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Spire Motorsports announced a two-driver lineup of Corey LaJoie and Ty Dillon for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Collection season.
LaJoie, 31, will return for his third consecutive season with the staff. He’s ranked thirty first within the factors standings and completed a career-best fifth within the March 20 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
He additionally led a career-best 19 laps in his No. 7 Chevrolet in the course of the July 10 race at Atlanta before crashing in a battle with Chase Elliott for the victory on the ultimate restart.
This would be the fifth consecutive season in NASCAR’s premier collection for LaJoie, who has 5 prime 10s in 197 profession Cup begins. Ryan Sparks will stay the crew chief for LaJoie and likewise has been promoted to the staff’s director of competitors. Sparks and LaJoie joined Spire as a duo after being paired at GoFas Racing in 2020.
We want to welcome @tydillon to staff #SpireMotorsports for the 2023 season because the full-time driver of the #77!
Welcome to the staff Ty; we’re very glad to have you ever right here alongside @CoreyLaJoie within the #7 and look ahead to all that we are going to accomplish collectively subsequent season. pic.twitter.com/QURLYL2htg— Spire Motorsports (@SpireMotorsport) October 18, 2022
“With one other yr underneath our belts and a pocket book on the brand new automobile, I do know we are able to have a strong season and get that first win,” LaJoie mentioned in a launch. “It’s cool my buddy Ty is becoming a member of us as nicely. It will likely be good to have a full-time teammate within the No. 77.”
Dillon, 30, will be part of Spire Motorsports after spending the 2022 season within the No. 42 Chevrolet of Petty GMS Racing. He’s ranked twenty ninth within the factors standings with a season-best end of tenth within the Bristol Motor Speedway dust race.
The 2023 season might be Dillon’s sixth full time on the Cup circuit. He ran for Germain Racing from 2017-20 with a career-best end of third within the Oct. 4, 2020 race at Talladega Superspeedway. Kevin Bellicourt, who has been the crew chief for Spire’s No. 77 the past two seasons, might be Dillon’s crew chief.
In 199 Cup begins, Dillon has two prime fives and 7 prime 10s. He has completed a career-best twenty fourth within the factors twice (2017, ’19). Dillon additionally has three victories within the Tenting World Truck Collection (the place he completed second within the 2013 standings). He gained the July 26, 2014 race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a rookie within the Xfinity Collection, the place he completed within the prime 5 of the standings in three consecutive seasons.
“I’m grateful for this chance, a brand new starting with a really hungry staff that’s excited for the long run,” Dillon mentioned in a launch. “Spire Motorsports has been rising yr after yr whenever you have a look at the way in which that Corey and the No. 7 staff has developed to be aggressive. The group is not off course and I’m excited to be part of bringing the No. 77 as much as the place Corey has been working. Hopefully we increase the entire stage of competitors collectively.”
Spire Motorsports may have two full-time drivers for the primary time in its historical past. The staff began with the 2019 Cup Collection season with eight drivers splitting time within the No. 77 Chevrolet. Justin Haley delivered the team its first victory in a rain-shortened race July 7, 2019 at Daytona Worldwide Speedway.
LaJoie turned its first full-time driver final season, and the staff expanded to a second full-time automobile in 2022 that has been shared by 4 drivers.
“There’s little doubt that we raised some eyebrows after we entered the game as race staff homeowners,” Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson mentioned in a launch. “We knew that we would have liked to discover ways to crawl earlier than we tried to stroll and finally run. We’ve been fairly lucky to construct a powerful basis for Spire Motorsports over the previous a number of years. That’s a testomony to the folks of Spire Motorsports, and Corey LaJoie, Ryan Sparks and Kevin Bellicourt have been the bedrock of this group.
“The following step in our development is so as to add an equally succesful full-time driver for the No. 77 staff and we’ve discovered simply that particular person in Ty Dillon. Clearly, the trail that (fellow Spire Motorsports co-owner T.J. Puchyr) and I’ve taken to be right here as we speak has been atypical. We now have nice respect for our contemporaries within the sport, and we’re humbled to be amongst them. Collectively, we’ve been lucky to serve a number of capabilities and roles in racing over the previous 20 years. That permits us to have a fantastic appreciation and perspective of what it takes to achieve success on this super-competitive setting. We’re very happy with what each member of the group has helped us construct.”
