Corey LaJoie explains what he was thinking as he flipped at Michigan

It’s not every day you see a real life Talladega Nights type moment happen, but Corey LaJoie gave one for the fans on Monday at Michigan.

It was a harrowing experience, to be sure.

The driver of the No. 7 car got into a tough bit of racing with the No. 10 car of Noah Gragson as the two jockeyed for position inside the top 20. After Gragson cut off LaJoie a couple times, LaJoie tried to pass Gragson to the inside.

He misjudged slightly and caught Gragson’s back bumper, causing his car to veer to the left. Then it caught air. LaJoie explained.

“So I hit him and I started spinning out, I’m like damnit, just lock it down, try to keep this thing going,” LaJoie said on his Stacking Pennies podcast. “I’ll drive around with flats on and we’ll put tires on it and we’ll still try. I was thinking about that all in the span of it getting sideways, then it picked up and I’m like, ‘Oh s***, I’m flying through the air.’”

That flying through the air feeling cannot be a fun one. Of course, the aftermath of the flight was equally unfun for Corey LaJoie.

He explained why.

“There’s like rocks and dust and dirt and my eyes are kind of like closed because my stuff, like there’s sparks and stuff hitting me in the face,” LaJoie said. “I’m like why am I getting stuff in my eye here, I’m like, ‘Oh, my visor’s open.’ So I shut my visor and I’m like holding my visor like this, then I hit the wall upside down and the wheel like rips out of my hand and I was like, ‘Oh, shoot, I’m still going pretty fast, let me grab my seatbelts.’ Then I got to the grass and it was like ugh, ugh, ugh. Bigger than a softball size clump of grass landed right in my lap.”

Corey LaJoie did not save the clump of grass.

But he was able to unharness himself and exit the vehicle, much to the relief of viewers everywhere.

He’ll have a harrowing tale to tell going forward, one he certainly hopes he doesn’t have to repeat anytime soon. Luckily, he doesn’t seem overly phased by it, unlike Ricky Bobby.