"It’s wild": Ryan Fitzpatrick tells Corey LaJoie about chaotic 'seven-kid dad life' with van joke in NASCAR-NFL crossover

On his podcast, Stacking Pennies, NASCAR driver Corey LaJoie was joined by former NFL player Ryan Fitzpatrick, who offered LaJoie some advice ahead of his start as an analyst on Amazon Prime Video for the next five races that are going to be broadcast by the streaming service. Fitzpatrick is familiar with being a part of the Prime team as an analyst, a role he's held for almost 20 seasons in the NFL. In their conversation, the former quarterback also talked about what it's like being a dad to seven kids.

The NFL player, who returned from spending time in Ireland as part of his analyst duties, explained to the part-time Rick Ware Racing driver how him and his wife have always wanted to a have a big family, since they came from large families themselves, and revealed the thought process it took to get to seven kids.

"It's wild, but really like we always thought we'd have a big family. I have three siblings, [His wife] had three siblings, we said, "What's one more, what's one more?" And when you get to six and you're making that decision, “Do we go to seven?” you no longer fit in a normal minivan if you go to seven," he said.

After Fitzpatrick and his wife decided to have another child, he had to get a larger van to accommodate his family, leading to his vehicle getting a hilarious moniker from his kids' friends.

"So that was the only time where we had to stop and think and be like "Okay, do we want to be the, not just weird, but now really weird family with the 12 passenger van driving around?” and all of our kids' friends call it the ‘kidnapper van’ now," added Fitzpatrick [49:01 onwards].

Corey LaJoie's tenure as an analyst for Amazon Prime Video begins with this weekend's Coca-Cola 600, which takes place at the Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 25th at 6:00 p.m. ET.

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Ryan Fitzpatrick's advice for Corey LaJoie's new role

Corey LaJoie (01) during qualifying for the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, February 12th, 2025 - Source: Imagn

The former NFL player mainly appeared on Corey LaJoie's podcast to share some advice for the driver's turn as an analyst for the first time. Ryan Fitzpatrick's advice was extremely straightforward, suggesting the RWR driver be open to everything in his new role. He added:

"The piece of advice I give you just say yes to everything because there's a lot of stuff that comes with it." [47:41]

In January, when it was announced that LaJoie would be splitting his duties this NASCAR Cup Series season, the driver shared how he's grateful for the new opportunity in his career.

"When [Amazon] were pursuing me towards the end of last year, I felt like there were things that were materializing in my life and doors that were opening from the Lord to allow me to see that there are other things that I can do outside of being a full-time Cup driver," Corey LaJoie shared [via NASCAR].

The Prime Video coverage of the Cup Series concludes with The Great American Getaway 400 taking place at the Pocono Raceway on June 22nd.