Spire Motorsports Coca-Cola 600 Race Advance – Speedway Digest

In 12 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, Spire Motorsports has logged two top-20 finishes. Corey LaJoie posted a team-best 17th-place result in the 2023 Coca-Cola 600. Spire Motorsports fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet ZL1s in the Cup Series for Justin Haley, Michael McDowell and Carson Hocevar, respectively.
The Coca-Cola 600 will be streamed live on Amazon Prime, Sunday, May 25 beginning at 6 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The 13th of 36 points-paying races on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series calendar will be broadcast live on the Performance 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 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.
Haley and the No. 7 team will honor Army Staff Sgt. Bobby Franklin in Sunday’s 400-lap race. Franklin was killed in Baghdad, Iraq, on August 20, 2003, at 38 years of age when his vehicle struck an IED hidden in roadside debris. Franklin was assigned to the North Carolina National Guard’s 210th Military Police Company.
Spire Motorsports partnered with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and the N.C. National Guard this past December for the 2024 CMPD Explorer’s Christmas Project. The team sponsored last year’s program and facilitated the donation of 15 pallets of racing memorabilia. Haley and crew chief Ryan Sparks helped CMPD officers sort and load donations for deployment by the NC National Guard into Western N.C. communities impacted by Hurricane Helene.
The 26-year old has recorded four Cup Series starts at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He has logged a 22.0 average start, a 23.0 average finish and earned one top-15 showing.
On Monday, May 30, 2023, Haley set the record for most miles completed in NASCAR national touring series events in one day. The then 24-year-old driver competed in both the NASCAR Xfinity Series Alsco Uniforms 300 and the Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 after the events were pushed to Memorial Day due to weather. Haley started the day with a 15th-place finish in NASCAR’s only 600-mile event and was on track for a top-10 showing in the Xfinity Series before he was forced to pit late in the event for fuel. He finished the day’s undercard one lap behind the leaders. In total, Haley racked up 898.5 miled, topping the previous record of 851.2 held by both Clint Bowyer and NASCAR Cup Series Champion Kevin Harvick.
The Winamac, Ind., native earned his best NASCAR Xfinity Series finish at Charlotte in May 2019, a fifth-place result in this first of four starts at the 1.5-mile oval. He logged a 13.8 average start, a 16.3 average finish with just one finish outside the top 20.
In his previous starts on intermediate tracks this season, Haley has a 10th-place result at Homestead-Miami Speedway and top-15 finishes at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
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Last week at North Wilkesboro Speedway Haley finished seventh in the All-Star Open. It was his fifth appearance in the precursor to the All-Star Race.

With the Coca-Cola 600 being the longest race of the season, how do you and your team prepare mentally and physically for such a demanding night?
“The Coca-Cola 600 at home in Charlotte is always a favorite. Two years ago, I did the Xfinity race and the Cup race on the same day, which was quite eventful and something I’ll never be able to top. But knowing I’ve come close to completing 900 miles on the same track in one day makes the 600-mile Cup race seem a little less demanding. We’ve had so much speed in our 1.5-mile program and I’m excited to get a handle on it Saturday evening. This is the longest race of the year and where we can score the most points. The biggest thing we need to work on is getting in a better position to execute on restarts and we’ll have a couple of shots at that with four stages in Sunday’s race. This race is always an important one for teams and for the families of the military members that we are honoring.”
Atop the No. 7 Box – Crew Chief Ryan Sparks

Ryan Sparks, Spire Motorsports competition director and crew chief for driver Justin Haley, has called six Coca-Cola 600s with a best finish of 17th with Corey LaJoie in the 2023 edition of “NASCAR’S Longest Night.”
As an engineer at Richard Childress Racing, the 41-year-old helped Austin Dillon earn his first-career NASCAR Cup Series victory in the 2016 Coca-Cola 600. Dillon managed a fuel load across a 67-lap run to the checkers to secure the first win for the historic No. 3 Chevrolet since Dale Earnhardt, Sr., at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in October 2000.
The Winston Salem, N.C., native has called 178 NASCAR Cup Series races where he’s earned three top-five and nine top-10 finishes. He was first paired with Haley at Bristol Motor Speedway in September 2024.

Michael McDowell – Driver, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1

Michael McDowell will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 Delaware Life/Veterans 1001 Chevrolet ZL1 in this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The No. 71 Chevrolet will carry a patriotic Delaware Life/Veterans 1001 paint scheme this weekend, proudly displaying the names of Group 1001 employees who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces on the hood.
As part of the 600 Miles of Remembrance, McDowell will carry the name of Specialist James Waters on the windshield of the No. 71 Chevrolet. Waters was a 2008 graduate of Whiteland High School in Whiteland, Ind., where he participated in football and wrestling. He loved camping with friends and spending time with others. After high school, he enlisted in the United States Army and served as an infantry gunner stationed at Fort Drum. Just four months into deployment, Waters was tragically killed in an IED attack in Afghanistan. His legacy lives on through his three brothers—two of whom also became infantrymen, and one who serves as a medic.
McDowell will also honor Lt. Col. Orlando Bandeira and Staff Sgt. Chester J. McBride, whose names will be featured on the passenger-side name rail during Sunday’s Memorial Day Weekend tribute.
The No. 71 team heads into the 600-mile classic fresh off a $100,000 payday and a trip to Victory Lane after winning Friday’s Mechanix Wear Pit Crew Challenge at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The crew’s blazing 12.587-second stop topped both all entries for the All-Star Open and All-Star Race, earning the title of fastest team on pit road.
With NASCAR’s longest race on deck, McDowell looks to build on his season-best intermediate finish of 16th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The 40-year-old veteran returns to Charlotte with added confidence after leading 13 laps at Texas Motor Speedway in April. His promising run there ended just two laps short of the finish following contact with the turn two wall, resulting in a 23rd-place effort.
Through the first 12 races of the 2025 campaign, the Glendale, Ariz., native owns an average starting position of 13.9, including four starts inside the top 10.
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McDowell has claimed three Xfinity Fastest Lap awards this season, clocking the fastest lap in the Daytona 500, Phoenix Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway. He stands as the only driver in the Cup Series to have secured three bonus points via the program.
McDowell secured Spire Motorsports’ first Busch Light Pole Award at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March. His 28.833-second lap marks the fastest lap in NASCAR’s seventh-generation Cup Series car (2022-present) at the 1.5-mile Nevada oval.

Michael McDowell Quotes:
Is it a little extra preparation for you physically for a race of this length with the heat, and talk about how important the weekend is outside of your physical preparation?
“Yeah, I think it is. I just up my calories as far as my intake goes for the day, but other than that, it’s pretty much business as usual. I think the harder part of that is just the time of when you start the race and the track’s transition from day to night paired with the speed differences. Charlotte is just one of those really temperature-sensitive tracks. Even throughout the years—whether it was a repave or going through this Next Gen car—it’s just super, super sensitive to the temperature change and more track temperature. The sun going down and not beating on the racetrack changes the dynamic of the last half of that race. Making good adjustments and all those things—I feel like that’s the hardest part. You can be decent in the beginning and then really bad at the end, and vice versa. You can be bad at the beginning and get to where you need to be, especially with this car, with the heights being so important.

It’s a fun race, but a hard race. It builds, and you can kind of feel that it builds toward the end. Most weekends, you feel like you don’t have enough time—here at Charlotte, you feel like you have a little bit of time. More than anything, it’s just one of the coolest weekends in racing altogether. I love it. I grew up loving motorsports and watching the Indianapolis 500, watching the Monaco Grand Prix, and the Coca-Cola 600. It’s just a fun weekend as a fan and as a competitor. It’s special, being on Memorial Day and always carrying a fallen soldier on the car. I have Specialist James Waters on the car of the United States Army, and it’s always a privilege and honor to do that. It’s a great reminder of what freedom is and what it’s not. So, it’s a special weekend.”
Atop the No. 71 Box – Crew Chief Travis Peterson

Crew chief Travis Peterson calls the shots for Michael McDowell and the No. 71 team.
As a race engineer at JR Motorsports, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte graduate helped Chase Elliott to a top 10 in the 2014 Xfinity Series event. Elliott started from the pole position and led 66 laps on the day.

Carson Hocevar – Driver, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1

Carson Hocevar, driver of the Chili’s Ride the ‘Dente Chevrolet ZL1 for Spire Motorsports, will make his second NASCAR Cup Series start in the longest race of the year, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The 22-year-old driver finished 21st in his first appearance at the 1.5-mile oval last May.
In honor of Memorial Day Weekend, the No. 77 team will honor Sargeant First Class Michelle Young of the Arizona Army National Guard. SFC Young joined the military in November 2007 and deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2013 and again in 2021. Young served in the 98th Aviation Troop Command and for most of her 16-year military career was an aviation operations noncommissioned officer. She loved being a mother to her daughter Gracie, was passionate about body building and fitness, and spent her time volunteering at the local homeless shelter and a crisis hotline.
The Coca-Cola 600 is the third and final leg of the Greatest Day in Motorsports which begins with the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo on Sunday morning. The 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge fills the afternoon time slot before NASCAR’s premier series takes to the Charlotte oval late into the night.
When the Cup Series takes the green flag on Sunday, Hocevar will be one-week removed from claiming victory in the 2025 All-Star Open to earn a berth into his first All-Star Race. The Portage, Mich., native qualified second and took the lead at the Lap-50 competition break following a two-tire pit stop. He led the final 46 laps to advance to the main event where he drove to an 11th-place finish.
The Cup Series’ last two points-paying races were contested on 1.5-mile ovals. On May 4 at Texas Motor Speedway, Hocevar earned his first career Cup Series pole, led 22 laps and was in contention for a top-five finish before a late-race caution caught the No. 77 a lap down to the leaders. More recently on May 11, Hocevar led four laps at Kansas Speedway and was battling for a top-10 finish when a flat tire with less than 20 laps remaining forced the team to pit under green-flag conditions. In both events, the team completed the race but was unable to crack the top 20 by the checkered flag.
The Spire Motorsports driver has three previous NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts at Charlotte. Hocevar finished fourth in May 2023, his most recent start at the 1.5-mile oval, but recorded a venue-best finish at Charlotte in May 2021, leading five laps en route to a runner-up result.
The 2024 Rookie of the Year owns one NASCAR Xfinity Series start at Charlotte. He started 15th in the Alsco Uniforms 300 on May 29, 2023, and finished eighth in just his third start in the series.

Carson Hocevar Quotes
We’ve seen the No. 77 team come to life on the mile-and-a-half tracks as of late. How can the team capitalize on the extra long event to find success?
“Our intermediate track program has come a long way since even the start of the year. As a whole, the organization has won the pole twice on mile-and-a-halfs and we’ve been up front at nearly every race so far. For us, it comes down to having the time to recover from things that happen late in the race. It happened at Texas with a caution that seemed bad but worked out in our favor before we got caught in an incident. Then at Kansas we just ran out of laps with a flat tire coming so late in the game. Hopefully we don’t need to take advantage of having four stages to recover from anything. We have the speed, it’s just about putting all the little pieces together to reach the end goal.”

Last weekend was a big weekend for Spire Motorsports, winning the Pit Crew Challenge with the No. 71 team and advancing to the All-Star Race with the No. 77 team. How does a weekend like that change the environment in the shop?
“It’s more positive for sure. Every week we’ve had something to celebrate, and we kept it going. People outside of this building are noticing the payoff of the effort that everyone is putting in and it’s a lot easier to take the disappointment of an 11th-place finish when there is a win to celebrate. It shows a lot of progress that we can even be disheartened by missing out on a top 10, so I think it changes it a lot in a good way, but just makes everyone that much hungrier for the next win.”

Spire Motorsports PR