Spire Motorsports Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube Race Advance

• In 22 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS), Spire Motorsports has logged two top-15 and six top-20 finishes. Carson Hocevar, driver of the team’s No. 77 Chevrolet, matched a team-best 15th-place result in the series’ March 2024 visit to Las Vegas. Spire Motorsports fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet ZL1s in the Cup Series for Justin Haley, Michael McDowell and Hocevar, respectively.
• The Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube will be televised live on FS1 Sunday, March 16, beginning at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The fifth of 36 points-paying races on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule will be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Justin Haley – Driver, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1

• Justin Haley will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at LVMS.
• Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race will mark Haley’s ninth career start in NASCAR’s premier division at LVMS. In eight previous races, the Winamac, Ind., native recorded one top-10 and two top-15 finishes including an eighth-place showing in the 2023 Pennzoil 400. The 25-year-old has led 16 laps in Cup Series competition at the mile-and-a-half oval, completed 2,135 of the 2,147 laps contested (99.4 percent) and recorded a 20.8 average finish.
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• Last weekend at Phoenix Raceway, Haley started eighth – his best qualifying effort of 2025 – but a Lap 99 multi-car incident ended his day early, leaving him 34th in the final rundown.
• The three-time NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race winner will pull double duty this weekend and handle the driving chores for Spire Motorsports No. 07 Gainbridge Chevy Silverado in Friday’s Ecosave 200.
• Haley owns three CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts at the “Diamond in the Desert,” highlighted by a third-place finish in October 2018. In NASCAR Xfinity Series competition, Haley has collected four top 10s, including a series/venue best eighth-place effort in March 2021.
• Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 will mark Haley’s 149th career NASCAR Cup Series start. Over the course of his previous 148 starts, he’s notched one win, five top fives, 16 top 10s and led 103 laps in NASCAR’s premier division. He has made 45 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 on April 28, 2019 at Talladega Superspeedway on his 20th birthday.

Justin Haley Quote
How do you look to build some momentum heading into Las Vegas?
“We’ve had speed the past few weeks on our No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet ZL1, but have been plagued with bad luck. I’m looking forward to Las Vegas this weekend. It is one of my favorite tracks on the schedule and hopefully we can starting building some momentum.”

Atop the No. 7 Box – Crew Chief Rodney Childers

• Crew chief Rodney Childers has called 25 races at the “Diamond in the Desert,” collecting one pole, two wins, 12 top fives and 23 top 10s. Childers-prepared cars have led a total of 622 laps at the 1.5-mile tri-oval.
• The Mooresville, N.C., native earned his first victory at LVMS in 2015 with Kevin Harvick. He clocked 75 laps of the event’s fastest laps and led 142 en route to the win.
• Childers took victory in the 2018 edition of the Pennzoil 400 as Harvick led 214 of the event’s 267 laps in a dominant showing. He calculated an impressive 1.49 average running position and 150.0 driver rating.
• The veteran crew chief has participated in 680 NASCAR Cup Series races where he’s earned 34 poles, 40 wins, 178 top-five and 298 top-10 finishes. He also earned 2014 championship honors with Harvick.
• Childers’ 40 wins at NASCAR’s premier level ties him for second-most amongst all active crew chiefs in the Cup Series garage.

Michael McDowell – Driver, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1

• Michael McDowell will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 Group1001 Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
• The father of five calls Glendale, Ariz., home, but early in his racing career, McDowell and his older brother, Billy, moved to Las Vegas to turn their karting dreams into a reality. The McDowell family built and sold karts in the area to kickstart their racing careers, laying the foundation for a 20-year career and wins in NASCAR’s highest national touring series.
• The 40-year-old owns 22 Cup Series starts at LVMS, collecting a venue-best 17th-place finish in October 2023.
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• Despite limited appearances in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, McDowell has made a pair of starts at the “Diamond in the Desert,” highlighted by a sixth-place finish in 2009 with JTG-Daugherty Racing.
• Last week at Phoenix Raceway, McDowell qualified seventh but was forced to start at the rear of the field after the team changed a steering rack on Sunday morning. While driving through the field, McDowell encountered an issue with the right-rear tire, sending the No. 71 Workforce Chevrolet into the wall. The team went to the garage to make repairs, including replacing a right-front toe link, and rejoined the field 18 laps down. Shortly after returning to the track, the team had another right-rear tire go down. He ultimately finished 27th, 22 laps off the pace.
• The Cup Series veteran earned the Xfinity Fastest Lap on Sunday, clocking a 27.020 second lap time (133.235 miles per hour) late in the event. This marks the team’s second such award this season, also earning the championship bonus point during the Daytona 500.
• Last Saturday’s qualifying session marked the first time in Spire Motorsports’ history in which all three entries qualified inside the top 10.
• Tuesday, March 11th marks Michael McDowell day in Glendale, Ariz. The driver was given the keys to the city in 2021 after taking home the checkered flag in the Daytona 500.

Michael McDowell Quotes
What are your thoughts heading into Las Vegas?
“We had a lot of speed in Phoenix, and it showed in qualifying. Unfortunately, our day was cut short of the result we probably deserved. We are going to learn a lot on this west coast swing, but we are trending in the right direction. I am proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports and excited to see where our 1.5-mile program will be this weekend. Las Vegas has been a second home for me after I left Phoenix. I spent a lot of time there early in my karting career with my brother, so I am excited to get back there and see where our intermediate program stacks up.”

Atop the No. 71 Box – Crew Chief Travis Peterson

• Crew chief Travis Peterson joined Spire Motorsports following the 2024 season after spending 2023-2024 alongside McDowell at Front Row Motorsports.
• In four previous races at LVMS in the crew chief role, Peterson has called two top-20 and four top-25 finishes.
• In his previous role as race engineer for Hendrick Motorsports, Peterson was instrumental in Dale Earnhardt Junior’s fourth-place finish in the 2015 event at LVMS.

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

• Carson Hocevar is set to make his 50th NASCAR Cup Series start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as he pilots the No. 77 Delaware Life Chevrolet ZL1 for Spire Motorsports.
• Sunday’s race will mark Hocevar’s fourth Cup Series start at LVMS. In his three previous races at the 1.5-mile track, Hocevar has an average start of 15th and an average finish of 24.7. His best finish came last March when he started 14th and finished the 267-lap race in 15th.
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• In 10 Cup Series starts on 1.5-mile non-drafting tracks, Hocevar has earned two top-10 finishes – a 10th-place effort at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth and a ninth-place result at Homestead-Miami Speedway, both during the 2024 season.
• Hocevar owns four NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts at Las Vegas with his last two starts being his best. He finished 13th in 2022 and returned a year later to finish seventh in the 2023 edition of the race.
• With four races complete on the 2025 season, Hocevar sits 18th in the driver point standings with one top-five finish – a second-place effort at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Carson Hocevar Quotes
Las Vegas will be the first true 1.5-mile intermediate track that the Cup Series will visit this season. How do you feel the team is progressing at this point and what do you expect this weekend?
“We’ve had a really good start to the season and I think we’ll see that continue at Las Vegas. We’ve had a lot of speed and it’s been really fun to be competitive early in the year. The mile-and-a-half tracks have always been some of my favorites. I feel like those are where I’ve had the most consistency so I’m eager to see where we end up during practice and qualifying.”

Atop the No. 77 Box – Crew Chief Luke Lambert

• Luke Lambert, crew chief of the No. 77 Delaware Life team for Spire Motorsports, has called 17 Cup Series races at LVMS resulting in one top-five and four top-10 showings. The most recent top-10 finish was a ninth-place effort in September 2020 with Chris Buescher.
• In three NASCAR Xfinity Series events at Las Vegas, Lambert never had a driver finish worse than third. In 2022, Lambert led Noah Gragson to runner-up finishes in both visits to LVMS.

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 Feb. 22, 2025, when Kyle Busch took the checkered flag in the Fr8 208 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

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.