Why Daniel Suárez to Spire just might make sense, even if it doesn’t look like it

Daniel Suárez needs a ride for the 2026 NASCAR season. Spire Motorsports needs a driver after announcing last week that Justin Haley would not return to the organization. It’s reasonable, then, to think Suárez joining Spire, as was announced Wednesday, is more a marriage of convenience than the team upgrading itself in its quest to become a consistent winner at the Cup Series level.

That’s partially because the two drivers’ stats give the impression that Suárez and Haley are essentially interchangeable. Suárez ranks 28th in the points standings, while Haley is 31st, just 60 points behind.

So why then does it make sense for Spire to sign Suárez, who will be the third driver of Spire’s No. 7 car since 2024 after his five-year run with Trackhouse Racing ends following this season?

As much as everyone at Spire thought Haley would be the answer to finally unlock the full potential of the No. 7 team, that simply hasn’t been the case in his first full year with the organization. Instead, he’s turned in a rather mediocre season, with just one top-five and two top-10 finishes. Even a midseason crew chief change couldn’t spark Haley; neither did learning this summer he was very much on the hot seat, with Spire looking around at potential replacements.

“I don’t think six months ago either one of us thought that we would be sitting in this studio,” Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson said Wednesday at a press conference with Suárez announcing the move. “But I think there’s a real power here in showing everybody that, I guess in some ways, both of us are better than what we showed this year.”

Justin Haley is 31st in points with just two top-10s in his first full season driving for Spire Motorsports. (Jordan Bank / Getty Images)

Haley’s struggles came amid Spire teammates Michael McDowell (21st in points) and Carson Hocevar (23rd) regularly producing solid results, with each coming close to winning, further upping the pressure on Haley.

The performance discrepancy between two of its cars and its third eventually became too glaring for Spire to ignore. Not with all the money and resources ownership has poured into elevating Spire to a higher plane — an ownership group that includes Dan Towriss, whose portfolio includes owning the Cadillac Formula One team set to take the grid next year. With how much Spire has spent in recent years, ownership is going to expect a return on the investment.

Enter Suárez. The talent is there to think he can give Spire what it’s been missing, with a body of work that includes a pair of victories and two playoff berths. If he can do either at Spire, win a race or qualify for the playoffs, the team will be quite pleased. This certainly would represent a sizable improvement.

“I believe that it’s the fastest-growing team in NASCAR, and I want to be part of that,” Suárez said Wednesday. “I know that they are not even close to being done. They are just getting started. The way that they are building the team, I can see that the foundation is strong.”

While Suárez and Haley may not be all that far apart in the points standings, a deeper look at Suárez’s results shows the upside he presents. He has two top fives and seven top-10 finishes on the season, and he’d be even higher than Haley in points if he didn’t fail to finish nine races due to accidents. (Haley has three races he did not finish due to accidents.)

Spire is also getting what should be a highly motivated driver in Suárez, who should recognize he may not have many more opportunities with a quality Cup team. This is effectively a one-year “prove it” deal, a key component to all this. If he struggles in 2026, it’s not far-fetched to think he may not find a Cup ride the following year.

With Spire not committing to Suárez beyond next year, it gives them an out if he fails to be the upgrade they want. From there, the team will then turn its attention to what should be a loaded free agency class next year. And Spire will likely not hesitate to go for a big-name driver. One obvious candidate is Kyle Busch, who enters 2026 on an expiring contract and has long ties to Dickerson.

But what happens in 2027 will be determined at a later date.  For now, for both parties, the focus is on next year. It’s about Suárez demonstrating he deserves this opportunity, while Spire seeks to end the revolving door of drivers it’s had behind the wheel of the No. 7 car.

“I think when it came down to it, it’s just a thing where I think we need each other,” Dickerson said. “I think all of us love a good story of redemption and giving people a platform to prove doubters wrong, so I think in this case, I think Daniel wants to show everybody that this year was an outlier, and we wanted to show everybody that the No. 7 car’s performance this year is an outlier, as well.”

It’s a marriage of convenience in the short term that has a chance to become something more over time.