Spire Motorsports Cracker Barrel 400 Race Advance – Speedway Digest

In nine NASCAR Cup Series starts at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway, Spire Motorsports has logged one top-five and two top-15 finishes. Zane Smith posted a team-best runner-up finish in last season’s 400-mile event at Nashville. 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 Cracker Barrel 400 will be streamed live on Amazon Prime, Sunday, June 1 beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The 14th 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 Garner Trucking, Inc. Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.
Haley earned a venue-best 13th-place finish last season at the 1.33-mile concrete speedway. The 26-year-old has recorded four Cup Series starts at Nashville Superspeedway. Over those four races, the Winamac, Ind., native has logged a 21.0 average start, a 23.5 average finish and earned one top-15 showing. Haley recorded back-to-back 23rd-place finshes in 2022 and 2023.
Garner Trucking is a family-owned and operated business started in 1960 by Vernon E. Garner and Regina R. Garner, headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. Daughter Sherri Garner Brumbaugh currently owns and operates the business. Garner is a 100 percent woman-owned business. Since 2017, Garner Trucking has been named a Best Fleet to Drive For from trucking companies in North America. In 2022, Garner was named the Best Fleet to Drive For – Overall Small Carrier. The company’s dedication to its drivers earned it a spot in the Best Fleets to Drive For Hall of Fame in 2023. Continuing its legacy of excellence, Garner won the inaugural Best Fleets to Drive for Hall of Fame Stratosphere Award in 2024—and claimed the title again in 2025. Garner is celebrating its 65th anniversary in 2025.
In his previous 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.
Haley finished 19th in June 2021 in his lone NASCAR Xfinity Series Start at Nashville Superspeedway.
Last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Haley started 13th but sustained race-altering damage in the late goings, ultimately soldiering home to a 30th-place finish.
Over the course of his career, Haley has collected four NASCAR Xfinity Series checkered flags and three CRAFTSMAN Truck Series wins, making him one of just 41 drivers in history to have earned wins across all three of NASCAR’s National Touring Series.
He made his first start in NASCAR’s premier division for Spire Motorsports at Talladega Superspeedway on April 28, 2019 – his 20th birthday. Sunday will mark Haley’s 159th career NASCAR Cup Series start. Over the course of the last seven seasons, the 26-year-old racer has notched one win, five top fives, 17 top 10s and led 103 laps.
In total, Haley has made 55 Cup Series starts for Spire Motorsports, with the bulk of races coming during the 2021 season behind the wheel of the team’s No. 77 machine. In his second appearance amidst his return to Spire Motorsports at Talladega last October, Haley earned a seventh-place result, his first top 10 with the team since the 2021 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona.

Justin Haley Quote
How do you feel about Garner Trucking coming back to Nashville for Sunday’s race underneath the lights?
“Everyone at Spire Motorsports appreciates the support from Sherri and the entire team at Garner Trucking. Our trucks stand tall going up and down the road and when they pull into the race track for the weekend. We’re looking forward to representing Garner for the next two weekends. I feel like our cars keep getting better and Nashville and Michigan should be good tracks for us, so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how we stack up.”
Atop the No. 7 Box – Crew Chief Ryan Sparks

Ryan Sparks serves in a dual role as both Spire Motorsports Competition Director and crew chief for driver Justin Haley and was first paired with Haley at Bristol Motor Speedway in September 2024.
As a race engineer at Richard Childress Racing, Sparks helped Austin Dillon to victory at Nashville Superspeedway in the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. Dillon qualified on the pole and led 56 laps en route to his first-of-two victories in his CRAFTSMAN Truck Series championship season.
The Winston Salem, N.C., native has called 179 NASCAR Cup Series races, earning three top-five and nine top-10 finishes.
In total, the 41-year-old has called five races at Nashville Superspeedway, earning a venue-best 15th-place result with Corey LaJoie in June 2021.

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

Michael McDowell will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 Delaware Life Chevrolet ZL1 in this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.
The driver of the No. 71 Chevrolet has made four NASCAR Cup Series starts at Nashville Superspeedway, earning a best finish of 17th twice (2021, 2022) in his four attempts, while leading 31 laps.
The Glendale Ariz., native has logged a 22.0 average start and a 23.0 average finish at the 1.333-mile Tennessee oval.
Last season, McDowell started 14th and led 31 laps but was ultimately forced to settle for a 35th-place finish as the result of a drivetrain-related issue.
During his time in the Xfinity Series, McDowell made four starts at Nashville Superspeedway between 2009 and 2010, earning two top-10 finishes, including a best result of fifth in 2010.
The 40-year-old earned a seventh-place finish in last week’s Coca-Cola 600, marking his best result of the 2025 season. Despite a miscue on pit road, the McDowell recovered to run consistently inside the top 10 during the second half of the Memorial Day Weekend race.
The No. 71 team earned a $100,000 payday and a trip to Victory Lane after winning the Mechanix Wear Pit Crew Challenge two weeks ago at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The crew’s blazing 12.587-second stop topped all entries for both the NASCAR All-Star Open and NASCAR All-Star Race, earning the title of the fastest team on pit road.
Through the first 13 races of the 2025 campaign, the Glendale, Ariz., native owns an average starting position of 14.0, including four starts inside the top 10.
Delaware Life is an insurance and annuity company that empowers financial professionals with a wide array of customizable solutions. A subsidiary of Group 1001 Insurance Holdings LLC, Delaware Life focuses on delivering a seamless experience for advisors. The company understands how important it is to find the right fit for every client, every situation and every individual need. Delaware Life is passionate about equipping advisors with annuities that give their customers peace of mind and a successful future, allowing them to plan with confidence for whatever’s next.
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 Quote
Talk about earning your first top 10 of the season last week in the Coca-Cola 600.
“We have been really good at 1.5-mile tracks, I’m glad to get that top 10. We have been in position to get those finishes, but haven’t been able to get to the end. It was a long night after missing my pit box and starting Stage Two at the back. It was tough to get back to the front, but we slowly and methodically worked our way forward with some big help from out pit crew. I’m proud of our guys, our ability to execute a sold night, and getting to the end of a long race with a good finish. We have some more to work on, but I am proud of the effort from our Spire Motorsports team. We have some momentum to ride into Nashville this week.”

What are your thoughts as we head into Nashville this weekend?
“Nashville is fun. I’ve been able to race there a bunch over the years with both the ARCA Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series. When I started in Cup, that was the track where we went and tested at a bunch. It’s a fun race track and it’s a challenge to get around. The race is like a hybrid of a short track and a big track, but in these cars, it’s pretty cool because you’re downshifting, up shifting, there are a lot of opportunities. I think that it’s one of my better tracks, even though we don’t have the Cup results to show for it. Speed wise, it’s been a fun track for us. We just haven’t had the finishes, whether we got tied up in wrecks or we had a transmission explode there last year. I haven’t had great luck but felt like we’ve had good speed.”
Atop the No. 71 Box – Crew Chief Travis Peterson

Crew chief Travis Peterson calls the shots for Michael McDowell and the No. 71 team.
Peterson is a mechanical engineering graduate of the William States Lee College of Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
The 34-year-old has called 90 races in NASCAR’s premier series, securing one win, four top fives, 18 top 10s and seven pole awards.

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

Carson Hocevar is set to make his second NASCAR Cup Series start at the 1.333-mile Nashville Superspeedway. In 2024, Hocevar started 15th and drove to a 16th-place result.
Zeigler Auto Group returns to the No. 77 Chevrolet ZL1 for Sunday’s Cracker Barrel 400, the first of two consecutive races for one of the largest privately-owned dealer groups in the U.S. with 84 franchises across 41 locations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Vehicle brands represented include all the domestic and majority of the imported manufacturers. The family-owned and -operated organization has been a regular on the Cup Series tour since 2019.
Hocevar owns three previous NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts at Nashville, highlighted by a win on June 23, 2023. The Portage, Mich., native started seventh in his third CRAFTSMAN Truck Series start at the Music City oval and led 40 laps to claim his second of four wins in the 2023 season.
In the most recent Cup Series race last Sunday in at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Hocevar was knocking on the door of his first Cup Series victory before an engine failure sent the No. 77 Chevy to the garage early in the fourth and final stage. The 22-year-old driver lined up on the front row for a restart on Lap 307 and was battling for the lead entering Turn 1 before he quickly dropped back through the field. Despite the frustrating finish, Hocevar was able to collect a career-high 15 stage bonus points on the night.

Carson Hocevar Quotes
What is your outlook for Sunday’s race at Nashville?
“I think we’ll have a good car and hopefully another shot at a win, without the bad luck this time. We’ve reached a point where it doesn’t matter what type of track we go to, we are consistently up front and running some of the fastest lap times. Eventually everything balances out and we’ll start having the finishes to match those runs. Nashville is a really fast track and I think it plays into my driving style, having to keep up with the track changes and making moves when the opening is there. I feel like we’re going to have another really good race.”

Spire Motorsports PR