NASCAR: Spire Motorsports and Rick Ware Racing swap Justin Haley and Corey LaJoie for remainder of 2024

Spire Motorsports and Rick Ware Racing are already kicking off the 2025 season.

The teams announced Friday at Bristol that RWR’s Justin Haley would drive the No. 7 car for Spire for the final seven races of the season, while Corey LaJoie would drive the No. 51 car for RWR the remainder of the year. Each driver will compete in Saturday’s race at Bristol before making the switch.

Haley will continue with Spire in 2025 with Rodney Childers as his crew chief. Childers, currently the crew chief for Josh Berry at Stewart-Haas Racing, became a free agent when SHR announced it was closing. Childers won the 2014 Cup Series title with Kevin Harvick and served as Harvick’s crew chief throughout the driver’s tenure at SHR.

LaJoie is not yet assured of a seat at RWR in 2025. Not yet. He has been reported by multiple media outlets as a leading contender for the ride. Spire announced LaJoie would be leaving the team last summer, and his 2024 season has been disappointing. LaJoie is 28th in the standings, six spots behind his rookie teammate Carson Hocever. Zane Smith, in a third Spire car, is 33rd in the standings.

Haley is 32nd in the standings with two top-10 finishes. His best finishes of the season are ninth at Darlington in the spring and ninth at Gateway. LaJoie was fourth in the Daytona 500 and had his second-best finish of the season last week at Watkins Glen with an eighth-place finish.

LaJoie has four top-five finishes in 264 career Cup Series races. All four have come at either Atlanta, Daytona or Talladega. The two top-10 finishes he has earned at Darlington and Watkins Glen in the last three races are his first top-10s at a track that wasn’t Atlanta, Daytona or Talladega.

Haley, meanwhile, claimed the only victory for Spire in team history. He scored a fortuitous victory at the Daytona race in the summer of 2019 when he sat out during a caution flag in the rain-delayed race. Lightning struck within eight miles of Haley taking the lead, and the race never resumed.