In 11 NASCAR Cup Series starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Spire Motorsports has logged one top-20 and three top-25 finishes. Carson Hocevar earned a team-best 17th-place result at \u201cThe Magic Mile\u201d last June. Spire Motorsports fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet ZL1s in the NCS with Justin Haley, Michael McDowell and Hocevar, respectively.
The Mobil 1 301 will be televised live on USA Sunday, Sept. 21 beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The 30th of 36 points-paying events on the NASCAR Cup Series calendar will be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Channel 90.<\/p>\n
Justin Haley \u2013 Driver, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1<\/p>\n
Justin Haley will pilot Spire Motorsports\u2019 No. 7 NationsGuard Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS).
Haley has four previous Cup Series starts at the Loudon, N.H., oval, where he\u2019s earned a venue-best 17th-place finish (July 2023). Over those four starts, the Winamac, Ind., native has also earned a pair of top-20 finishes.
In NASCAR Xfinity Series competition, Haley has a pair of NHMS starts, recording one top-10 and two top-15 finishes. His best effort came with a sixth-place finish in July 2021. He finished 13th in July 2019.
In the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series, Haley started and finished in 13th in his lone start at \u201cThe Magic Mile\u201d (Sept. 2017).
Haley owns a pair of ARCA Menards Series East starts at NHMS, where he scored one top-five and a pair of top-10 finishes, including a third-place effort in July 2016.
Last Saturday at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, Haley battled tire issues early, but rallied to earn a respectable 13th-place finish.
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Sunday\u2019s race at New Hampshire will mark Haley\u2019s 173rd career NASCAR Cup Series start. Over the course of the last seven seasons, the 26-year-old has collected one win, six top five, 18 top 10s and led 123 laps. He made his first premier series start with Spire Motorsports at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in 2019 on his 20th birthday and has since made 73 Cup Series starts with the team.<\/p>\n
Justin Haley Quotes
After earning a 13th-place finish at Bristol, what\u2019s your outlook heading into New Hampshire?
\u201cBristol was a solid weekend from start to finish for the No. 7 team. We had a great car all weekend and we executed well. We are putting together weekends and that gives us confidence heading to New Hampshire. One-mile race tracks are always tricky, so we\u2019re looking to be fast when we unload and execute a solid weekend.\u201d
Atop the No. 7 Box \u2013 Crew Chief Ryan Sparks<\/p>\n
Ryan Sparks serves in a dual role as both Spire Motorsports Competition Director and Crew Chief for driver Justin Haley. The potent duo was first paired together at Bristol Motor Speedway last September.
The Winston-Salem, N.C., native has served atop the pit box for 195 NASCAR Cup Series races, earning four top-five and 10 top-10 finishes.
Sparks has called five NASCAR Cup Series races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, posting his best result at \u201cThe Magic Mile\u201d with a 23rd-place finish in 2024 with driver Corey LaJoie.<\/p>\n
Michael McDowell \u2013 Driver, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1<\/p>\n
Michael McDowell will race Spire Motorsports\u2019 No. 71 Gainbridge Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
McDowell boasts 22 Cup Series starts at NHMS, and calls a 13th-place finish during the 2023 campaign at the one-mile oval a venue-best. Over those 22 starts, the 40-year-old Cup Series veteran has notched a pair of top-15 and four top-20 finishes.
In the Cup Series\u2019 last two stops to \u201cThe Magic Mile,\u201d the veteran racer has scored a pair of top 15s. Over those two races, he tallied a 21.0 average start, a 14.0 average finish and completed all 606 laps contested.
Last season at NHMS, McDowell was racing with the leaders inside the top five with less than 10 laps to go, when he lost the handle on his No. 34 machine and spun. Fortunately, the resulting damage was minimal and he recovered to earn a respectable top-15 finish.
Over the last two seasons, McDowell has proven to be competitive at NHMS during races affected by rain, where he ran inside the top-10 during both the 2023 and 2024 contests.
The Glendale, Ariz., native has two NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the track constructed in 1990, where he\u2019s recorded a pair of top-20 finishes, including a venue\/series best finish of 15th in June 2009.
In NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series competition, the 2021 Daytona 500 Champion qualified 18th and raced his way to a 14th-place finish in his lone start in 2009.
Over the course of 28 races in 2025, McDowell has tallied two top-five, three top-10 and 17 top-20 finishes. To date, the veteran racer has earned an average starting position of 15.9, a 19.4 average finish, led 86 laps and been running at the finish of all but two of the season\u2019s first 28 points-paying races.
Last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, McDowell started 25th and raced his way to a 17th-place finish.
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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 (Ala.) Superspeedway. The team is one of just three in the series to tally three or more bonus points via the program.
The No. 71 team secured Spire Motorsports\u2019 first Busch Light Pole Award in March at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. McDowell\u2019s 28.833-second lap marks the fastest lap recorded in NASCAR\u2019s seventh-generation Cup Series car (2022-present) at the 1.5-mile Nevada oval. The team also earned Spire Motorsports\u2019 first stage win during the Grant Park 165 on the streets of downtown Chicago.
McDowell\u2019s team earned a handsome $100,000 payday and a trip to Victory Lane after winning the Mechanix Wear Pit Crew Challenge during May\u2019s NASCAR All-Star Weekend at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. The crew\u2019s winning 12.587-second stop topped all entries for both the NASCAR All-Star Open and NASCAR All-Star Race, earning them the title of the fastest team on pit road.<\/p>\n
Michael McDowell Quote
Loudon constantly runs into rain. How does the weather change the race?
\u201cI hope it rains. The best I\u2019ve run at New Hampshire is in the rain. It has not been a great track for me statistically, but the short tracks for us this year have been better than what the short tracks have been in the past for me, so I feel like we have another opportunity. Similar to Martinsville and Phoenix, we feel like we\u2019ve made gains and hopefully we\u2019ll keep that going this weekend at Loudon.\u201d
Atop the No. 71 Box \u2013 Crew Chief Travis Peterson<\/p>\n
Crew chief Travis Peterson joined Spire Motorsports following the 2024 season after spending 2023-2024 calling the shots for McDowell at Front Row Motorsports.
Across three Cup Series races at NHMS (2022-2024), the 33-year-old crew chief holds an average start of 19.3 paired with an average finish of 15.0. He\u2019s only finished outside the top 15 once, when Chris Buescher took the checkered flag 17th in 2022.<\/p>\n
Carson Hocevar \u2013 Driver, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1<\/p>\n
Carson Hocevar, driver of the Delaware Life Chevrolet ZL1 for Spire Motorsports, will make his second NASCAR Cup Series start at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Sunday\u2019s Mobil 1 301. In 2024, Hocevar started 22nd and finished 17th at the track known as \u201cThe Magic Mile.\u201d
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Despite having limited experience at New Hampshire, Hocevar has found success on the flat one-mile Milwaukee oval. He started third, led 40 laps and finished second in the August 2023 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race.
Hocevar finished seventh at Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend to earn his eighth top-10 finish of the year and second in the last three races.<\/p>\n
Carson Hocevar Quotes
You only have one start at New Hampshire across all three of NASCAR\u2019s national series. How do approach a track where you don\u2019t have an extensive notebook to pull from?
\u201cCrazy things have been known to happen at New Hampshire. I don\u2019t have a ton of experience there so it\u2019s still a learning experience for me when we unload on Saturday. Thankfully I have a good group of guys on the No. 77, and Luke (Lambert, crew chief) and Tyler (Green, spotter) do a great job of coaching me through everything. I think we have a good opportunity to finish out the season strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spire Motorsports PR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 11 NASCAR Cup Series starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Spire Motorsports has logged one top-20 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,716,718,925,13157,720,634,582,721,722,82,723],"class_list":["post-149411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-channel","tag-craftsman-truck-series","tag-daytona","tag-group","tag-motor","tag-nascar","tag-racing","tag-series","tag-speedway","tag-sports","tag-xfinity-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}