In 28 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Phoenix Raceway, Spire Motorsports has logged one top-10 and three top-15 finishes. Michael McDowell, driver of the team’s No. 71 Delaware Life Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, earned a team-best eighth-place finish in the series’ November 2025 visit to the “Diamond in the Desert.” Spire Motorsports fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s in the NCS with Daniel Suarez, McDowell and Carson Hocevar, respectively.
The NASCAR Cup Series race from Phoenix Raceway will be televised live on FS1 Sunday, March 8 beginning at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The fourth of 36-points paying races on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series calendar will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Daniel Suárez – Driver, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Daniel Suárez will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway.
The two-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner has made 18 starts at Phoenix, earning four top-10s and nine top-20 results. He holds an average starting position of 22.1 and an average finishing position of 18.4 at the one-mile oval. In his 2017 rookie season, Suárez powered from 27th to seventh in just his fourth NASCAR Cup Series start, to earn his first career top-10 finish and best career Cup Series’ result at Phoenix.
In last year’s season finale, Suárez started 14th, battled mid-pack throughout the event, and capitalized in NASCAR Overtime to finish 19th, completing all 319 laps in what marked his final race with Trackhouse Racing.
Last Spring at Phoenix, Suárez drove from 31st to as high as sixth, showing top-10 speed before contact on Lap 216 forced an unscheduled stop, ultimately resulting in a 23rd-place finish.
Three races into the 36-race NASCAR Cup Series season, Suárez sits seventh in points.
Last weekend at Circuit of the Americas (COTA), Suárez earned eight bonus points with a third-place finish in Stage 2 of the DuraMax Texas Grand Prix Powered by RelaDyne, but a Lap-79 incident damaged his No. 7 Freeway Insurance Chevy and dropped him to 25th overall.
Freeway Insurance was established in 1987 and is one of the largest and fastest-growing personal lines insurance brokers in the United States, offering coverage through a “click, call, or come in” approach that connects customers nationwide. The company continually researches, grows, and diversifies its product offerings to stay responsive to the evolving insurance market. Freeway provides a wide range of options—from basic to premium coverage—in auto, truck, commercial vehicle, homeowners, renters, small business, motorcycle, recreational vehicle, fire, and flood insurance. In 2008, Freeway Insurance became part of Confie, the nation’s leading personal lines insurance distribution company. Customers can access Freeway Insurance through neighborhood offices, online at www.freeway.com, or by calling (800) 300-0227.
The Monterrey, Mexico native has made five NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (NOAPS) starts at Phoenix, earning three top-five, three top-10 and four top-20 finishes. He recorded his career-best NOAPS result at Phoenix with a third-place finish in March 2016.
In 2017, Suárez captured his first career NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series victory at the Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix Raceway, capitalizing late in the race and holding off the field in the No. 51 for Kyle Busch Motorsports. In two Truck Series starts at Phoenix, he logged one win, two top fives and led 34 laps.
The 34-year-old is a veteran of 326 Cup Series starts and has notched two wins (Sonoma/2022; Atlanta/2024), 25 top fives and 76 top 10s in NASCAR’s premier division. Suarez has led a total of 907 laps and has earned three poles since becoming a series’ regular in 2017.

Daniel Suárez Quotes
Three races into the season with Spire Motorsports, how are you feeling about the team’s performance, and how has your experience behind the wheel been so far?
“My experience has been very good. I feel like we started off strong in Daytona and Atlanta. We have good speed and momentum. I am very pleased with Spire Motorsports. We are pushing ourselves to get better and better each week. You never know, you can work very hard, have all these meetings, communications, and chemistry, but you just never know exactly where you are going to stack up. I am impressed with the structure and speed at Spire. I was expecting to be fast, but this is faster than what I was expecting. In Daytona, I probably had the fastest superspeedway car I’ve ever been in. I still am learning the team and car, but so far to this point I am very impressed with what we are bringing to the racetrack.”

Who will you be rooting for in INDYCAR, and what do you think about crossover races with NASCAR?”
“I have a couple of friends in the INDYCAR series — my amigo Paisano Pato, who I’ve known for over 20 years and also Scott McLaughlin. I’ll definitely be rooting for them. I think the INDYCAR Series is amazing. I really love watching those guys race. INDYCAR has a different fan base than NASCAR, which makes it great to bring families together to enjoy both series. I really enjoyed crossing over between the two at Indianapolis – it was a lot of fun – and I’m looking forward to doing it again.”

Atop the No. 7 Box – Crew Chief Ryan Sparks

Ryan Sparks has called 205 NASCAR Cup Series races, earning five top-five and 11 top-10 finishes since making his Cup Series debut atop the pit box in 2020.
The Winston-Salem, N.C., native’s best finish at Phoenix Raceway came in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship race, where he led Justin Haley to a 14th-place finish. Overall, Sparks has called 11 Cup Series races at Phoenix.
Sparks joined Spire Motorsports in 2021, where he served as both Crew Chief and Competition Director, leading the organization’s competitive and technical efforts. In 2026, Sparks serves in a singular role as crew chief for Suárez.
Sparks brings more than a decade of experience across all three of NASCAR’s national series, highlighted by 13 seasons at Richard Childress Racing and contributions to title-winning campaigns in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (2011) and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (2013).

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

Michael McDowell will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 Delaware Life Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway.
McDowell, a native of Glendale, Ariz., has made 30 starts 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 the series’ most recent visit to the popular one-mile oval for the 2025 season finale, McDowell started 37th and raced his way to a spirited eighth-place finish.
Wednesday, March 11th, will mark Michael McDowell Day in Glendale. The hometown hero received the keys to the city following his 2021 Daytona 500 win.
In NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series competition, the 41-year-old has logged 999 laps at Phoenix and claimed a series/venue-best 11th-place finish in 2009 while driving for JTG-Daugherty Racing.
Last weekend at COTA, McDowell topped the charts during Saturday’s practice session, and qualified sixth for the 95-lap contest. After pacing the field for five laps late in the race, McDowell secured the No. 71 team’s first top-five finish of the season and 15th of his Cup Series career.
McDowell collected an impressive 40 points last weekend, propelling the father-of-five to ninth in the Cup Series point standings, a handsome 11-position increase from the week prior.
Across the first three races of 2026, the veteran racer has earned a 12.0 average start and a workman-like 15.7 average finish.
Delaware Life will return to the primary position aboard McDowell’s No. 71 Chevrolet this weekend at Phoenix Raceway. Delaware Life is a life insurance and annuity company that empowers financial professionals with a wide array of customizable solutions. A subsidiary of Group 1001 Insurance, we were born out of the advisor industry, and we understand how important it is to find the right fit for every client, every situation, and every individual need. We’re passionate about equipping you with annuities that give your customers peace of mind and a successful future—allowing them to plan with confidence for whatever’s next.

Michael McDowell Quote
Phoenix and Las Vegas will be your first traditional ovals of the year, what are you expecting?
“I feel like with Phoenix and Vegas you start to see and feel where you are as a team, because you go back-to-back on superspeedways and then a road course with Circuit of the Americas. They are all important. They all count points, but you don’t know really where you stack up on your overall program until you get through all those different types of tracks. So, building off last year, our Phoenix package was good. We finished in the top 10 last fall and we were fast. We have good notes and a good baseline going into Phoenix this weekend.”

Atop the No. 71 Box – Crew Chief Travis Peterson

Travis Peterson owns three top-10 finishes at Phoenix Raceway, all with 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.
Across 116 starts serving in the crew chief role, Peterson has captured eight top-five finishes, seven of which came with McDowell in the driver’s seat.
The 34-year-old contributed to several victories during his tenure at RFK Racing, Hendrick Motorsports and JR Motorsports. He was a key member of Chase Elliott’s 2014 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship-winning team. Peterson was also part of Earnhardt’s three-win Cup Series team in 2015.
Peterson is a mechanical engineering graduate of the Williams States Lee College of Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The West Bend, Wis., native earned his degree in 2012.

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

Carson Hocevar will drive Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 MINER Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway and will make his sixth start in NASCAR’s premier division at the venue.
The No. 77 team sits 10th in points thanks in part to a collection of 19 total stage points through the first three points-paying races of the year and is one of only two drivers to have earned stage points in every event this season. Hocevar also earned nine points by finishing second in the America 250 Florida Duel at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
Last week at COTA, the No. 77 team qualified 12th and endured balance issues throughout the day to finish 31st.
In last March’s Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix, Hocevar qualified third and maintained pace from the drop of the green flag to earn a seventh-place finish in Stage 1. Unfortunately, he was involved in an incident on a Lap-98 restart, ending his day 214 laps prematurely.
The five-time CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race winner owns five previous starts in the series at Phoenix, registering top 10s in 2021 (ninth) and 2022 (10th). Hocevar reached the series’ 2023 Championship 4 race at the facility after punching his ticket via a victory at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway two weeks prior.
Miner Ltd. is the leading self-perform, national service partner for smarter, safer loading docks and a division of OnPoint Group. As the premier expert in loading docks, commercial doors and more, Miner’s team of best-in-class service professionals help large-scale facilities and Fortune 500-class companies mitigate risk and improve efficiency. With over 400 service professionals in more than 40 markets, Miner is the only company of its kind with a coast-to-coast footprint, offering the largest self-perform network in the country for supporting all doors, loading dock products, vehicle restraints and safety products, HVLS fans, service, aftermarket and more. Miner also supports end users, general contractors, architects, and developers, from ground-up developments to tenant improvement or extensive remodels. Learn more about how Miner delivers speed, consistency and results at https://www.minercorp.com.

Carson Hocevar Quotes
What is your outlook heading into the next few weeks?
“We are right where we want to be heading into this part of the schedule. Anything can happen at Daytona and Atlanta, and road courses aren’t my favorite, but we are still 10th in points with some really good tracks coming up for us. We qualified really well with MINER at Phoenix last year, but got caught up in someone else’s mess. We excel at the 1.5-mile tracks like Vegas, and we ran in the top 10 at the Southern 500 last year. I’m excited to get into the heart of the schedule.”

Spire Motorsports PR