Spire Motorsports Fr8 208 Race Advance

In three NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS), Spire Motorsports has collected one win and two top-10 finishes. Kyle Busch, driver of the team’s No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado, is the defending winner of the Fr8 208. The Mooresville, N.C., organization fields the Nos. 07, 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Silverados full time in the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. The No. 07 and 7 entries will see a rotating roster of all-star caliber drivers throughout the season, while Rajah Caruth and Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Andres Perez de Lara will pilot the Nos. 71 and 77, respectively, for the full slate of races.
The Fr8 208 from Atlanta Motor Speedway will be televised live on FS1 Saturday, Feb. 22 beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The second of 25 races on the 2025 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series calendar will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Michael McDowell – Driver, No. 07 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado

Michael McDowell will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 07 Delaware Life Chevrolet Silverado in Saturday’s Fr8 208 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Last weekend, McDowell competed in his first CRAFTSMAN Truck Series event in 16 years. After starting 31st, the driver worked his way to the front and led Lap 72. He remained in the top half of the field before his No. 07 Go Bowling Chevrolet was involved in a multi-truck incident. The team was credited with a 31st-place finish.
The 2021 Daytona 500 champion will pull double duty this weekend, driving the No. 71 Group 1001 Chevrolet ZL1 in the NASCAR Cup Series Ambetter Health 400.
Prior to last weekend’s event in Daytona, the Arizona native had two previous CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts to his credit. His most recent of the two came in 2009 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway where he earned a career/series-best 14th-place finish with ThorSport Racing.
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McDowell owns 18 Cup Series starts at AMS, highlighted by one top five and two top 10s. He earned back-to-back Busch Light Pole Awards at the track last season.
The Delaware Life colors will wrap Spire Manufacturing chassis SMT-073. The truck was most recently on track last November at Phoenix Raceway with Chase Purdy behind the wheel. Purdy also raced the truck to its best finish in 2023 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Michael McDowell Quotes
You have been outspoken about wanting a win in all three series, how can you pick up your first CRAFTSMAN Truck Series win at Atlanta?
“We’re back at it again in Atlanta, this time in the Delaware Life Chevrolet Silverado. I had so much fun at Daytona. The race didn’t end how we wanted it to, but I learned a lot. Every race, it feels like, for me at least, it’s like my rookie season. I haven’t sat in a truck in so long, and I never had on a superspeedway so, I am learning the pace and what needs to happen, how to make moves and how the runs come. You know, Atlanta will be a similar style to Daytona, but handling will still be a big part of it, how you make those runs. But luckily, I got Kyle Busch this weekend as a teammate, which, you know, he won there last year.”

Atop the No. 07 Box – Crew Chief Allen Hart

Allen Hart will call the shots for the No. 07 team, an entry that will see a rotating roster of drivers throughout the 2025 campaign.
Prior to arriving at Spire Motorsports, Hart spent two seasons calling the shots for Sam Hunt Racing’s No. 26 entry. Before Sam Hunt Racing he was a lead race engineer with JR Motorsports’ No. 7 team for eight seasons.
Hart is a mechanical engineering graduate of Saginaw Valley State University, earning his degree in 2005. While studying at SVSU, he contributed to the school’s Formula SAE program.

Kyle Busch – Driver, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado

Kyle Busch will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado in Saturday’s Fr8 208 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
In the 2024 Fr8 208 at AMS, Busch took the No. 7 Group 1001 Silverado to Victory Lane at the high-speed 1.54-mile quad-oval, leading 33 laps along the way.
The 39-year-old has made 58 starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway across all three of NASCAR’s national touring series. In 28 races in Cup Series competition, the father of two has logged two wins,10 top-five and 15 top-10 finishes. His resume includes three Xfinity Series wins in 14 starts, 10 top fives and 11 top 10s. In 14 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races at the iconic Hampton, Ga., venue, Busch has compiled two poles, seven wins, 10 top-five and 11 top-10 showings.
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Billy Ballew Motorsports will serve as an associate sponsor on the No. 7 Saturday at Atlanta. You can find the lowest prices on used Cars, Trucks and SUV’s at www.BillyBallewMotorsports.com. Busch claimed his first career Truck Series victory driving the No. 51 Chevrolet at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May of 2005 and coined the nickname “Rowdy” as a tribute to Rowdy Burns in the film Days of Thunder while driving under the Billy Ballew Motorsports banner from 2005-2009.
The Las Vegas native holds the record for most CRAFTSMAN Truck Series wins (66) and highest average finish in series history (6.5), while he ranks second on the series’ all-time laps led list (8,050).
In five starts last season with Spire Motorsports, Busch racked up two wins (Atlanta and Texas Motor Speedway), three top fives and paced the field for 263 circuits.
Busch’s pair of races with crew chief Brian Pattie and the No. 7 team will conclude at Charlotte Motor Speedway (May 23), while he will see time behind the wheel of the Spire’s No. 07 Chevy at North Wilkesboro Speedway (May 17), Nashville Superspeedway (May 30) and Watkins Glen International (August 8).
“Rowdy” will be behind the wheel of Spire Manufacturing chassis SMT-081 on Friday. He parked the truck in Victory Lane at Texas Motor Speedway last April, and the chassis was last on track in November at Phoenix Raceway with Connor Mosack at the controls.

Kyle Busch Quotes
On his return to Spire Motorsports’ CRAFTSMAN Truck Series operation…
“With my long-standing relationship with Jeff (Dickerson) and having a lot of my former employees still working on the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series teams at Spire Motorsports, it’s cool to be able to hop back in their Chevy Silverados five times and work towards filling those trophy cases. I still really enjoy being a part of the process of evaluating their equipment and being a mentor to the young drivers in Spire’s lineup. It’s fun trying to help speed up their learning curve by passing on a few pointers here and there.”

You’ve won a lot of CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races at Atlanta. What is the key to being able to bring home a victory there?
“With the new speedway-style racing at Atlanta it takes a lot of teamwork to win the race. You can’t just go out and single-handedly drive to the front and stay there. So, it’ll be a benefit to have three other Spire Silverados to work with in Saturday’s race. We had a really fast truck at Atlanta last year that we led a lot of laps early in the race and then in the closing laps had to make some moves to get the lead back and bring home the win. Hopefully, we can put our Gainbridge Chevy in Victory Lane again this year. I’m looking forward to the chance to bring home another trophy and another golf cart from Fr8 Auctions. We’ve got Billy Ballew Motorsports onboard with us again as an associate sponsor — we’ve won a lot of races with Billy over the years and he seems to be a good luck charm for us at Atlanta.”

Atop the No. 7 Box – Crew Chief Brian Pattie

Brian Pattie returns to the top of the No. 7 pit box, an entry that will see a plethora of all-star caliber drivers behind the wheel throughout the 2025 season.
In his first season at Spire Motorsports in 2024, Pattie led the No. 7 team to two victories across the first seven events of the season, both with Kyle Busch (Atlanta Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway). The duo also won twice across five races in 2023 with Kyle Busch Motorsports.
The Zephyrhills, Fla., native visited Atlanta’s Victory Lane with Joe Nemechek in the 2001 Aaron’s 312 in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition.
Pattie is a 24-year veteran of the sport, 14 of which came in the NASCAR Cup Series. As a crew chief, he has earned six wins in Cup Series competition and 11 in the Xfinity Series.

Rajah Caruth – Driver, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado

Rajah Caruth will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevrolet Silverado in Saturday’s Fr8 208 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Last season, Caruth qualified 12th and finished eighth at Atlanta, his career-best on the 1.5-mile circuit. During the event, he logged the most green flag passes (122) and fourth-most quality passes (76).
Born in Atlanta, the 22-year-old deems Atlanta Motor Speedway as one of his home tracks. He first raced on the Georgia oval in the 2023 CRAFSMAN Truck Series race during his time at GMS Racing. Despite a 22nd-place starting position, the then-rookie driver found himself in the second row on a late-race restart. He finished 25th after he was taken three-wide and dropped to the back of the pack with a significant loss of momentum.
The 2024 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Most Popular Driver has collected two top fives, three top 10s, and four top 15s in seven CRAFTSMAN Truck Series events on drafting tracks.
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Last week, Caruth qualified 13th for the Fresh From Florida 250 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. Contact from a competitor sent him spinning toward the inside retaining wall and caused terminal damage to the No. 71 Silverado. After he was checked and released from the infield care center, the team was credited with a 30th-place finish.
The 2024 season marked a career year for Caruth. He tallied one win, a pair of Cometic Gasket Pole Awards and five top-five finishes, all of which were the first of his young career. The 12 top-10 finishes on the season tripled Caruth’s total of four in 2023, while his average starting position of 10.7 was four positions higher than 2023 and his 11.6 average finish was an impressive seven positions higher.
Caruth and the No. 71 team qualified for the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series playoffs in 2024, the first such appearance for the former Washington, D.C., resident. Despite reaching the Round of 8, a mechanical malady stalled his championship bid in the season’s penultimate event at Martinsville Speedway.
With his first career CRAFTSMAN Truck Series win and pole position last season, Caruth became the third African-American driver to win a NASCAR National Touring Series race.
Caruth will be behind the wheel of Spire Manufacturing chassis SMT-078. The truck last saw action with Nick Sanchez at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway last September. Sanchez also parked the chassis in Victory Lane at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.

Rajah Caruth Quotes
As a driver born in Atlanta, what will it be like to race in front of so many friends and family members this weekend?
“It will be nice. We definitely have quite a few coming out, and I really appreciate them coming to support me. It is a great market for myself and my family, so it is super great to go back. At the end of the day, it is business as usual, but we will have more familiar faces that we can celebrate with in Victory Lane.

You have had the opportunity to work with Michael McDowell, Justin Haley and Kyle Busch in the first two weeks of the season. How do they help you prepare for the weekend, and what do you take away from those experiences?
“It was great to work with Kyle (Busch) last year, especially in the simulator before Darlington and Texas, and it has been great to work with him in preparation for Saturday. Working with these guys is invaluable. Every ounce of knowledge you can gain from pre-race prep, to small talk around the shop and at the race track, to looking at data and discussing the balance of our Silverados, is incredibly valuable for my development. They have already been through where I am right now, so it is great to lean on them and gain additional insight that can help me not only this weekend, but in my pathway to the Cup Series.”

Atop the No. 71 Box – Crew Chief Kevin “Bono” Manion

Veteran crew chief Kevin “Bono” Manion will call the shots for Rajah Caruth and the No. 71 team in 2025.
The 52-year-old has led Zane Smith (2020) and Nick Sanchez (2024) to top-five finishes in CRAFTSMAN Truck Series competition at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
As a crew chief, the Boylston, Mass., native has racked up six Cup Series victories (including the 2010 Daytona 500), 17 NASCAR Xfinity Series triumphs and 11 CRAFTSMAN Truck series wins.
Manion, a 31-year veteran of the sport, founded Spire Motorsports’ CRAFTSMAN Truck Series program alongside Mike Greci in 2022. The team won that season in their second outing with William Byron behind the wheel at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
In 2023, Manion became one of few to call a race in all three of NASCAR’s national series in a single season, all of which came under the Spire Motorsports banner. He led the part-time effort on the No. 7 Silverado in the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series, helped in limited starts for Carson Hocevar in the Xfinity Series and took the reigns during the second half of the Cup Series season for Ty Dillon and the No. 77 team.

Andres Perez de Lara – Driver, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado

Andres Perez de Lara will pilot the No. 77 Telcel Chevrolet Silverado for Spire Motorsports in the Fr8 208.
Last time out in the Fresh from Florida 250, Perez de Lara finished 14th after he was tagged in a late-race incident. The No. 77 team was able to pick up a pair of stage points in Stage 1, helping the Mexico City native to 14th in points after one week of competition.
The 19-year-old will make his first start at the 1.54-mile Georgia oval this weekend. Perez de Lara has made six starts on 1.5-mile speedways in the ARCA Menards Series, collecting one top-five and three top-10 finishes, while claiming the pole position in the 2023 event at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
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Perez de Lara will chase Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in 2025. One race into the seasons, he sits second in the standings, 24 points behind Gio Ruggiero. Atlanta will mark his fourth career CRAFTSMAN Truck Series start.
The 2024 ARCA champion juggled his full-time duties while competing full time in the NASCAR Mexico Series. In 2023, he earned the Rookie of the Year award while finishing fourth in the division’s points and reaching the series’ version of the NASCAR playoffs. He returned one year later to secure his first checkered flag in the series, visiting Victory Lane at Ovalo Aguascalientes Mexico.
Perez de Lara will pilot Spire Manufacturing chassis SMT-082 on Saturday. Rajah Caruth piloted the truck in its previous three appearances, collecting a pair of top 10s, most recently a seventh-place finish at Kansas Speedway last September.

Andres Perez de Lara Quotes
You are making your first ever start at Atlanta Motor Speedway, what is it going to take to have a successful weekend?
“Really excited to go to Atlanta this weekend being that I have never been there before. There will be a lot of things that I will have to learn quickly, especially going straight into qualifying without any practice this weekend. Having no practice this weekend will be the toughest challenge for sure, but I have faith in my team. We will do our best to run a clean race and be there at the front contending for the win at the end.”

How are you going to keep building momentum after a solid finish at Daytona?
“For me, it is all about feeling more comfortable in the car. Each time I am in the truck I feel more and more comfortable. I am getting in more of a rhythm of how these trucks drive and how I can go faster on track. Me and my team are learning how to work and communicate with each other, as well. Really excited to gain more experience week in and week out. Each new race I go to the goal will be to learn as much as I can and get the best result I can.

Atop the No. 77 Box – Crew Chief Chad Walter

Crew chief Chad Walter will be atop the box for Andres Perez de Lara and the No. 77 team in 2025.
Walter has called four CRAFTSMAN Truck Series events at Atlanta Motor Speedway, highlighted by an eighth-place finish with Rajah Caruth in the 2024 event.
He owns one top-five in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition, a fifth-place result with Casey Mears in 2007.
The 53-year-old, a veteran race engineer of 20-plus years, picked up a pair of Daytona 500 victories (2001 & 2003) while on the crew for Michael Waltrip during his time at Dale Earnhardt Inc.
Walter guided Caruth to his first CRAFTSMAN Truck Series victory on March 1, 2024 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The Albion, N.Y., native earned a mechanical engineering degree from the Cornell University College of Engineering. During his time at Cornell, he played defensive end for the Big Red football team.

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 Fort Worth.

In 2025, Spire Motorsports will campaign the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolets in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team will also field the Nos. 07, 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Silverados in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series and the No. 77 Chevrolet in the ARCA Menards Series in select events.