While Corey LaJoie has yet to win a race through his opening 258 NASCAR Cup Series starts, it was still somewhat shocking to see Spire Motorsports announce last week that the organization would be moving on from the 32-year-old son of two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Randy LaJoie at season’s end.
The decision to move on from LaJoie came after the team initially announced LaJoie as being paired with incoming crew chief Rodney Childers for the 2025 season. That leads you to believe that Spire Motorsports has a pretty good idea of who will be behind the wheel of the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 next season. But from the outside, the question remains; who should the organization be targeting to fill that seat?
Let me just say this, I fully expect the next driver of the No. 7 Chevrolet to be a NASCAR Cup Series race-winning driver. The last thing you want to do after luring Rodney Childers to your organization is to put the established crew chief in a situation with an inexperienced driver, or a driver who has yet to prove that they are capable of scoring wins on NASCAR’s grandest stage. And with Spire having a reputation of not being afraid to spend above market value to acquire talent, whether it be spotters or crew chiefs, you’d imagine that mindset would extend to the driver’s seat.
Here are the top five drivers, in my opinion, who Spire Motorsports should be considering as the driver for the open No. 7 machine.
1. Erik Jones (Currently with LEGACY MOTOR CLUB)
At just 28 years old, Erik Jones still has plenty of racing left in front of him. The native of Byron, Michigan has scored three NASCAR Cup Series wins throughout his 8-year NASCAR Cup Series career, and he even scored a win for the upstart Petty GMS — now LEGACY MOTOR CLUB — team in the 2022 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
LEGACY MOTOR CLUB struggled mightily throughout the 2023 season after the organization made an early-season announcement that it would jump ship from Chevrolet to Toyota in 2024. As a result, Chevrolet turned off the pipelines of information, and while LMC has started to show signs of waking up in recent weeks, the team is still having a hard time in its transition to Toyota.
Jones, who has yet to be announced as being re-signed by the team for the 2025 season, is at a fork in the road. Does he return to LMC and hope that the organization takes a step forward in the offseason, or would a move to Spire Motorsports intrigue him?
The driver who has amassed 19 career NASCAR National Series wins has just one top-10 finish this year. Meanwhile, the departing LaJoie, who has zero NASCAR National Series wins, has a top-five finish this year in the Spire ride. I honestly think a change of scenery from the stagnant LEGACY MOTOR CLUB could help Jones rejuvenate his NASCAR Cup Series career.
2. Bubba Wallace (Currently with 23XI Racing)
Bubba Wallace is an interesting driver, who I haven’t really seen rumored anywhere, that could be in the mix. 23XI Racing has yet to announce a contract extension for the current driver of the No. 23 Toyota Camry, and if Spire Motorsports wants to make a free agency splash — Wallace could be THE guy.
He’s just 30 years old, which means there is still plenty of runway left, and he is a marketing machine. Sure, Wallace has his detractors, but as the old adage says, it’s when they stop talking about you that you should be worried.
Wallace, who has two career NASCAR Cup Series wins, has been held out of victory lane since September 11, 2022, when he scored an emphatic win at Kansas Speedway. Without a win on his resume last season, Wallace was still able to work his way into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, and this season he’s working on back-to-back Playoff appearances. With four races left until the Playoffs, Wallace sits just seven points behind the cutline.
Since Tyler Reddick joined the team heading into the 2023 season, Wallace has played second-fiddle to his teammate. A move to Spire Motorsports would give him a chance to compete for supremacy within the team with Michael McDowell and youngster Carson Hocevar.
Additionally, the move would make sense from a mentoring standpoint for Spire, who has Rajah Caruth waiting in the wings in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The team also has a Truck Series alliance with Rev Racing, where Wallace cut his teeth in the NASCAR Drive4Diversity program.
3. Daniel Suarez (Currently with Trackhouse Racing)
After a thrilling win in a photo finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February, Justin Marks proclaimed the rumors that Trackhouse Racing would be moving on from Suarez were unfounded. Despite that proclamation, the race team has yet to announce a contract extension for Suarez, who has scored his first two NASCAR Cup Series wins for the organization.
If Trackhouse Racing were to ultimately move on from Suarez, it wouldn’t necessarily be a move because they aren’t confident in his abilities. The team simply has a lot of young emerging talent and unique prospects in their pipeline.
Zane Smith was loaned out to Spire Motorsports this season, an arrangement that isn’t expected to continue into 2025, and Shane van Gisbergen has continued to showcase that he is a threat to win at every road course race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season. SVG has also started to pick up more and more speed on ovals evidenced by his fourth-place run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway a couple of weeks ago.
Additionally, Trackhouse Racing has 17-year-old Connor Zilisch waiting in the wings, and the young racer looks about as much like a can’t-miss prospect as we’ve ever seen in the sport. Zilisch is without a doubt the future, but the team needs to figure out which drivers on their roster, presently, they’ll keep long-term. For that reason, I could see Suarez being the odd man out.
4. Kyle Busch (Currently with Richard Childress Racing)
On paper, this one sounds great. Spire Motorsports would land a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and one of the best raw talents to ever wheel a race car, Kyle Busch. But there are roadblocks in the way. Busch is still under contract with Richard Childress Racing for another season, and despite how bad the season has been for the 39-year-old racer and his No. 8 team, Busch is still very much carrying the banner for the RCR team this season.
Busch sits 18th in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings at the Olympic break, while his teammate Austin Dillon, who has confirmed he will return to RCR in 2025, sits 32nd in points. If RCR were to let Busch walk, there is a chance it could field two cars ranked in the 30s in the championship standings next year.
Additionally, Busch would conceivably be a short-term move due to his age. With the team already scooping up veteran Michael McDowell (39) earlier this season from Front Row Motorsports, it seems like an odd dynamic to have two drivers closer to the end of their careers rostered on a three-car team.
And then there is of course the question of how effective Busch is within the current NASCAR Cup Series landscape, with the current lack of long practice sessions as well as the Next Gen car seemingly not playing into Busch’s strengths.
Prior to the Next Gen car era, Busch boasted a 9.74% winning percentage. In the nearly three full seasons with the Next Gen car, Busch has only won 4.26% of his starts, and as it stands, he is potentially facing his first-ever winless NASCAR Cup Series season. With the hurdles, that would need to be cleared to even sign Busch, his age, and recent lack of effectiveness in the NASCAR Cup Series, I feel like Busch isn’t the right fit for Spire, personally, but I could also see the attraction for the team.
5. Justin Haley (Currently with Rick Ware Racing)
This one is kind of a long shot as Justin Haley has voiced his desire to remain at Rick Ware Racing for as long as Ware will have him, but more than a month after Haley reaffirmed his commitment to the team, RWR has yet to announce a contract extension for Haley. It could simply be because the driver and team have a deep understanding that they want to remain together for a long time, leaving no reason to rush a contract and announcement.
But if Rick Ware Racing, a team that is attempting to climb the ladder within the Ford Performance camp, has the chance to snatch a driver that Ford themselves covets higher than say a Haley, who knows what could happen.
Haley is just 25 years old, and he has remained one of the cleanest drivers on the track over his NASCAR Cup Series career, which you would expect to be appealing to the Spire team looking to move on from LaJoie. Not only has Haley had a cleaner record as far as incidents are concerned, but he’s also a previous NASCAR Cup Series race winner.
I know, I know, Haley’s lone Cup win came due to a rain-shortened finish at Daytona in the Summer of 2019, but that was the first-ever win for Spire Motorsports. Aside from the sentimental value Haley would bring, Haley has recorded more top-five and top-10 finishes than LaJoie, and he’s done it in about half of the career starts. Haley also has seven career wins combined in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
The Indiana native has really opened a lot of eyes this season with some solid performances for the Ware team. In fact, Haley has scored the team’s only two non-superspeedway top-10 finishes to date. Haley also finished runner-up to SVG in the inaugural Chicago Street Race in 2022, and he has third-place finishes at Darlington Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway on his resume.
If Haley is available, he would, on paper, be a drastic upgrade from behind the wheel for the Spire Motorsports team.
