Two NASCAR drivers don’t see eye to eye following contact
Two weeks ago, NASCAR raced at Martinsville Speedway. The half-mile paperclip oval brought tempers to the surface.
The small track is known to create driver feuds. That might have been intensified this year as a new short track package was expected to make it easier to pass, but it didn’t and many drivers think it actually did the opposite.
Kyle Busch and Corey LaJoie were both suffering with ill-handling machines. The two drivers battled for several laps, trading fenders along the way as Busch attempted to get by.
After the race, the two didn’t have any conversation. However, in the next race at Talladega Superspeedway, both drivers were asked about the contact….
Martinsville Race Results: April 16, 2023 (NASCAR Cup Series)
Kyle Busch has words for Corey LaJoie
“As far as him with me, he’s been a pain in the dick to race with and pass for years, just coming up and lapping him,” Kyle Busch told Noah Lewis.
“Every time I’m around him, it’s like he tries an extra 20% harder to make sure I stay behind him. Just not fun.”
“He was fading, I was not that great but I was just [a little] better than he was. He was running the top lane which was my lane. I tried to go to the bottom a couple times, my car would not run the bottom. I could not accelerate out of the turns without getting loose. I kept barely touching him a little bit.”
“Then, he slammed down into me on the frontstretch. And, admitted it on his podcast that he wanted to crash me and cause a yellow. [He] didn’t get penalized, even though Denny Hamlin did.”
Busch added of NASCAR, “Our consistent inconsistency is impeccable.”
Denny Hamlin penalized after admitting to crashing Ross Chastain
Corey LaJoie comments on Kyle Busch
“He gets to my door and I just yank a left,” Corey LaJoie stated via his Stacking Pennies podcast.
LaJoie noted that the two drivers didn’t have a conversation after the race at Martinsville.
“What’s he won? 1000 races in NASCAR? I’ve won zero. What am I going to say? ‘Learn how to drive!’ No.”
“He was having a bad day, I was having a bad day,” Corey LaJoie told Frontstetch.
“It was freaking hot, you’re sliding around. I was bleeding positions, he was also bleeding positions, just at a slower rate than I was.”
“He drove into my left rear a couple times, so I gave him a door back. That’s just racing, you’re going to get some bent feelings.”
“When I’m on the race track, I ask myself, ‘Who’s going to say yes when I ask them to play kickball?’ Kyle Busch said no last year to kickball, so I’m going to give him a little more door than somebody else who’s going to sign up to play kickball.”
LaJoie is referring to the annual ‘Kickball Klassic’. The event is hosted by Corey and it raises money for charity.
NASCAR increases penalty for altercations ahead of 2023 season
