October 15, 2007
By Allen Madding

Allen Madding

Randy LaJoie was born on August 28, 1961 in Norwalk, Connecticut. LaJoie began racing go-karts at the age of 12. In 1980, LaJoie began racing full-size stock cars at the Danbury Fair Race Arena. In his second season, he won the Modified Sportsman Division track championship recording 13 wins in 20 events.

In 1983, LaJoie moved to the NASCAR Busch North Series and won the Rookie of the Year title.

In 1985, Lajoie made his first start in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway, qualifying 14th and finishing 16th driving Bob Johnson’s No. 4 Snellman Construction Chevrolet. LaJoie won the NASCAR Busch North Series Championship recording 14 wins during the season.

In 1986, LaJoie and Johnson returned to the Winston Cup Series at Pocono. LaJoie finished 29th. Lajoie made his first Busch Series start in the Dixie Cup 200 at Darlington in April driving the No. 03 Snellman Construction Pontiac finishing 11th. He made a total of four Busch Series races for the year posting 1 top-ten finish.

In 1987, LaJoie competed in the Grand National 200 at Dover Downs driving the No.04 Quick Stop Beverage Oldsmobile finishing tenth. In 1988, LaJoie competed in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series Delaware 500 at Dover driving the No. 74 Wawak Racing Chevrolet. He lost an engine on lap 89 and finished the event 37th. LaJoie made two starts in the Busch Series. He drove the No. 66 El Dorado Coach Oldsmobile in the Oxford 250 at Oxford, Maine and finished third. He drove the No.71 D&D Competition Oldsmobile in the All Pro 300 at Charlotte and finished 40th after being involved in a crash on lap 31.

In 1989, LaJoie drove the No. 63 Rosenblum Racing Chevrolet in the Winston Cup Series Miller High Life 500 at Pocono but a crash on lap 178 relegated him to a 28th finish. In Busch Series competition, LaJoie drove the No. 71 D&D Competition car in three events and then moved to CiCi Racing’s No. 34 Buick for 12 events. He made a total of 15 Busch starts recording one top-five and three top-tens.

In 1990, LaJoie drove Rosenblum Racing’s No.13 Buick in two Winston Cup Series events. In the Busch Series, he drove his own No. 71 Ford and Buick in six events. In 1991, LaJoie drove Rossenblum’s No.13 Buick at Pocono and Cale Yarborough’s No. 66 TropArtic Pontiac in three events. In 1993, LaJoie made seven Busch Series starts driving the No. 20 Fina Lube Chevrolet and Oldsmobile and drove one event in the No. 74 Staff America Chevrolet. He finished second in the Fram Filter 500k at Talladega and in the Gatorade 200 at Darlington. He recorded three top-fives and four top-tens.

1994 marked LaJoie’s first full season in the Busch Series driving the No. 20 Fina Lube Chevrolet. He finished second in the Sundrop 400 at Hickory and qualified on the pole for the Gatorade 200 at Darlington. He made 27 Busch Series starts and recorded one pole, four top-fives and seven top-tens.

In 1995, LaJoie started the season driving in the Winston Cup Series driving the Bill Davis owned No. 22 MBNA America Pontiac but returned to the Busch Series half way thru the year after being released. He accepted an offer to drive Dennis Shoemaker’s No. 64 Dura Lube Chevrolet in the Busch Series recording a third place finish in the Detroit Gaskets 200 at Michigan and capturing the pole for the Autolite 250 at Richmond. He made a total of nine Busch starts and charted one pole, one top-five, and three top-tens.

LaJoie teamed up with BACE Motorsports in 1996 driving the No. 74 Fina Chevrolet in the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series. LaJoie won the Busch Series Championship capturing two poles, five wins, 11 top-fives and 20 top-tens.

In 1997, LaJoie captured his second Busch Series Championship scoring two poles, five wins, 15 top-fives and 21 top-tens.

In 1998, LaJoie filled in for injured NASCAR Winston Cup driver Ricky Craven driving the No. 50 Budweiser Chevrolet, posting one top-five and three top-tens finishes for Hendrick Motorsports. In the Busch Series, he recorded a win at Myrtle Beach, seven top-fives and 12 top-tens.

In 1999, LaJoie won the season-opening NASCAR Busch Series, Grand National Division NAPA Auto Parts 300 at Daytona. Finished tenth in the year-end points He recorded six top-fives and seven top-ten to finish tenth in the points. He drove Mark Simo’s No.14 Federated Auto Parts Ford in two Winston Cup Series events but failed to crack the top-ten.

In 2000, LaJoie won the BellSouth Mobility 320 at Nashville Speedway USA. He recorded four top-fives and nine top-tens.

In 2001, LaJoie joined up with the newly formed Evans Motorsports team to pilot the Kleenex/Scott Brands No. 7 Chevrolet. Hew won the NAPA Auto Parts 300 at Daytona and the Sam's Town 250 in Memphis. He logged two wins, four top-fives and eight top-tens.

In 2003, LaJoie qualified on the pole for the NASCAR Busch Series Pepsi 300 at Nashville and for the 2003 Goulds Pumps / ITT Industries 200 at Nazareth. But after 17 events into the Busch Series schedule, LaJoie was released from Evans Motorsports. He drove the No. 48 Gould Pumps Chevrolet at Memphis and the No. 82 Jani-King Chevrolet at Phoenix. He made 19 Busch Series starts, recording two poles, two top-fives and four top-tens.

In 2004 Nextel Cup Series competition, LaJoie drove Stan Hover’s No.80 Ford at Richmond, and William Edward’s No. 98 Mach One, Inc. Ford at Phoenix and Darlington but failed to finish with mechanical failures in all three events. In the Busch Series, LaJoie drove the No. 82 Jani-King /Gould Pumps Chevrolet in five events, the No. 31 Wheeling Engineering Ford at Charlotte and the No.6 Country Crock Special Dodge at Atlanta. In seven Busch Series starts, he failed to record a top-ten finish.

For 2005, MACH 1 announced that they had signed Lajoie to drive the No.98 in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series. LaJoie made three starts in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series driving the No. 98 Mach 1 Chevrolet suffering mechanical failures in all three events. He made 31 starts in the NASCAR Busch Series driving Frank Cicci’s No. 34 Dollar General Chevrolet recording three top-tens finishes for the year.

Lajoie made three Busch Series starts in 2006 but failed to finish an event suffering mechanical failures in two races and crashing out of the other.

During LaJoie’s career in NASCAR, he became concerned with the current design of racing seats and the amount of broken ribs drivers suffered in crashes. LaJoie designed his own seat to hold a driver by the shoulders as opposed to the ribcage to reduce driver injury and provide better safety. Other drivers began to request seats and LaJoie founded “The Joie of Seating” Custom Designed Seating in Concord, North Carolina.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.