Justin Haley, driver of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Talladega Superspeedway.

Media Availability Quotes:

From your perspective, what were some of the reasons for the crew chief change and what’s the outlook going forward?

“For me, (it’s) showing up and doing my job to the best of my ability each week. Obviously, it’s an unexpected change and not something you ever want to do in the middle of a season but super proud to be with a race team and owner like Jeff Dickerson that’s not scared to make changes for maybe the better. It was a fit thing, I think. I think Jeff said in his interview with The Athletic, nothing super wrong that stood out. I think at the end of the day, we’re in the Cup Series to compete, and on a Sunday in the Cup Series, everything has to be right. If one little thing isn’t right, you’re not going to win races, and that’s what we’re trying to do. That’s what Spire (Motorsports) is trying to do. They’ve been putting some much time, effort and resources, money, ability, put people in the right places to try to win races. I don’t think they’re scared to do anything to win a race. Yeah, just thankful to be in a position (pause). I think about where I was this time last year, a year later, I don’t think I could imagine being in this position – having such fast race cars underneath me. I feel like our race cars are so fast, especially at Bristol (Motor Speedway) and some of the other races that we’ve gone to, our speed has just been amazing. Michael (McDowell) getting the pole at Las Vegas, and yeah, just working through the new team blues. We brought in so many new people in the offseason. We’re trying to grow. They’re (Spire) third car last year was a little different compared to this year with McDowell. We had to onload a lot of people, and through that, there’s going to be differences. Not direct Lego pieces that go together. I’m thankful for my time with Rodney (Childers) taught us a lot as an organization. He’s a super great person. I really enjoyed getting to know him and work with him. At the end of the day, it’s a business and just trying to be successful on Sundays.”

Were you involved in the crew chief decision?

“I was not, no. I showed up on Tuesday. We had our normal Tuesday, 8am meeting with the No. 7 team to see how we’d come here (Talladega) and try to win the race. And then after my meetings on Tuesday, I was notified. Yeah, it was unexpected, but to be honest with you, I don’t think anything in this sport surprises me anymore, so you have to deal with adversity and change. Last year, (I) came to Spire Motorsports midway through the year and somehow was a way crazier thing that happened to me than this week. My life has been full of craziness the last six months. Yeah, hopefully we can find some consistency here with (Ryan) Sparks. Had a lot of fun working with the back half of the season. I think he’s the plan for now and I enjoy working him”

Is it nice to have someone you’ve worked with before?

“Yeah. I think the other thing is, I was at Spire long time before in my life, right? Like half of my lifetime ago, I was at Spire. The whole No. 77 team is still pretty much the core people of Spire. And Ryan Sparks is still one of those core guys that walks through Spire. The people that were there, in the Concord shop, are a lot of the same people. So, not only did I work with Ryan Sparks last year, but I worked with him when I was driving the No. 77 and he was crew chief on the No. 7 in 2019, or whenever that was. Yeah, I enjoy working with Ryan. He’s just fun and bubbly. He pushes me to be better and we had good communication at the end of the season. It was fun yesterday being in the garage and hauler with him and cutting it up. At least I have something I know to expect. We ran Talladega last year.”

Do you think this could be a wildcard weekend to show what you can do?

“I think I’ve been in a position to have a good crew and fast car since I’ve been at Spire, no matter who the crew chief was or team around me. I don’t think anything differently this weekend. Like I said, on Tuesday morning, I talked with the guys there. Wednesday morning, we had a different group of guys there. My mindset for this race hasn’t changed. I want to win, I want to run up front, get stage points like we did at Bristol. It doesn’t matter what number we run on the car, what manufacturer it is, what crew chief it is. I’m here to do my best for myself and my team and nothing is going to stop me from that. I’m excited to be at Talladega. It was a good off week – had a lot of fun with my life. Yeah, just trying to reset here, get this over with and go qualify. Going to the RC track later tonight and run my dirt car 10 minutes away from here, have a good time and try to win tomorrow.”

What is your perspective on your relationship with Michael McDowell?

“I don’t think there’s enough words to describe how good of a human Michael McDowell is and it’s so refreshing to have him as a teammate. I think you saw years ago, what me and AJ (Allmendinger) had, and he was the older figure in that race team. Similar with Michael, he’s been such a good person to bounce ideas off of and he’s such a reliable person off the track and that translates to knowing you can count on him at the race track. I think he’s a perfect fit for what we’re trying to do at Spire. I think the culture of the race team and respect of the race team and how we treat each other, I think he’s a big part of that and is the glue to get the loose ends figured up, different personalities. He’s just been awesome and I don’t have enough words. I enjoy working with him and glad we’ve been put together in this race team and hopefully we can do something food on Sunday.”

Does this week look like a hard reset for you and your team?

“I honestly don’t know if it is a hard reset. I think we’re trying to snowball of how we started the season and I think that’s what we were trying to get to before Talladega – trying to get some internal momentum. I think you always want to be better. We’ve had some good weeks, we’ve had some bad weeks, but I think we’re trying get that snowball rolling and I don’t think it did. I think that’s the biggest thing. I don’t necessarily look at it as a hard reset. I feel like we have great race cars and Hendrick supplies us with the best pit crews and motors in the business. It’s always reliable, fast and I can always count on that. It’s up to us to make the race cars fast and which I think we do and executing on Sundays is the hardest part of the sport, so yeah, hopefully the No. 7 team can be quiet for a while in a good way and click off some good finishes and some wins.”

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TALLADEGA, Ala. — NASCAR is back in action following its only weekend off of the 38-race schedule with a Sunday showdown at Talladega Superspeedway, where the drivers will try to halt the early domination shown by Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson.

The trio arrived at the Alabama track with seven combined victories through the first nine races. Bell reeled off three consecutive wins in the first month of the season, then Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin won two in a row. Larson has won two of the last four Cup Series outings, including a victory at Bristol Motor Speedway, the last race before the brief Easter break.

Larson hasn’t slowed down — he did two days of Indianapolis 500 testing earlier this week and then won a World of Outlaws race in Florida on Friday night — but he’s not sure he’s bringing any momentum into the race.

“It’s just a normal-ish week for me, sitting in a race car every day,” Larson said Saturday. “I race so often that a week of racing can make the week before feel like a long time ago.”

He’s definitely on roll, which would be trouble for the rest of the field if Larson didn’t loathe superspeedway racing. His third-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the second race this season is his career best on a superspeedway. He’s twice finished fourth at Talladega, and has never cracked the top-10 at Daytona International Speedway.

“I enjoy coming here because the crowd is into it here,” Larson said. “I don’t enjoy the racing, honestly. I don’t know if many people do. I come to these tracks, we haven’t finished well the majority of the time.”

It’s been nine consecutive different winners at Talladega — the longest streak in the history of the 2.66-mile track — which hasn’t had the same driver in victory lane back-to-back since Ryan Blaney in 2019-20. Since then, the races have been won by Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Blaney, Tyler Reddick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

The style of racing at Atlanta, Daytona and Talladega, where the 40-car field runs in a pack and drivers must draft off one another to slice through traffic, has many believing luck plays a critical role in deciding the race winner.

A driver must avoid the crashes — last year’s playoff race at Talladega featured the biggest crash in NASCAR history when 28 cars were part of a demolition derby with four laps remaining in regulation. Stenhouse won in overtime.

“Luck is more important now, certainly, than it has ever been in history,” Hamlin said. “But it’s always had a role. It is just that the (percentage) numbers have grown.”

Zane Smith continued the qualifying dominance shown the last two years at drafting tracks by winning the pole for Sunday’s race at Talladega. It is the first career pole for the second-year Cup Series driver.

Smith turned a lap of 182.174 mph in a Ford during Saturday qualifying to bump Busch in a Chevrolet and Joey Logano in a Ford. Ty Gibbs was the fastest Toyota driver and qualified 10th.

Smith’s pole-winning run marked the third consecutive pole at Talladega for Front Row: Michael McDowell, who now drives for Spire Motorsports, swept the pole in both races last year. Front Row has actually won the pole at six of the last eight drafting tracks.

Justin Haley said he had no role in the decision at Spire Motorsports this week to part ways with championship-winning crew chief Rodney Childers, who got nine races with Haley before the team decided the pairing wasn’t a match.

“I showed up on Tuesday, we had our normal Tuesday, 8 a.m. meeting with the No. 7 team to see how we’d come here and try to win the race,” Haley said Saturday. “And then after my meetings on Tuesday, I was notified. It was unexpected, but to be honest with you, I don’t think anything in this sport surprises me anymore, so you have to deal with adversity and change.”

Haley himself was a change in the Spire organization when he replaced Corey LaJoie in the middle of last season.

“I came to Spire Motorsports midway through the year, and somehow, it was a way crazier thing that happened to me than this week,” Haley said. “I think at the end of the day, we’re in the Cup Series to compete, and on a Sunday in the Cup Series, everything has to be right. If one little thing isn’t right, you’re not going to win races, and that’s what we’re trying to do.

“That’s what Spire is trying to do. They’ve been putting so much time, effort and resources, money, ability, put people in the right places to try to win races. I don’t think they’re scared to do anything to win a race.”

Blaney at +900 is the betting favorite to win Sunday, per BetMGM Sportsbook, followed by Keselowski and Logano at +1200. … Keselowski came to Talladega ranked 31st in the Cup standings, the worst start to a season since his 2010 rookie year. He leads active drivers with six victories at Talladega. … Bell’s victory at Atlanta was the first at a drafting track for Joe Gibbs Racing during the Next Gen era that began in 2022.

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