Corey LaJoie and his wife, Kelly, have welcomed a new addition to their family.
The proud father shared the news on social media Thursday of him holding his second child, Jenson Daniel, inside the hospital shortly after being born.
Corey, who also hosts the Stacking Pennies podcast on NASCAR’s digital platform, is bound to be much busier both on and off the track. He and Kelly now have two sons — Levi Ronnie was born in March of 2020.
“We have two opportunities to raise strong and caring boys into men that will shine their light in the darkness of this world,” Corey wrote in an Instagram post. “I promise we won’t waste it.”
Trackhouse Entertainment Group promised to bring the biggest international stars in the world into its PROJECT91 concept in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Check.
Team owner Justin Marks announced Thursday that Kimi Raikkonen, the all-time leader in Formula One starts (349) and the 2007 F1 World Champion, will pilot the No. 91 Chevrolet Camaro at Watkins Glen International (Aug. 21, 3 p.m. ET on USA Network).
Raikkonen is the first of what Marks hopes is many world-renowned stars to utilize his No. 91 Chevrolet for a foray into NASCAR.
“I’m really excited to launch this year with Kimi Raikkonen,” Marks told NASCAR.com. “Obviously, the 2007 F1 World Champion and the most experienced F1 driver in history, he’ll really kind of help set this program off. I’m looking forward to it. I’m bullish in our ability to be able to track the global stars of motorsport and do something really special under the Trackhouse brand with PROJECT91.”
Raikkonen actually has two NASCAR starts to his name — one in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and one in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, both in 2011 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
His F1 career spanned from 2001-09, and then from 2012-21. His title in 2007 came with Scuderia Ferrari, which is the last driver championship for the iconic constructor. Raikkonen won six races that year, including the final two to outpace both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso by a single point in the final standings.
“I think that he’s going to perform really, really well,” Marks said. “The program is going to be first class. He’s going to have a real opportunity to go out there and compete. This isn’t just a PR stunt. The passion I have is fueled by the vision of someone coming in and winning.”
Marks said Raikkonen’s entry at Watkins Glen is the only PROJECT91 race planned for 2022 but expects more races in 2023 with additional drivers.
“I wasn’t looking to race again, but Justin came to my home in Switzerland and convinced me how serious he was about putting together a top-notch program,” Raikkonen said in a team release. “This will be fun, but it’s something I will take very seriously. I know how competitive the NASCAR Cup Series is and it will be a big challenge.”
While being a full-time competitor during the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, Tommy Joe Martins raced with a heavy mind. He knew if he didn’t find an investor, Martins Motorsports would likely close once the checkered flag waved at Phoenix Raceway in November.
Fortunately for Martins, Caesar Bacarella already had usable equipment, specifically for superspeedways. Bacarella was looking to invest in the sport and become a team owner.
“I grew up very poor, I have a 10th-grade education, so I think with everything I’ve ever created, I want to leave a legacy for my kids,” Bacarella told NASCAR.com. “You always want to improve in life, so the next step after you stop driving is becoming a team owner. I think that’s what made me become a team owner.”
Bacarella admitted he’d often get frustrated driving for someone else. His story is similar to Martins, not having a ton of oval experience before jumping ship to NASCAR, and he didn’t even buckle into a race car for the first time until he was more than 20 years old.
The two drivers, initially, were teammates at BJ McLeod Motorsports in 2018 at Michigan International Speedway. It didn’t take long for them to connect.
“Caesar (Bacarella) and I struck a bond,” Martins said. “The thing is, Caesar gets labeled as a guy that brings money and he’s not committed to this. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. He wants to be good at this and relevant, and he cares.”
Away from NASCAR, Bacarella has a storied sports-car career. Between 2018-19, he won two championships in different divisions, including nine victories in the 2018 SprintX GT Championship Series.
NASCAR, though, was a challenge he wanted to conquer. At one of the superspeedway events he ran last – either Daytona International Speedway or Talladega Superspeedway – Bacarella approached Martins with a plan of starting a team together.
It was the perfect timing for Martins.
“I don’t believe in coincidences, but I believe in divine providences,” Martins said. “I knew that my time as a driver was changing. It didn’t mean that it was over because I still have great sponsors that are still a part of this team, but it wasn’t going to be a full-time effort. I knew that it was going to change me, but I didn’t want my family to be saddled with some sort of burden about it, and Caesar was the guy that slid in perfectly.”
Last August, the duo announced the formation of Alpha Prime Racing.
Essentially, Bacarella bought into Martins Motorsports, an already functional operation. Martins believed the team needed a rebrand, thus why the owners went with Alpha Prime as the team name, which is an additional company Bacarella owns that offers high-quality supplements and premium apparel.
After years of struggling – at one point just to make the race – Martins, who runs the day-to-day operations of the Nos. 44 and 45 teams, wanted a new identity as a team owner. This was his shot.
“We were going from a ma and pop (team), no different from what Jeremy Clements does with his team,” Martins said. “Now, we’re growing and becoming a bigger organization. It had to feel different and branded in a different way. We want to brand it as a competitive organization that’s at a different level from where we were at. We are going to look different. We’re going to carry ourselves differently.”
With that came a lot of change.
Initially, the plan was to run just one car with multiple drivers, featuring both owners, Ryan Ellis and Rajah Caruth, an up-and-coming driver from the ARCA Menards Series. However, multiple drivers – Josh Bilicki, Sage Karam and Howie DiSavino III – got wind of what Martins and Bacarella were trying to accomplish and an influx of sponsorship was coming through the door. So much the team needed to add a second car.
“I was sitting on about 15 to 20 races sold in the second car, so I knew it was going to be about a half-year car, which you don’t really want to do. If you’re going to do it, just do it,” Martins said. “Because you’re still going to have to hire people and now it’s not even a full-time effort. I was looking at it that way, and when we got (Karam’s) deal done, I knew we had to pull the trigger.”
Adding a second team has been a colossal undertaking. The team nearly doubled its staff, remained in the same shop and added a hauler Bacarella had previously acquired. And after a frustrating start to the year, Martins was forced to make tough decisions, letting some of his best personnel go.
Through 12 races, the Nos. 44 and 45 teams are separated by 11 points, sitting 31st and 32nd in the owner standings. With how tight the Xfinity Series field is, the No. 44 team is just over one full race behind 21st (61 points below). In 22 combined starts this year, the organization has seven top-20 results, including a pair of 17th-place efforts in the last two races with Martins and Stefan Parsons, new to the team, at Texas Motor Speedway. Ellis has the team’s best outing, earning a 13th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
While it hasn’t been the best start, which includes two DNQs for the No. 45 car, the owners see the potential.
“The team has had a lot of bad luck, that’s the main thing we’re trying to get over,” Bacarella said. “We have to finish these races, but we have this bad luck cloud over us.”
Martins agreed but was a little more blunt in assessing his team.
“I don’t think we’ve been where we need to be,” he said. “There’s no reason this team should ever be missing races. This team should consistently be inside the top 25 every week, that should not be a problem for the equipment that we have and the driver lineup that we have. If we’re not, then I have to reevaluate things and that’s what I’ve done.
“I’ve been critical of myself, hopefully, that I haven’t been too ambitious with what we’re trying to do. I see what other people are doing, and I don’t think we’re doing anything is way off of what they’re doing. It’s just about going out and executing. I’ve told everybody, we’re a top-25 team, that’s it. That’s not like I’m upselling and I know that I can get in the top 15 in my car, we’ve done that this year. But, where should we be on a budget standpoint? Probably 25th. That’s not sexy to say that you’re a 25th-place team, but the competition level out here is so steep.”
Both owners agreed as the team continues to build in the future, it will be with fewer drivers. Having a rotating cast of drivers can be beneficial with different feedback but also a challenge for the team to constantly switch and mount driver seats every week.
That will likely change as soon as next year.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
“We have too many drivers this year,” Bacarella said. “Unfortunately, we had to do it to accommodate the budget for the first year to have two cars. Next year, that’s changing. I believe next year, we have two drivers that are going to pretty much be full time.”
The competitive spirit in both Bacarella and Martins want to be the best of the B teams in the series. In other words, the best team that doesn’t have a full-blown Cup Series alliance. To do that, the team will need to update its equipment for years to come.
But with the uptick in performance across the series this year, which Martins describes as “fat,” he believes the team is further away from that goal than even last year with his family team.
His eyes, though, are focused forward.
“Next year,” Martins said, “hopefully we put ourselves in a position with the network of partners, sponsors and drivers where somebody is able to land a full-time opportunity and give that level of consistency that we can grow with, build with and get better.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch are together again.
The two NASCAR superstars — one in the Hall of Fame and one a surefire future inductee — have a well-documented history on the track. Their heated rivalry that blossomed in 2007 came to a head at Richmond Raceway in 2008 when Busch famously spun Earnhardt Jr. — leading to years of silence between the two.
Junior and “Rowdy” broke bread and buried the past on the “Dale Jr. Download” podcast in 2018, so it was fitting they both joined former Carolina Panthers tight end Greg Olsen on his podcast “Youth Inc.” this week.
.@DaleJr shares his experience growing up an Earnhardt.
Olsen — who wore the No. 88, just like Junior, during his playing career — previously was a guest on Dale Jr.’s podcast earlier this year and the two swapped stories on Olsen’s upbringing and the ups and downs of his football life. His own podcast focuses on navigating the world of youth sports with help from legacy families, coaches, psychologists and more.
Olsen sat down with both Earnhardt Jr. and Busch to discuss family legacies, defining your own path and the burden and benefit of expectations. They delve into the rivalry between the two drivers, growing up a fan, growing up an Earnhardt and how Busch manages fatherhood with his son Brexton, an aspiring racer.
As one of the inaugural participants in the Busch Light Accelerate Her program, NASCAR Xfinity Series racer Natalie Decker is making daring strides in the motorsports industry.
At a very young age, Decker knew she wanted to be a NASCAR driver after watching races with her family. While she’s been faced with many challenges, her sheer drive and determination serves as an inspiration for fans and future drivers.
Decker is well on her way to conquering the track. She’s already taken home a class win and fifth-place finish overall in the GT Audi R8 at her home track, the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, in the Trans Am Series with Ave Motorsports this year.
“There are so many obstacles when it comes to trying to live out a dream, but those obstacles make you who you are,” Decker said. “Every time you come to a big obstacle and get through it, it makes getting to that goal so much better.”
Looking ahead, Decker is excited to participate in more races this year. She hopes to see more women pursue a career in motorsports and believes her participation in the Busch Light Accelerate Her program will inspire them to do so. Being from Wisconsin, where Busch Light reigns as one of the most popular beers in the state, Natalie knows her fans are thrilled that she’s supported by a hometown favorite.
About the Busch Light Accelerate Her program
The Busch Light Accelerate Her program is a three-year commitment that takes aim at the inequity of resources available to women drivers by investing directly in every 21+ woman driver in NASCAR, providing brand-building opportunities to increase fan visibility of drivers and the sport. The Busch Light Accelerate Her program is the next step in a proud, 40-year partnership between Busch Light and NASCAR that has propelled the sport forward, bringing fans closer to the action and expanding NASCAR throughout the U.S. Busch Light asks that fans show their support by heading to Busch.com/accelerateher where they can learn more about the inaugural drivers, including Natalie, who are receiving this opportunity.
From a young age, Shigeaki – better known as Shige – Hattori knew he wanted to be around motorsports. He just didn’t know what kind.
At roughly 8 or 9 years old, he was hanging out in Japan with his uncle, who had a motorcycle. There, he knew what one of his desires was.
“I tried to start the motorcycle, but two wheels is not enough,” Hattori recalled. “I needed four.”
Just a few years after that experience, Hattori began racing. Like many kids, he started in go-karts before moving to Japanese Formula Junior 1600 for two years. In 1992, he moved to Japanese Formula 2, followed by two years in Japanese Formula 3, including a championship win in 1994.
That same year, however, Hattori caught a glimpse of the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was hooked.
So much so that in 1995, he moved to the United States to continue the hopes of chasing his racing dream, beginning with the Indy Lights Series in 1996. By 1998, his third and final year in the series, he found Victory Lane twice, finishing a best of 13th in the championship standings.
During that time, Hattori formed a partnership with multiple Toyota car dealerships in Japan. To this day, some of those dealerships, including Chiba Toyopet, Gunma Toyopet and Ibaraki Toyopet, are embedded with his race team.
“Shige has been great and a longtime friend, and a friend of Toyota,” said David Wilson, president of Toyota Racing. “He is one of the best and most amazing networkers across the Toyota organization. It amazes me of his ability to bring sponsorship from Japan that he’s used to identify the consumer touchpoints on some of these companies. To his credit and his persistence, he’s made a business out of this sport.”
In a four-year span between 2000 and 2003, Hattori competed in 26 NTT IndyCar Series races, earning a best finish of sixth at Texas Motor Speedway. Wanting to move away from open-wheel competition, he jumped to the Camping World Truck Series in 2004, the same year that Toyota first entered one of NASCAR’s three national touring series. In what was to be his series debut at Homestead, he failed to qualify.
The following year – in what turned out to be his final behind the wheel – Hattori qualified for 10 of 12 attempts in the Truck Series. It was over before he knew it.
Daylon Barr Photography | Hattori Racing
“I decided, ‘OK, no more,’ and I stopped driving,” Hattori said. “Two or three years after, I didn’t do anything. I took some classes at UCLA, traveling and doing nothing with my life. I was thinking, I should do something. I really liked NASCAR racing, and so I decided I should start my race team and put young drivers (in it). So, I started in 2008.”
That was the year Hattori Racing Enterprises entered the NASCAR mold, starting off in the ARCA Menards Series. Current Trackhouse Racing co-owner Justin Marks was the first driver to strap into HRE equipment at Rockingham Speedway, finishing 31st out of 50 cars with an overheating issue. Between 2008 and 2011, Hattori would make 13 starts as a team owner.
At that time, Brett Moffitt was an up-and-coming hot shoe. With previous stints at Joe Gibbs Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing, the Iowa native found himself at HRE for the 2012 and 2013 K&N Pro Series East (now ARCA East) schedule. Moffitt won two of his first eight starts with the team, coming up just shy in the championship hunt each year, finishing second and third, respectively.
Hattori knew his next move was to continue up the NASCAR ladder and field an entry in the Truck Series.
“In 2012 and 2013, we were really close to the K&N championship, so I thought it was a good time to move up to the Truck Series,” Hattori said. “I don’t care if it’s Truck, Xfinity or Cup, I really wanted to make the program competitive.”
Hattori didn’t field a truck full time until the 2017 season with Ryan Truex behind the wheel. Scott Zipadelli was a key hire for HRE, having had recent success with Moffitt at Red Horse Racing, which included a win at Michigan in 2016. Ahead of the 2018 season, Hattori got the band back together, bringing Moffitt back to the team after running four part-time seasons in all three national series, including winning the Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award in the Cup Series in 2015.
It took just two races for Moffitt to find Victory Lane in the No. 16 Toyota, scoring HRE’s first-ever win at Atlanta Motor Speedway. That day is one Hattori won’t soon forget.
“It was a green-white-checkered (finish),” Hattori recalled. “It was such a good memory.”
Despite the early success, HRE sought sponsorship for a good chunk of the season. Hattori flew back and forth to Japan approximately 12 times that year, hustling to find new sponsors and negotiating with current partners.
With all of the team’s effort, it kept feeling like the ball was getting kicked down the court. And on some weekends, it came down to the final hours before the truck was wrapped for the race.
“The struggle was always budget-wise,” Hattori said. “But we were leading the points, so we couldn’t stop. We have to keep going, right?”
The team powered on and Moffitt went on to win six times, including the final two races and the championship. It was an underdog story of sorts, though Hattori always believed in Moffitt and Zipadelli.
The team owner was shocked to be spraying champagne and hoisting the Truck Series championship in just his second full season as a truck owner.
“I was surprised that we won six races. It was a good surprise,” Hattori stated.
After 2018, the team moved on to Austin Hill, picking up eight wins in three seasons and winning the regular season championship in 2020.
“It was three years of a pretty good time,” Hattori said of his stint with Hill.
Daylon Barr Photography | Hattori Racing
Away from the track, Hattori has been crucial in building partnerships to help his race team and Toyota dealerships in Japan, as well as introducing the people of Japan to NASCAR. Such is the case with the Japanese Toyota Dealership Mechanic Training Program. As part of the initiative, HRE provides a NASCAR training program for partnering Japanese Toyota dealers’ mechanics. Those mechanics would fly to the U.S. and spend one or two weeks in the race shop before experiencing a race weekend. Over 300 mechanics have participated in HRE’s training program.
Hattori is also involved in the Japanese Toyota Technical College Training Program, which was last hosted in 2019, where students from Japan’s three Toyota Technical colleges visit the U.S. to work in HRE’s shop. The program culminates by joining the HRE team for an ARCA Menards Series race to work as mechanics and perform a pit stop. Another 100-plus students have participated in the program since 2012.
Then, there’s the Tokyo Auto Salon, which is similar to the United States’ SEMA event and hosts nearly 330,000 people over the course of three days. Hattori’s Vertex Sports marketing firm and Goodyear Japan are able to highlight show cars and Goodyear Racing products before demonstrating what a live pit stop looks like from the HRE team. That opens NASCAR up to a whole new demographic, as the sport is not heavily featured in Japan.
Moving forward, Hattori wants to remain a competitive team owner. For the first time this season, he’s running two teams in the Truck Series, rather than running a partial Xfinity Series schedule. Through nine races, his drivers Tyler Ankrum and Chase Purdy sit 14th and 19th, respectively, in the championship standings.
The immediate goal is to get Ankrum and Purdy more experience, as he sees them improving every week. The long-term goal, though, is to remain a competitive force, no matter which series the team competes in.
“My goal is I really want to move up to Cup,” Hattori said. “The keys to this sport are people and sponsorship. If everything is right, I really want to move up to Cup.
“I don’t like just running, I really want to win the race. So hopefully, people, sponsors that I can put together in the future, I can move up to Cup.”
NASCAR officials issued fines Tuesday to one team each in the Xfinity Series and in the Camping World Truck Series for lug-nut violations during last weekend’s events at Texas Motor Speedway.
In the Xfinity Series, the Kaulig Racing No. 16 Chevrolet team of AJ Allmendinger was found with one unsecured lug nut after Saturday’s SRS Distribution 250. As a result of the infraction from Section 8.8.10.4a in the NASCAR Rule Book, No. 16 crew chief Bruce Schlicker was fined $5,000.
Another single-lug violation was found on the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota driven by Chandler Smith in the Camping World Trucks’ Speedycash.com 200. Danny Stockman Jr., the team’s crew chief, was fined $2,500.
Allmendinger has finished among the top 10 in all 12 Xfinity Series races this year, and he currently leads the tour’s standings. He was ninth at Texas, extending his streak. Smith placed eighth last weekend, which pushed him up one spot to third in the Truck Series points.
CONCORD, N.C. — Spire Motorsports and Corey LaJoie will partner with the USO and The Coca-Cola Company for the 63rd running of the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway as NASCAR, its drivers and teams, pay tribute to the men and women who sacrificed their lives while serving in the United States Military.
The USO strengthens America’s military service members by keeping them connected to family, home, and country, throughout their service to the nation.
“This Memorial Day weekend, we’re proud to partner with The Coca-Cola Company, as well as Corey LaJoie and Spire Motorsports, to honor our military service members and pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives protecting our freedoms,” said Brian Cowart, Chief Development and Marketing Officer of the USO, the nation’s leading military nonprofit organization. “Together, we’re driving support and building connections between the public and the military community to keep our heroes in uniform strong and resilient.”
“Coca-Cola is incredibly proud of our 81-year partnership with the USO and our shared values of honoring our military service men and women,” said Alba Baylin, Vice President of Community and Stakeholder Relations for Coca-Cola North America. “The Coca-Cola 600, which is held on Memorial Day weekend, is a special time to bring racing fans together to recognize and honor our nation’s Armed Forces while bringing awareness to the USO’s mission of supporting those who have sacrificed and served our country.”
Meanwhile, LaJoie will pay tribute to Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum, a United States Marine, who was killed in action on Aug. 26, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Lance Cpl. McCollum was manning a checkpoint at the Kabul airport when a bomb went off, killing him, 12 other American troops, and more than 100 Afghans.
McCollum’s name will be displayed on the windshield of LaJoie’s USO Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 throughout the weekend as part of NASCAR’s 600 Miles of Remembrance program.
“Representing the USO on Memorial Day weekend is a dream come true,” said LaJoie. “The Coca-Cola 600 is one of my favorite races on the schedule, as well as my home race. The opportunity to partner with the USO and Coca-Cola allows us to really show the service members and their families a great time at the track while remembering the brave men and women who paid the ultimate price for our freedom.”
LaJoie has logged eight previous NCS starts at the legendary 1.5-mile Concord, North Carolina, oval and earned a venue/race-best 12th-place finish in the 2019 running of NASCAR’s longest race.
“Spire Motorsports is proud to partner with the USO and Coca-Cola for this initiative to honor and support the servicemen and servicewomen of the United States,” said Spire Motorsports co-owner T.J. Puchyr. “At the same time, we’re humbled to have Corey LaJoie carry Lance Corporal McCollum’s name on the windshield of the No. 7. We can’t ever let the bravery of those who make the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the United States to be forgotten. NASCAR does a tremendous job every Memorial Day weekend of making sure we recognize those who deserve the highest of honors. Spire is privileged to play a small part.”
The Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte Motor Speedway will be televised live on FOX, Sunday, May 29 beginning at 6 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The 14th of 36 races on the 2022 NCS schedule will be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
CONCORD, N.C. — Trackhouse Entertainment Group today announced the creation of PROJECT91, a program designed to expand its international reach by fielding a NASCAR Cup Series entry for renowned international racing drivers.
Trackhouse’s PROJECT91 will enter the No. 91 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at least once during the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season with plans to expand the program in the future.
Trackhouse Racing — a division of Trackhouse Entertainment Group — fields the Nos. 99 and 1 Chevrolets with drivers Daniel Suárez and Ross Chastain in the NASCAR Cup Series.
With PROJECT91, Trackhouse will become the destination for global superstars from other racing disciplines eager to compete in America’s most popular form of motorsports.
“PROJECT91’s mission is to activate the intersection point of NASCAR racing and global motorsport culture,” said Justin Marks, whose Trackhouse Racing team has won twice during the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series campaign.
“I truly believe the Next Gen car represents an opportunity for NASCAR to enter the global professional motorsport conversation. We now have a race vehicle with international technological relevance where world-class drivers from other disciplines can compete at NASCAR’s highest level without the steep learning curve that the previous generation cars required.
“Vehicle advancements used in other forms of motorsports, such as diffusers, independent rear suspension, the sequential gearbox, and other more common components, have resulted in a platform much less reliant on intimate proprietary stock car knowledge, which has historically made any transition to NASCAR difficult.
“With the formation of PROJECT91, Trackhouse has opened the door for global champions while beginning the process of scaling into an internationally recognized racing brand.”
PROJECT91 will announce its first driver and race in the coming days.
