Friday 5: Corey LaJoie’s personal reset included hair cut

The long curly hair made Corey LaJoie stand out, but the 31-year-old driver decided in January that it was time for a change. He wanted to attract attention for what he did in a Cup car instead of how he looked outside it.

As part of a personal reset, LaJoie’s hair was cut shortly before the start of this season. 

“The flo is no mo,” he said.

Cutting his hair was a symbolic change for a driver who has had to rely on other ways of gaining attention at times than what happens on the track. 

Much work remains, but starting this season with a 16th-place finish in the Daytona 500 and a 14th-place result at Auto Club Speedway — his best at that track — shows the progress LaJoie and his Spire Motorsports team have made heading into Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Viewed as one of the sport’s potential stars more than a decade ago — LaJoie was selected to the NASCAR Next Class twice, joining Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and Daniel Suarez in the 2012 Class — lack of funding stymied LaJoie’s progress. 

He didn’t run any races in 2015 in Cup, Xfinity or Trucks. Instead, he served as a crew chief for a team in what is now the ARCA West Series. He talked to Chad Knaus that year about a role that could lead him to being a crew chief in Xfinity or Cup someday before LaJoie decided to resume his driving career.

Five years later, LaJoie gave car owner Rick Hendrick a hand-written letter seeking to be considered to fill Jimmie Johnson’s ride after he retired that season. Hendrick called the letter “heartfelt” and said he had never received anything like that from a driver before. 

While it didn’t get LaJoie the ride, he continued to find other ways to stay relevant when the only reasons he was on TV during a race was