Corey LaJoie, who parted ways with Spire Motorsports while racing in the Cup Series last year, has returned to the same team this year. However, LaJoie will race in the NASCAR Truck Series in the No.7 Chevy Silverado.

LaJoie will participate in nine Truck Series races, beginning at Michigan International Speedway, followed by his second race at Richmond Raceway on August 8. While he looks forward to a fresh chapter with Spire this year, his analogy offers an insight into his current emotions.

Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass shared a video on X where LaJoie talks about his return to Spire Motorsports. He said:

“So yeah. It’s been, you know, a lot of emotions going back in there [at Spire]. Can I give you my analogy? … Here’s my analogy. It’s like when you work building a house for five years, and then your wife becomes a TikTok star and says she’s not happy anymore, she kicks you out. Then she calls you back a year later, and you have to go live in the guest room, and she’s there with a new boyfriend. That’s how this thing goes.”

LaJoie added that he missed working with the team. He said:

“But I’ve missed the, just like, the trenches of trying to work together for a common goal. Because it’s the only thing, racing’s the only thing in life that you can be measured by your effort, good, bad, or indifferent. So, I’ve missed like, the working collectively trying to get a truck faster, car faster, yourself faster, figuring out what your weaknesses are and making them better.”

LaJoie has driven for Spire in the Cup Series since 2021, making him a part of the team’s initial years in NASCAR. He said in a statement:

“I’m looking forward to getting back in the seat and chasing some NASCAR Craftsman Truck series wins.

“I put in a lot of work in the early days to help shape Spire Motorsports, and I still have some friends that have been there since day one, so it’ll be good to see them. The No. 07 team has been bringing some fast trucks to the track this year and are looking for a spot in the owner’s playoffs.

“It’ll be nice to have some consistency with the team to get acclimated to these vehicles, chase some wins and hopefully, a Craftsman Truck series owner’s championship.”

Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson added:

“While discussing our best path to bring Spire our first Craftsman Truck series championship and describing what we needed in a driver, the driver we were all talking about without saying his name was Corey LaJoie.

“So, when I ran into Corey in the motorhome lot one morning earlier this spring, I asked him what he thought about coming home and doing this.

“He is synonymous with what we’ve built here over the last few years and deserves this opportunity. I’m looking forward to getting him in the truck at Michigan to work out some kinks and start getting a game plan together for the playoffs.”

Denny Hamlin led only twice for five laps at Michigan International Speedway, but the final four were the ones that mattered as he earned his third victory of the 2025 season and 57th of his career.

Hamlin, who earlier scored consecutive victories at Martinsville and Darlington, is tied with Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell for the lead in NASCAR Cup Series victories this season.

It’s Hamlin’s ninth season with at least three victories, and he became the 18th driver with at least three wins at Michigan (his 11th track with at least three Cup wins). At 5,104 days since Hamlin’s June 19, 2011 win at the 2-mile oval, it’s the longest gap between wins at a track since Kyle Busch won at Talladega in 2023 (his first win there since 2008, a stretch of 5,474 days.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver earned his third victory of the season.

Joe Gibbs Racing got its first win at Michigan since August 2015 with Matt Kenseth. The team has six wins this season between Bell and Hamlin.

Despite running out of fuel and finishing 28th, William Byron still leads the regular-season standings by 41 points over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson. Hamlin improved a spot to third in the standings ahead of Bell and Chase Elliott.

The Joe Gibbs Racing star took the lead from William Byron on Lap 197 of 200.

Here is the finishing order for the Cup race at Michigan:

1. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota
2. Chris Buescher, No. 17 Ford
3. Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Toyota
4. Bubba Wallace, No. 23 Toyota
5. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Chevrolet
6. Ross Chastain, No. 1 Chevrolet
7. Zane Smith, No. 38 Ford
8. Kyle Busch, No. 8 Chevrolet
9. Ryan Preece, No. 60 Ford
10. Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Ford
11. Erik Jones, No. 43 Toyota
12. Josh Berry, No. 21 Ford
13. Tyler Reddick, No. 45 Toyota
14. Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Chevrolet
15. Chase Elliott, No. 9 Chevrolet
16. Christopher Bell, No. 20 Toyota
17. AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Chevrolet
18. Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Chevrolet
19. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet
20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Chevrolet
21. Justin Haley, No. 7 Chevrolet
22. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford
23. Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Toyota
24. Ty Dillon, No. 10 Chevrolet
25. Riley Herbst, No. 35 Toyota
26. Cody Ware, No. 51 Ford
27. Noah Gragson, No. 4 Ford
28. William Byron, No. 24 Chevrolet
29. Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Chevrolet
30. Michael McDowell, No. 71 Chevrolet
31. Austin Cindric, No. 2 Ford
32. Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Ford
33. Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Ford
34. John H Nemechek, No. 42 Toyota
35. Cole Custer, No. 41 Ford
36. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Chevrolet

Denny Hamlin is still on baby watch, but he had one more workday to take care of Sunday.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver made his way past William Byron with four laps to go and had enough gas to hang on and win the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich.

Racing a snappy purple No. 11 Toyota, Hamlin passed Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet with four circuits left on the two-mile track, and Byron ran out of gas coming to the white flag. The Hendrick Motorsports driver landed in 28th place.

In delivering Toyota its second straight MIS win, Hamlin beat Ford’s Chris Buescher by 1.09 seconds for his third Cup Series win this season and third at the Michigan track. His last victory there came in June 2011.

“I wanted to get the lead, (Byron) was doing a great job defending,” Hamlin said before taunting the crowd’s mixture of cheers and boos. “Daddy, I’m sorry, but I beat your favorite driver, folks.”

When asked who that driver was, Hamlin, who led just five laps, said, “All of them.”

Hamlin and fiancee Jordan Fish are expecting their third child. Hamlin said he was prepared to leave the race if she went into labor during the first 50 laps.

Hamlin won for the 57th time in his 701st career race, becoming just the 10th driver to win after making 700 starts.

“We’ve been so fast the entire year but haven’t been finishing for one reason or another,” said Hamlin, 44. “It feels good to come here to Michigan, where we’ve been so close over the years, and get a victory … Such a gratifying day to restart 11th, 12th, something like that, and then drive to the front.”

Ty Gibbs and Bubba Wallace were third and fourth, respectively. Gibbs is Hamlin’s JGR teammate and Wallace drives for 23XI Racing, which Hamlin co-owns. Kyle Larson finished fifth.

Byron grabbed the lead away from polesitter Chase Briscoe on Lap 12 of Stage 1, but Buescher passed Byron on Lap 36 of the 45-lap segment and earned his first stage win of 2025.

Byron finished second while Hamlin, Briscoe and Josh Berry completed the top five in the incident-free stage.

The first caution for cause waved on Lap 60 when Noah Gragson and John Hunter Nemechek, running just inside the top 20, spun on the backstretch to bunch up the field again, but seven laps later a hard wreck occurred in Turn 2.

Riding in the bottom lane, last week’s winner Ryan Blaney tapped Cole Custer’s No. 41, triggering a mess that ended up with Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet crashing violently nose-first into the wall and Briscoe spinning after being clipped by Custer’s Ford. That prompted a red-flag condition for cleanup.

“Yeah, that hurt a lot,” Bowman said. “It was probably top of the board on hits I’ve taken, and, unfortunately, I’ve taken a lot of hits.”

As Stage 2 neared its end, Blaney slapped the wall on his own in the No. 12 Ford and spun down the speedway, an unfortunate fifth caution for Christopher Bell, who pitted shortly before Blaney’s mishap.

The closing laps of the stage featured a spirited battle between Byron, Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric and Carson Hocevar. Byron made the winning pass on the final lap for the stage win while Cindric was able to hold off Michigan native Hocevar for second.

Hocevar took the point on Lap 152, but the Spire Motorsports driver suffered a flat left rear tire with 19 circuits left, turning over the lead to Byron. Hocevar finished 29th.

–Field Level Media

Michigan is known for its classic fuel mileage races and Sunday was no different, with drivers desperate to stretch the fuel tank for the final 48-lap run of the race.

As the laps clicked away, Denny Hamlin hit his fuel number and ran down the leaders who were still saving what they could. Carson Hocevar was in control and while the fuel situation was grim, he never got that far as a cut left rear tire forced him down to pit road.

Hamlin cut a path to William Byron who was now in control of the race and the two drivers battled fiercely for the race lead. As they went back-and-forth, Hamlin finally cleared Byron with about four laps to go.

Byron ran out as the field took the white flag, falling from second all the way down to 28th in the final running order. Hamlin took the checkered flag with about a second between himself and Chris Buescher in second. 

Hamlin now has 57 career wins with three this year, which matches both Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson.

“It’s fantastic,” said Hamlin. “Chris Gayle [crew chief], this whole team, has done a great job. We’ve been so fast throughout the entire year. Just haven’t finished it for one reason or another. Feels good to come here to Michigan where we’ve been so close over the years. To get a victory for Toyota, Yahoo, Sport Clips, Shady Rays, the Jordan brand, everyone. This is such a gratifying day to restart 11th or 12th, something like that, and drive to the front.”

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: Chris Graythen – Getty Images

Ty Gibbs finished third, Bubba Wallace fourth, and Kyle Larson fifth. Ross Chastain, Zane Smith, Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece, and Brad Keselowski filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Buescher also won the first stage of the race Byron claimed the Stage 2 win, taking home some extra stage points to help soften the blow of the bad result. Hocevar, who has been knocking on the door of his first win every week as of late, ended up 29th.

The race was nonstop action with lots of passing throughout the pack. While there were several heart-stopping moments, luck finally ran out early in the second stage as Alex Bowman slammed the outside wall head-on. Thankfully, he was okay despite it being described as one of the biggest hits of his career.

The final stage ran green until Todd Gilliland lost control and crashed. This happened just outside of the fuel window but everyone was determined to go the distance as the race resumed on Lap 152 of 200.

Hamlin restarted ninth while Hocevar took over the lead from Zane Smith, who had taken just two tires. Hamlin was cruising in fifth for several laps before finally making his charge, taking the win.

Photos from Michigan – Race