Increase your hand for those who thought that Spire Motorsports can be the second-best Chevrolet group within the NASCAR Cup Collection early within the 2026 season.
It is a level price nearer examination. Statistically, the Spire Motorsports drivers rank behind alliance companion Hendrick Motorsports within the championship standings. They’ve been related seemingly each Sunday afternoon, and are wanting, right now, to be able to place one or two — if not all three — drivers within the Chase.
“You’re at all times relative to … your producer,” competitors director Matt McCall instructed ESPN. “General, we’re nonetheless making an attempt to focus and win races. Sure, we see [that we’re the second Chevrolet team], however we additionally know the way rapidly it modifications week to week, too. For probably the most half, we examine ourselves to the sector.”
Spire Motorsports was based by Jeff Dickerson and T.J. Puchyr and made its Cup Collection debut in 2019 after buying the constitution from Furnishings Row, which had been shuttered. Dickerson and Dan Towriss, the CEO of TWG Motorsports, which additionally has stakes in Formula 1‘s Cadillac and IndyCar’s Andretti International, are the co-owners who’re striving to show the group — as soon as criticized for being seen as not being a severe operation attributable to the way it entered the game, with a background in enterprise administration and leisure, and its lack of sources — right into a contender.
Carson Hocevar, the 23-year-old whose go-fast-and-take-no-prisoners angle has made him the wild baby of the collection, is main the way in which. He sits twelfth within the standings however has turn out to be a constant presence within the high 10 and a daily top-5 challenger. It is not a shock to see him working with the leaders.
“There was so much final 12 months with the 77 automobile, particularly, was at all times a contender or up entrance, and it has been good this 12 months to select up the place we left off,” Hocevar instructed ESPN.
The flexibility to run up entrance, nonetheless, has include an adjustment. Hocevar is discovering it’s not as a lot of a dogfight because the mid-pack, the place there’s much less give-and-take between drivers battling for each inch and place as if it is the final lap.
Hocevar and Spire teammate Michael McDowell ran 1-2 with two laps to go within the season-opening Daytona 500. It was Hocevar main on the white flag earlier than he was spun going into Flip 1. Every week later, he was battling Tyler Reddick for the lead going into the final lap at EchoPark Speedway.
“Each time we have been up entrance, it is nearly simpler,” Hocevar mentioned. “All people is form of relaxed extra up there within the top-five-ish as a result of their stuff is sweet and so they’re extra keen to provide somewhat further area, and also you’re unfold out from the entire subject. It is its one little race up there, and that was the most important factor I observed final 12 months once we had been occurring our greatest races, that that was so much simpler and calmer; it felt pure up there.”
Daniel Suárez is in his first season with Spire Motorsports. It’s the fifth workforce he is pushed for since getting into the collection ten years in the past, and the most recent alternative to show he is worthy of a seat. On this case, although, Suárez needed to affix Spire as a result of he was intrigued by their development, and felt they had been on an upward trajectory and can be a powerhouse throughout the subsequent few years.
At this time, he’ll say that working with a brand new group has renewed his spirit. What’s plain is that Suárez is performing much better than many anticipated, given his 2025 season at Trackhouse Racing and what the No. 7 workforce for Spire did final 12 months with its former driver, sitting sixteenth in factors.
“I really feel like we’re doing precisely what we’re presupposed to be doing,” Suárez instructed ESPN. “I do not suppose we’re doing much less or extra. I feel slowly we’re beginning to perceive that it isn’t a fluke, that it is actual, and we now have to push ourselves for extra. … We’ve got been aggressive.”
For all of the positives by 9 races, there’s nonetheless work to be accomplished. McDowell, the collection veteran, is nineteenth within the collection standings. And throughout all three groups, the objective is to maneuver from contenders to these with race-winning pace.
Realistically, everybody is aware of they are not there but.
It is telling seeing all three groups so shut to one another, not solely within the standings, however all three drivers have earned a number of top-10 finishes. The groups are working in the identical path, and even with three drivers with three completely different personalities, they’ve all introduced one thing to the desk.
“I feel the most important factor for the entire race workforce is there hasn’t been the distraction of why the 7 automobile is so sluggish or why this automobile is sluggish,” Hocevar mentioned. “It might undoubtedly be a distraction for the entire race workforce if one automobile is working up entrance and dealing, and the opposite is on the full backside nearly. I’ve simply seen a unique dynamic, particularly on the 7 automobile workforce. They’ve embraced Daniel, and so they’ve run very effectively out of the gate.
“And for me, you simply haven’t any outdoors noise after I stroll out of the 77 workplace, and there is panic. All people appears somewhat bit extra rowing the boat and desirous to go in instructions that we will all go in with the path of our automobiles, slightly than them scratching their heads.”
Suárez becoming a member of the fold had a bit to do with how issues are going throughout the store. Again within the winter, when he and the 7 workforce had been coming collectively, Suárez instructed Spire that he did not need Ryan Sparks, who final 12 months served as each the automobile’s crew chief and the workforce’s competitors director, to have twin roles.
So the primary order of enterprise was deciding who would lead Suárez’s workforce. Sparks needed to be on the workforce, and that meant making some strikes. That’s when McCall moved into the competitors director function after being employed because the director of car efficiency.
“The primary few races we had fairly first rate pace amongst all of the automobiles, and I feel that is continued for many weeks,” McCall mentioned. “Martinsville, in all probability all three automobiles the place we completed is about all we had, so not an excellent displaying there. However we have been in a position to make positive factors every weekend, making an attempt to proceed to be taught.
“I feel general, it has been OK. I feel we now have loads of runway to maintain bettering, however the group of individuals we now have round right here is enjoyable to work with. We’re in an OK spot. We all know we now have to make some enhancements to take the subsequent step to convey residence trophies, and that is what we’re working towards. However the begin has been, I would say, near strong however not strong.”
Successful is the subsequent step. Spire Motorsports gained in its first season in the summertime Daytona date when making the most of a rain-shortened race to inherit the lead, however the subsequent victory will come on benefit and be much more spectacular given how far the group has come.
McCall describes the workforce Dickerson and Towriss have constructed as a spot with good morale and tradition, and an important place to work. Suárez desires to point out that Spire Motorsports is a vacation spot.
“I might say we might must win (this 12 months) as effectively,” McCall mentioned. “I feel that is been fairly easy, direct orders from everyone for us to know that is a part of the method, and I do not suppose there’s anybody right here that does not have that mindset.”
Rick Hendrick, Roger Penske and Joe Gibbs have lengthy had a stranglehold on the Cup Collection, however they’re dealing with new competitors. Perhaps not for the championship, that is nonetheless far out for Spire Motorsports, however with regards to any given Sunday, there are new gamers on the town who’re getting ever nearer to popping out on high.
“These groups are tremendous powerful and tough to race in opposition to, clearly,” Hocevar mentioned. “However we’re working with them so much already, and I nonetheless suppose we’re simply getting going.”
