- In seven attempts at NASCAR’s annual pre-season exhibition race, Spire Motorsports has made one appearance in the feature event. Corey LaJoie finished 18th in last season’s edition of the Clash at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Mooresville, N.C., organization fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s on NASCAR’s senior circuit with Justin Haley, Michael McDowell and Carson Hocevar, respectively.
- The Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium will be televised live on FOX Sunday, Feb. 2 beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). The 2025 pre-season race will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. NASCAR Raceday on FOX will take the green flag at 7:30 p.m. EST.
Justin Haley – Driver, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1
- Justin Haley will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Fraternal Order of Eagles (F.O.E.) Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., as he embarks on his first full Cup Series season with the organization.
- Haley has competed in the three previous editions of the Clash, formerly held at the L.A. Coliseum. An 11th-place finish in the 2023 event marked his best finish.
- The Winamac, Ind., native has one appearance at historic Bowman Gray Stadium, where he started second and finished third in the 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame 150 K&N Pro Series East race.
- The F.O.E. is an international non-profit organization uniting fraternally in the spirit of liberty, truth, justice and equality, to make human life more desirable by lessening its ills and promoting peace, prosperity, gladness and hope. The F.O.E. donates more than $10 million a year to local communities, fundraisers, charities and more.
- The black and yellow F.O.E. colors have been featured on Haley’s Cup Series ride 13 times, eight of which were on a Spire Motorsports-prepared Chevrolet. These starts are highlighted by Haley’s Cup Series victory in the 2019 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, an upset of practically unprecedented proportions for the then 18-year-old Haley and newly formed organization.
- The 25-year-old is a veteran of 144 Cup Series starts and has notched one win, five top fives, 16 top 10s and led 103 laps in NASCAR’s premier division.
- In total, Haley has made 41 Cup Series starts for Spire Motorsports, with the bulk of races coming during the 2021 season behind the wheel of the team’s No. 77 machine. He made his first Cup Series start at Phoenix Raceway March 14, 2021 where he started 29th and finished 24th.
- Last September, Haley made his return to Spire Motorsports after beginning the 2024 season with Rick Ware Racing. The three-time NASCAR Xfinity Series race winner participated in the final seven events of the year aboard the team’s No. 7 Chevrolet, earning a season-best finish of seventh at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
Justin Haley Quotes
How do you feel about the Clash being held at the historic Bowman Gray Stadium?
“I am eager to kick off the 2025 NASCAR Cup season at Bowman Gray Stadium. It’s been enlightening to work with Rodney and the No. 7 group during the off-season, preparing for 2025. What better way to initiate this new chapter than with the loyal group at The Fraternal Order of Eagles? F.O.E. has been with me for 10 years and I’m excited to continue our partnership for many more.”
Atop the No. 7 Box – Crew Chief Rodney Childers
Crew chief Rodney Childers comes to Spire Motorsports after spending the past 11 seasons at Stewart-Haas Racing, leading the organization’s No. 4 team. The first 10 of those campaigns were with 2014 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Kevin Harvick.
The Mooresville, N.C., native made two of the three Clash events at the L.A. Coliseum where Harvick finished 12th and 10th in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
In nine editions of the Clash at the highbanks of Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Harvick and Childers earned two top fives and four top 10s.
The veteran crew chief has participated in 676 NASCAR Cup Series races where he’s earned 34 poles, 40 wins, 178 top-five and 298 top-10 finishes, and helped Harvick to the 2014 Cup Series title.
Childers’ 40 wins at NASCAR’s premier level are second-most amongst all crew chiefs in the Cup Series garage
Rodney Childers Quotes
What makes Bowman Gray Stadium unique compared to other Clash tracks you’ve competed at?
“It’s just extremely small and tight. I feel like it’s even tighter than LA was the last couple years. The car is going to need to turn really well and be good when Justin gets back to the gas. And lastly, the history there means so much more to our sport than any other place where we have had the Clash recently.”
Michael McDowell – Driver, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1
- Michael McDowell will pilot Spire Motorsports’ Workforce Operational Health and Safety Solutions Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray.
- The Arizona native joins Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 team off one of the hottest seasons in his career. During the 2024 season, McDowell, along with crew chief Travis Peterson, combined for a season-best six pole positions, two top-five, and seven top-10 finishes while pacing the field for 256 laps. McDowell and his 2024 team received the Busch Light Pole Award, which is presented to the team with the most starts from the pole position across the season.
- In his last three attempts at the Clash, formerly held at the LA Coliseum, McDowell successfully transferred to the main event each year. He collected a personal-best finish of 16th in the 2022 event.
- Workforce Operational Health and Safety Solutions will serve as the primary partner for McDowell and the No. 71 Chevrolet ZL1 for this weekend’s Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. The blue and white livery will return at Phoenix Raceway in March and again for the Cup Series contest at Richmond Raceway in August.
- The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Occupational Health and Safety Solutions (OHSS) firm will celebrate 30 years of protection across the 2025 season. The Workforce-sponsored machine will carry a special 30th-anniversary decal atop the deck lid throughout the season as the company celebrates three decades of protecting employees nationwide in work injury management, medical bill repricing, and employer services.
- McDowell marked his 500th career start at Martinsville Speedway last fall, a milestone he celebrated at the site of his first Cup Series start in 2008. Now 40-years-old and a father of five, McDowell is set to complete his 17th season competing in NASCAR’s premier division. To date, he has 501 Cup Series career starts on his resume.
- Known to be a road course and superspeedway ace, McDowell and his fellow Cup Series competitors will take on the short track of Bowman Gray Stadium. In the 17 short-track races since February 2022, McDowell has an average finish of 19.4 with two top-five and eight top-10 finishes across races at Bristol Motor Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, Richmond Raceway and Iowa Speedway.
- The No. 71 car has a storied history at Bowman Gray Stadium, tied to Buren Skeen, a local driver who won back-to-back NASCAR Modified National Championships at the track in 1964 and 1965. Skeen, a native of Denton, N.C., also made eight Cup Series starts in 1965. Two of those starts were at Bowman Gray, where he earned fifth- and seventh-place finishes against racing legends like Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett, Wendell Scott, and Cale Yarborough. Tragically, Skeen died later that year at 28 following a crash on the second lap of the Southern 500. This weekend, McDowell will honor the life of the legendary modified driver by placing a commemorative nameplate above the passenger door on the No. 71 Workforce Chevrolet ZL1.
Michael McDowell Quotes
What makes the Clash so special?
“Racing at Bowman Gray Stadium is going to be special. The track has so much history and shows how far we have come in 75-plus years. That said, I am excited to be back on track with a new team and a new chapter in my career. The Clash has always been a great way to work our way back into things and we’ve made the main event the last three years at the LA Coliseum. I am excited to start the 2025 season with a new team, a new manufacturer and to have Workforce on board at Bowman Gray.”
What are you looking forward to in your first season with Spire?
“There has been a lot of change this offseason and Spire Motorsports has been super helpful integrating me into the system. There has been a lot to learn, and I am enjoying the process. It is going to be a slow build while our team gets comfortable but I am excited to see where we can be as the season goes on. We have been very upfront about our goals. We want to win races and make the playoffs.”
Atop the No. 71 Box – Crew Chief Travis Peterson
- Crew chief Travis Peterson joins Spire Motorsports after spending the past two seasons at Front Row Motorsports. He made the move alongside driver, Michael McDowell.
- The 33-year-old reached the Clash at the Coliseum main event with McDowell each of the past two seasons. He was the lead race engineer for Chris Buescher and RFK Racing at the 2022 event.
- The decorated engineer contributed to several victories during his tenure at RFK, Hendrick Motorsports and JR Motorsports, highlighted by clinching the NASCAR Xfinity Series title in 2014 and racking up three Cup Series wins with Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and the No. 88 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.
Travis Peterson Quotes
How do you find success at a new track with little to no on-track data?
“It makes it super interesting and different than what we normally do, because we have so many good tools nowadays with track scans and experience at tracks, so you try to find things that are similar. Obviously, our Bowman Gray setup is based off what we did at the Clash last year, but every track has a ton of unique little details and we are not going to find those out until we get there. Even the tools that we have used in the past are roughly based on our resources and what we think the track geometry is, nothing too tangible to build the set up on. It makes some of your decisions interesting, because that normal flow is disrupted.”
Carson Hocevar – Driver, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1
- Carson Hocevar kicks off his second full-time Cup Series effort behind the wheel of the No. 77 Delaware Life Chevrolet ZL1 for Spire Motorsports in Sunday’s Cook Out Clash at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C.
- Iconic Bowman Gray Stadium will host The Clash for the first time in the event’s 46-year history. Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum played host to the exhibition event for the past three years after a 42-year run at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
- In last year’s event, inclement weather led to the field being set based on qualifying times. Hocevar qualified 25th, just two spots short of making the feature race.
- Hocevar closed out the 2024 season with one top five, six top 10s and NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year honors. His best short-track finish of the season was an eighth-place result August 11 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.
- Delaware Life returns to the No. 77 Chevrolet at Bowman Gray. Delaware Life is an insurance and annuity company that empowers financial professionals with a wide array of customizable solutions. A subsidiary of Group 1001 Insurance Holdings, LLC (“Group 1001 Insurance”), their focus is to deliver a seamless experience for advisors. They understand how important it is to find the right fit for every client, every situation, and every individual need. They’re passionate about equipping clients with annuities that give customers peace of mind and a successful future—allowing them to plan with confidence for whatever’s next.
Carson Hocevar Quotes
How do you feel about The Clash moving to Bowman Gray Stadium?
“I’m really excited to see how things go at Bowman Gray. The Clash was at Daytona for so long and we saw it get a different look in LA, but it’ll be good to see it on one of the most well-known short tracks. The racing at Bowman Gray is so intense and I think we’ll be seeing guys use up every inch of the track and maybe some of the grass too. I think it’ll put on a really good show.”
Do you feel more settled and comfortable heading into the start of your second full-time Cup Series season?
“Yeah, it’s a huge difference with how I feel going into this year. I had run a few races in 2023, but when we showed up at The Clash last year I still had a lot to learn about the Next Gen car and the No. 77 team. I feel like we made really good progress toward the end of last season and we can pick up where we left off.”
Is there more of a level playing field for the drivers with this being the first Cup Series race held at Bowman Gray?
“I think so. We already have that with the cars being the same, so it really comes down to the people that you’ve got on your team. Spire has done a great job of adding experienced people to our competition group and I feel like we’re going to see that pay off pretty quickly. The Delaware Life team is already on the right track with me and Luke (Lambert) having already worked together, but having Rodney Childers, Travis Peterson and Matt McCall to bounce ideas off of will make a big impact.”
Atop the No. 77 Box – Crew Chief Luke Lambert
- Hocevar is once again paired with crew chief Luke Lambert. The two first worked together in 2023 when Hocevar was behind the wheel of the No. 42 entry for eight of the final nine races of the year and reunited at Spire Motorsports for the 2024 season.
- The 14-year veteran of the sport has spent time atop the pit box in the NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series. He 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, the Mount Airy, N.C., native led Newman to a berth in the Championship 4, and ultimately a runner-up finish in the Cup Series championship point standings.
- Lambert earned a degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University in 2005. During his time at NC State, he led efforts on the University’s Formula SAE team.
Luke Lambert Quotes
You secured rookie of the year honors with Carson last season. What are this year’s goals?
“Carson is a tremendous talent and he’s proven that he has a lot of potential in NASCAR. I’m here to help him prepare for the challenges that may come along in this sport and develop him as a driver. We have a great opportunity to start the season with a strong run and that kicks off this weekend at the Clash.”
About Spire Motorsports …
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 (Fla.) 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 (Va.) Speedway. The team’s most recent win came on April 12, 2024, when Kyle Busch took the checkered flag in the SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway.
In 2025, Spire Motorsports will campaign the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet ZL1s in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team will also field the Nos. 07, 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Silverados full time in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series.