With much enthusiasm, Corey LaJoie returned to the seat of the No. 24 youtheory Toyota this weekend for the first time since California early in the season.
Despite suffering two speeding penalties on pit road, LaJoie would charge back through the field each time and would ultimately finish 15th in the running of the Use Your Melon. Drive Sober 200 at the track known as the “Monster Mile”.
“I had a blast battling the Monster Mile today in our No. 24 youtheory Toyota,” said LaJoie. “The guys on this JGL Racing team worked hard and gave me a top-10 car. However, we suffered through two pit road speeding penalties on our pit stops and that forced us to the rear of the field each time. Not sure what the issues where but the guys will check and see if we have an issue with our tach or what. But each time we would work our way back up through the field and that showed how strong our No. 24 youtheory Toyota was.”
Corey would start the 200-lap event from the 14th position as a result of his qualifying effort earlier in the day. An early caution on lap five would see LaJoie having moved up one position and reporting he was a little tight in the center of the corners. A few additional early cautions would follow and find Corey eventually radio his crew and report that he thought he had a pretty good No. 24 youtheory Toyota. LaJoie would maintain his track position as he posted good lap times and would sit in the 14th place at the end of the first stage.
Disaster for the first time would surface with the first pit road speeding penalty as Corey brought his No. 24 youtheory Toyota down pit road after the first stage. Forced to the rear of the field to start the second 60 lap stage, LaJoie would patiently work his way through the field and reach the 18th spot by the end of the second stage on lap 120.
Once again, while pitting in between stages, Corey would be penalized for speeding on pit road and for the second time in the race be forced to start from the rear of the field. With less than 80 laps remaining in the event, LaJoie would aggressively steer his No. 24 youtheory Toyota through the field once again. With the remainder of the event running caution free, Corey would fight for every spot in the field and eventually take the checkered flag with the top-15 finish.
“We were definitely better than a handful of cars that finished ahead of us,” added Corey. “While that is frustrating – it also feels good to have a good car underneath you. We will look to build on that as we head to Charlotte next with our No. 24 youtheory Toyota.”
LaJoie and the JGL Racing team will next head to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the running of the Drive for the Cure 300. The 29th race of the NASCAR XFINITY Series season will be Saturday October 7th and can be seen LIVE on NBC Sports Network at 3:00 pm ET. It can also be heard on Performance Racing Network (PRN) and SiriusXM Channel 90.
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