Picks Up First K&N Pro East Win Since 2012 At New Hampshire
By Jason Christley, NASCAR
LOUDON, N.H. (July 16, 2016) – Corey LaJoie returned to Victory Lane in dominating style Saturday night.
LaJoie led the final 34 laps and drove away from the field on a green-white-checkered finish to win the United Site Services 70 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It was LaJoie’s first win since 2012 when he had five victories en route to a runner-up finish in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East.
The victory came twenty years to the week that his father, two-time NASCAR XFINITY Series champion Randy LaJoie, won at New Hampshire. A then four-year-old Corey was in Victory Lane with his dad that day.
This time, Corey LaJoie was the elder statesman, as the 24-year-old NASCAR Next alum held off runner-up Todd Gilliland, 16, and 17-year-old third-place finisher Justin Haley.
Kyle Benjamin and Austin Theriault finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
LaJoie was making his first NASCAR K&N Pro Series East start of the season, driving the No. 41 CarQuest Auto Part Chevrolet for Ranier Racing with MDM. He started second alongside teammate Benjamin and took the lead from him on Lap 39.
It was sweep redemption for LaJoie, who suffered a mechanical failure while running in the top 10 earlier in the day in the NASCAR XFINITY Series race. LaJoie also twice came close to winning the NASCAR K&N Pro Series race at New Hampshire. He was was runner-up to Kyle Larson in 2012, and wrecked late in the running of the 2010 race while battling for the lead.
Hunter Baize was sixth Saturday night, followed by Harrison Burton, Trey Hutchens, Ryan Preece and Tyler Dippel.
With his finish, Haley was able to keep his lead to 40 points over Benjamin with five races remaining.
The United Site Services 70 will air on NBCSN on Thursday, July 21 at 11 p.m.
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series will next run at Iowa Speedway in the annual combination showdown with the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West in the Casey’s General Store 150 presented by Vatterott College on Friday, July 28.
Complete Results:
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