cup champ warns Chase Elliott and co. after being outperformed by an outsider