In 25 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Phoenix Raceway, Spire Motorsports has logged one top-15 and three top-20 finishes. Carson Hocevar, driver of the team’s No. 77 Delaware Life Chevrolet ZL1, earned a team-best 15th-place finish in the series’ March 2024 visit to the “Diamond in the Desert.” Spire Motorsports fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet ZL1s with Justin Haley, Michael McDowell and Hocevar, respectively.
Throughout the month of October, Spire Motorsports is trading its signature “Ascent Yellow” for “Breast Cancer Pink” in celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness month, honoring the incredible strength and resilience of those who have been affected by the life-altering disease. Fans can purchase limited edition “Spire Goes Pink” merchandise online or at the team’s race shop located at 351 Mazeppa Road in Mooresville, N.C. All proceeds will be donated to support breast cancer research. In addition to the financial contribution, Spire Motorsports will recognize the team’s employees, friends and family members who have been impacted by breast cancer. Their stories will be shared across the organization’s social media channels over the next five weeks.
The NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race will be televised live on NBC Sunday, Nov. 2 beginning at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The 36th and final event on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series calendar will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Channel 90.
Justin Haley – Driver, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1
Justin Haley will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway, marking his 10th NASCAR Cup Series start at the one-mile oval. Earlier this year, Haley qualified eighth for the Shriners Children’s 500 and was running 14th when he was taken out of contention on Lap 98 following a multi-vehicle incident on a restart.
In nine previous Cup Series starts at Phoenix, Haley has an average starting position of 25.2, a 26.2 average finishing position, and owns a venue-best finish of 17th earned in March 2022.
The Winamac, Ind., native has competed in all three of NASCAR’s national series at Phoenix Raceway. He owns six NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the famed suburban Phoenix oval, earning two top-five and four top-10 finishes. He posted an average starting position of 9.2 and a 10.5 average finish. Haley also notched one top 10 in three CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts.
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Haley competed in the ARCA Menards Series West race at Phoenix in 2015. He started from the pole and finished 21st in the 2015 Casino Arizona 100.
Sunday’s race at Phoenix will mark Haley’s last with Spire Motorsports. Haley first joined the organization in 2019 and claimed Spire Motorsports’ first Cup Series victory in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in just his third start. The 2016 ARCA Menards Series East Champion went on to compete full time in the Cup Series for Kaulig Racing and Rick Ware Racing and returned to Spire Motorsports in 2024 to complete the final six races of the season in the No. 7 Chevrolet.
Over the course of seven years, Haley has collected one win, six top five, 18 top 10s and led 123 laps in NASCAR’s premier series.
Justin Haley Quotes
What are your thoughts on Phoenix?
“I can’t thank Gainbridge enough for all of their support. I want to thank my guys on the team for building competitive cars each and every week. In the spring we had a good baseline, but got caught up in an unfortunate situation. I’m looking forward to coming back and contending with the guys up front. I am hoping to go out on a good note and have a great race.”
Atop the No. 7 Box – Crew Chief Ryan Sparks
Ryan Sparks, Spire Motorsports’ Competition Director and crew chief for driver Justin Haley, has sat atop the pit box for 201 NASCAR Cup Series races, earning four top-five and 10 top-10 finishes over the course of his career.
The Winston-Salem, N.C., native has called 10 NASCAR Cup Series races at Phoenix Raceway and posted a best-finish of 18th in November 2022 with driver Corey LaJoie.
Michael McDowell – Driver, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1
Michael McDowell will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 Tide Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
McDowell, a native of Glendale, Ariz., has made 29 attempts at his home track in Cup Series competition, scoring back-to-back top-10 finishes in the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024.
In NASCAR Xfinity Series competition, he has completed 999 laps at the one-mile oval, claiming a venue-best 11th-place finish in 2009 during his time with JTG-Daugherty Racing.
McDowell has tallied three top-five, five top-10, 14 top-15, and 21 top-20 finishes so far this season. To date, the veteran racer has earned an average starting position of 15.1, an 18.5 average finish, led 96 laps and been running at the finish of all but two of the season’s 34 points-paying races.
Over the last eight races, the Cup Series veteran has earned an average finish of 14.3 highlighted by a fifth-place finish at the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and an eighth-place effort at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The Bank of America ROVAL 400 marked the No. 71 team’s third top five of the season, a single-season record for the first-year Spire Motorsports driver.
Tide will return to the NASCAR Cup Series scene abord McDowell’s No. 71 Chevrolet. The iconic brand has been represented by some of NASCAR’s most iconic drivers including Darrell Waltrip, Ricky Rudd, Ricky Craven, and most recently with Justin Haley in 2023.
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McDowell has claimed four Xfinity Fastest Lap awards this season, clocking the fastest lap in the Daytona 500, Phoenix Raceway and both contests at Talladega Superspeedway.
The No. 71 team secured Spire Motorsports’ first Busch Light Pole Award in March at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. McDowell’s 28.833-second lap marks the fastest lap recorded in NASCAR’s seventh-generation Cup Series car (2022-present) at the 1.5-mile Nevada oval.
McDowell’s Travis Peterson-led team laid down a lap time of 52.481 seconds (182.466 MPH) to pick up the organization’s third Busch Light pole award of the 2025 season two weekends ago at Talladega Superspeedway.
McDowell’s team earned a handsome $100,000 payday and a trip to Victory Lane after winning the Mechanix Wear Pit Crew Challenge during May’s NASCAR All-Star Weekend at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. The crew’s winning 12.587-second stop topped all entries for both the NASCAR All-Star Open and NASCAR All-Star Race, earning them the title of the fastest team on pit road.
Michael McDowell Quote
What makes Phoenix such a dynamic track given it’s the final race of the season?
“It’s not so much the track as it is the weekend. It’s the championship weekend. It’s high intensity and high excitement. But for me, it’s the last race of the season and you want to go out with good momentum. I know it sounds silly, but we always talk about, you’re only as good as your last race, and you don’t want to carry your last race into the offseason if it is not a good one. So, finishing off strong is super important for everybody at the shop, the crew, and morale. It’s a grueling season. You get to the end and you don’t want the last couple of races to be that gut shot where you just feel like you’ve lost steam. So, I think finishing strong across the last few weeks is really important as we build momentum going into the 2026 season.”
Atop the No. 71 Box – Crew Chief Travis Peterson
Travis Peterson owns two top 10s at Phoenix Raceway, both coming with Michael McDowell behind the wheel.
As a race engineer at Hendrick Motorsports, Peterson played a key role in Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s. final Cup Series victory at Phoenix Raceway in November 2015.
The West Bend, Wisc., native continued to boost the Hendrick No. 88 team in 2016, propelling Alex Bowman to his first-career pole award at the Avondale, Ariz., oval that fall. Bowman led 194 of the 324 laps, en route to a sixth-place finish.
Carson Hocevar – Driver, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1
Carson Hocevar will make his fifth NASCAR Cup Series start at Phoenix Raceway in Sunday’s 312-lap season finale. The 2024 Rookie of the Year finished inside the top 20 in his first three starts and earned a best finish of 15th in the March 2024 event.
When the Cup Series visited the one-mile D-shaped oval in March, Hocevar qualified third, his best start at Phoenix.
Outside of the Cup Series, Hocevar owns five NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts at Phoenix. The Portage, Mich., native finished in the top 10 in the 2021 and 2022 events while driving a Niece Motorsports Silverado.
Hocevar has finished in the top 20 in 11 of 21 events contested on tracks one mile or less. His best finish was a seventh-place result at the half-mile Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in September.
Heading into the final race of the year, Hocevar owns two top fives – runner-up results earned at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February and Nashville Superspeedway in June – and nine top-10 finishes. The 22-year-old driver picked up his career-first Cup Series pole in May at Texas Motor Speedway and led a total of 122 laps on the season.
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Carson Hocevar Quotes
How do you rate this season overall?
“It has been a tough season, but I think we learned a lot as a team and I learned a lot as a driver. On and off the track, there were some moments that were not ideal or in any way fun to work through, but we can look back now and say we made it and we’re a stronger team for it. We were so close to a win multiple times this year and it sucks to not have the finishes to show for that, but that just gives us something to strive for as we work through the off season.”
Atop the No. 77 Box – Crew Chief Luke Lambert
Sunday’s race at Phoenix will mark the conclusion of crew chief Luke Lambert’s second full-time Cup Series season with Hocevar and the No. 77 team. Together the pair have collected three top fives and 15 top-10s over the course of 71 points-paying races.
Lambert has called 23 Cup Series races at Phoenix dating to 2013. Lambert led Ryan Newman Victory Lane in 2017, and collected four top-10 finishes with Newman and 21-time Cup Series winner Jeff Burton at the venue.
In four Xfinity Series events at Phoenix, Lambert earned two wins and three top-five finishes. He helped Elliott Sadler to Victory Lane in March 2012, and Noah Gragson in March 2022. Lambert and Gragson started second and led 114 of 200 laps to earn their first of eight wins in 2022.
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