Spire Motorsports Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 Race Advance

In 10 NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) races at Texas Motor Speedway, Spire Motorsports has led three laps, logged one top-15 and three top-20 finishes with eight different drivers. Corey LaJoie, driver of the No. 7 Schluter Systems Chevy Camaro earned a team-best 14th-place finish at the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 September 25, 2022. The Mooresville, N.C., team fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s in the NCS with LaJoie, and fellow drivers Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar, respectively.
The Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 from Texas Motor Speedway will be televised live on FS1 Sunday, April 14, beginning at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The ninth of 36 races on the 2024 NCS schedule will be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. NASCAR RaceDay’s pre-race coverage on FS1 will take the green flag at 2 p.m. EDT.

Corey LaJoie – Driver, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Corey LaJoie heads to Texas Motor Speedway 28th in the NCS championship point standings. He started 32nd and finished 32nd last weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
Schluter®-Systems, a key partner for Corey LaJoie and Spire Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) efforts over the last several seasons, will return to the primary position on the team’s No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for four races in 2024, beginning with this weekend’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.
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Sunday’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 will mark LaJoie’s 11th NCS start at Texas Motor Speedway and 245th career NCS start.
In 10 previous NCS starts at Texas Motor Speedway, LaJoie has logged one top 15 and three top 20s including a venue best 14th-place finish. The Concord, N.C. native recorded a 31.2 average start, a 27.8 average finish and completed 2,809 of 3,276 laps contested (85.7 percent).
Last September, LaJoie started in the 27th and finished 26th in the No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet Camaro.

Corey LaJoie Quotes
It’s been a challenging couple of weeks but you’ve got Schluter Systems on board at Texas Motor Speedway so that’s gotta provide an extra boost heading into this weekend.
“We’re all ready for a rebound at Texas Motor Speedway for Schluter Systems’ first primary race of the season. These guys have supported my career from the beginning, so the timing couldn’t be any better for a comeback.”

Zane Smith – Driver, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Sunday will mark Zane Smith’s second NCS start at Texas Motor Speedway, but his first driving the No. 71 Ambetter Health Chevrolet Camaro for Spire Motorsports.
This will be his first race driving the Ambetter Health paint scheme. Ambetter Health is on a mission to get everyone affordable, high-quality health insurance. Our drive to break down barriers and help make insurance more accessible to all has made us America’s No. 1 Marketplace health insurance. Learn more about how we are paving the way to better coverage at ambetterhealth.com.
Race fans can meet Smith on Sunday at the Ambetter Health activation in the TMS Fanzone at 11 a.m. local time.
Following his visit to the Ambetter Health display, Smith will stop at the Chevrolet activation for a Q&A at 11:45 a.m.
Last September at TMS, Smith started 33rd and finished 24th in the No. 36 Front Row Motorsports entry.
Smith started 24th and finished 31st last Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
Smith will drive the No. 91 Chevrolet Silverado in Friday’s SpeedyCash 250 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) race at TMS. It marks the 2022 NCTS champion’s third of four scheduled races with the McAnally-Hilgemann Racing team.
Smith owns five NCTS starts at TMS. He’s led 38 laps and posted two top-10 finishes.

Tell us about your excitement to run the Ambetter Health paint scheme for the first time this season.
“This is the first race this season that I will be carrying Ambetter Health on my No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevy Camaro. This paint scheme is really cool and I know it will stand out on the track. I’m fortunate for the partnership with Ambetter Health as we work together to help make insurance more accessible to all. Sunday, I will be doing a Q&A at the Ambetter Health Activation in the Fanzone, so I’m looking forward to meeting lots of fans on race day.”

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

Sunday’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 will mark Carson Hocevar’s second career NCS start at Texas Motor Speedway where Premier Security will return to the primary position aboard the No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro.
TMS is home to Hocevar’s first NCTS win. The four-time NCTS race winner took the checkered flag in last April’s Speedycash.com 250. He went on to earn three more NCTS wins in 2023 and finished third in the division’s championship point standings.
In his lone NCS start at Texas Motor Speedway, Hocevar started 19th and finished 16th in last September’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400. This was the fifth NCS race of his career.
In three NCTS starts at Texas Motor Speedway, Hocevar has logged a 9.3 average start, a 5.3 average finish and recorded two top-five finishes. The 21-year-old racer has led five laps and completed 100 percent of the laps contested in NCTS competition at the Fort Worth oval.
Hocevar finished 17th in last Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway. After qualifying 25th, the Portage, Mich. native worked his way through the field to bring home his fourth top-20 finish of the season.
Premier Security is a long-time supporter of Hocevar’s career. The Flint, Mich.-headquartered organization has been prominently featured alongside Hocevar dating to his time racing short tracks in the pavement late model ranks.
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Hocevar is currently 25th in the NCS championship point standings. He sits two spots and four points behind fellow Sunoco Rookie-of-the-Year contender Josh Berry.
Hocevar will greet fans and participate in a question-and-answer session at the Trackside Live/EchoPark stage in the TMS Fan Zone Sunday at 11:15 a.m. CT.

What does it take to run well at Texas Motor Speedway?
“It’s a lot of things. Being able to carry a lot of throttle to run through (turns) one and two. I don’t think anybody’s really ever going to complain about handling in (turns) three and four, so it’s only one end of the racetrack you’ve got to run really well, and the other end kind of takes care of itself. More important is track position. We need to qualify good. As we all say, we need to run good on Saturday to run really good on Sunday. I think we can make that happen.”
This track is home to your first NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series win and you also ran well last year in the Cup car. Does this make you more excited for the weekend or do you feel any added pressure to perform well based on your history here?
“I feel more confident about the fact that I did well last year with Luke (Lambert) in a Cup car than I do about winning last year in trucks. Of course, that win means so much to me but they’re both so different and we had the chance for a top-10 car last year in Cup, so I know I can do well. I think the 77 team is plenty capable to make that happen and more than anything, just excited to get back on a mile-and-a-half because I think that’s where we really shine.”

From the Top of the Box

Ryan Sparks – Crew Chief, No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Ryan Sparks serves in a dual role as both Spire Motorsports competition director and crew chief for driver Corey LaJoie and the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro in the NCS.
Sparks, a Winston-Salem, N.C., native, has been paired with LaJoie since 2020.
Combined, Sparks and LaJoie have earned four top-five and seven top-10 finishes, including a fourth-place finish in the 2024 Daytona 500.

Stephen Doran – Crew Chief, No. 71 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Stephen Doran begins his first full season as a Cup Series crew chief leading Zane Smith and the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet team during the 2024 season.
In 2006, Doran got his start in NASCAR at Petty Enterprises.
Prior to his arrival at Spire Motorsports, Doran worked at Stewart-Haas Racing as an engineer, most recently on the No. 4 car driven by Kevin Harvick.

Luke Lambert – Crew Chief, No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Luke Lambert is the crew chief for Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 team with 2024 NCS Rookie of the Year candidate Carson Hocevar
The 2005 North Carolina State graduate has led the competition efforts for some of the sport’s most notable names including Jeff Burton, Ryan Newman, Elliott Sadler and Chris Buescher.
In 2014, Lambert led Newman to a berth in the Championship 4, and ultimately a runner-up finish in the NCS championship point standings.

About Spire Motorsports …
Spire Motorsports is a NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race team co-owned by long-time NASCAR industry executives Jeff Dickerson and Thaddeus “T.J.” Puchyr. In 2024, Spire Motorsports will campaign the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s in the NASCAR Cup Series with drivers Corey LaJoie, Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar, respectively. The team will also field the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Silverados full time in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. An all-star driver lineup will rotate throughout the 2024 season in the No. 7 Chevy. Rajah Caruth will drive the No. 71 entry and Chase Purdy rounds out the team’s fleet of Chevrolets in the No. 77.

Spire Motorsports earned its inaugural NASCAR Cup Series victory in its first full season of competition when Justin Haley took the checkered flag in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 7, 2019. Less than three years later, William Byron drove Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Chevrolet Silverado to its inaugural NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series win on April 7, 2022, at Martinsville Speedway. The team’s most recent win came on March 1, 2024, when Rajah Caruth took the checkered flag in the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.