VIDEO: Corey LaJoie Retires After Losing a Wheel at the Phoenix Raceway

Published 03/15/2022, 3:45 AM EDT

On Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series race at the Phoenix Raceway concluded. Chase Briscoe won the race, taking the first win of his career, but the real drama unfolded behind him. As it turned out, poor old Corey LaJoie brought out the second caution of the day when his tire and wheel broke off.

All of this started when LaJoie clattered the outside wall and his right front wheel and tire got ripped off. The rest of the car was fairly undamaged and he was able to limp back to the pit lane to retire. However, there was a bit of a hairy moment when Cody Ware happened to run over the tire carcass.

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Fortunately, nothing else happened, and the wayward tire rolled harmlessly out of the way. Meanwhile, the brake and the rotor was still on the car, but it was pretty much dangling from the wrecked car. Eventually, Corey LaJoie was able to trundle to the garage with the car relatively intact.

Corey LaJoie was gutted to miss out on a good finish

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In the buildup to the race weekend, LaJoie finished in the Top 15 in two of the last three races. The #7 Spire Motorsports driver finished 14th at the Daytona 500, and 15th at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Unfortunately, he had a bit of a hiccup at the Auto Club Speedway, where he finished 28th.

Sadly, LaJoie failed to record another top-15 in the Ruoff Mortgage 500 at the Phoenix Raceway. In fact, the incident occurred on lap 46, and brought out the second caution of the day. There were suggestions that the wheel was not secured properly during the pit stop. This was because the center lock nut and a chunk of the rim flew onto the track upon impact.

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Poor old Cody Ware was a bit helpless when he ran over the tyre and the rim as there was not enough time to react. As a result of this incident, it could spell trouble for LaJoie and Spire Motorsports. This is because his crew chief and two pit crew members could face a four-race suspension.

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Dhruv George is a senior Motorsports author for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.