Spire Motorsports Jack Link’s 500 Race Advance

• In 22 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Spire Motorsports has logged one top-five, two top-10 and seven top-15 finishes. Corey LaJoie earned a team-best fourth-place result in the Cup Series’ October 2023 visit to the 2.66-mile superspeedway. Spire Motorsports fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet ZL1s in the Cup Series for Justin Haley, Michael McDowell and Carson Hocevar, respectively.
• The Jack Link’s 500 from Talladega Superspeedway will be televised live on FOX Sunday, April 27, beginning at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The 10th of 36 points-paying races on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. NASCAR Raceday will take the green flag on FS1 at 1:30 p.m. EDT and transition to FOX at 2 p.m.

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

• Justin Haley will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
• Haley made his first start in NASCAR’s premier division for Spire Motorsports at Talladega Superspeedway on April 28, 2019 – his 20th birthday. Sunday will mark Haley’s 154th career NASCAR Cup Series start. Over the course of the last seven seasons, the 25-year-old racer has notched one win, five top fives, 17 top 10s and 103 laps led.
• Last time out at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, the Winamac, Ind., native qualified 10th and showed speed from the drop of the green flag, powering to the second position by Lap 45. Haley maintained top-five track position throughout the first two stages and managed his equipment the remainder of the afternoon to finish 13th.
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• Haley has recorded 10 previous Cup Series starts at Talladega, owning a career-best sixth-place finish in October 2023. In total, he’s collected two top-10 finishes, paced the field for 13 circuits and has finished within the top 20 in all but three of his 10 appearances.
• In Xfinity Series competition, Haley claimed two victories at the 2.66-mile Alabama oval, including his first victory in the series in June 2020. He went on to sweep the series’ events at the track by taking the checkered flag later that October. In total, Haley has logged five Talladega starts including one pole, two top fives and five top 10s while recording an average starting position of 5.4 and a 4.6 average finish.
• Haley also visited Talladega victory lane in May 2017 with the ARCA Menards Series. He held off several competitors during a one-lap overtime shootout to claim his second victory in the series, and first on asphalt.
• Haley secured his first Cup Series win in the 2019 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, another superspeedway. He picked up both his and the team’s first win – an upset of practically unprecedented proportions – behind the wheel of the No. 77 Chevrolet.
• The veteran racer has collected four NASCAR Xfinity Series checkered flags and three NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series wins, making him one of just 41 drivers in history to have earned victories across all three of NASCAR’s National Touring Series.
• In total, Haley has made 50 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. In his second appearance amidst his return to Spire Motorsports at Talladega last October, Haley earned a seventh-place result, his first top 10 with the team since the 2021 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona.

Justin Haley Quote
You’ve seen plenty of success at Talladega. What do you need to get the job done this weekend?
“We need to qualify fast, stay up front and hope for the best. But, you can’t be too far up front because you have to save fuel. It’s honestly more mind games than it’s ever been. There is a balance of frustration and challenges. Winning it would be rewarding because you did everything right. That’s the goal.”

Atop the No. 7 Box – Crew Chief Rodney Childers

• Crew Chief Rodney Childers has called 36 races at Talladega Superspeedway. Childers-prepared cars have led 198 laps and earned four top-five and 12 top-10 finishes at the track.
• The Mooresville, N.C., native has called 684 NASCAR Cup Series races where he’s earned 34 pole awards, 40 wins, 178 top-five and 298 top-10 finishes. He also clinched 2014 championship honors with Harvick.
• Childers’ 40 wins at NASCAR’s premier level are second-most amongst all crew chiefs in the Cup Series garage.

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

• Michael McDowell will be behind the wheel of Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 GUNK Chevrolet ZL1 for Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
• McDowell owns three top-five and four top-10 finishes at Talladega, highlighted by a pair of third-place results in May 2021 and October 2022.
• During the 2024 campaign, the 40-year-old earned two of his five pole awards on the season in the pair of Talladega events and led a combined 78 laps. Unfortunately, he was involved in late-race incidents in both races, removing him from contention.
• The No. 71 Chevrolet will host a bright orange-and-blue GUNK livery for this weekend’s contest at Talladega. The Engine Degreaser will serve as the primary partner with their tagline “We Like It Dirty” featured on the TV panel.
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• The 2021 Daytona 500 Champion owns three top-five and eight top-10 finishes, including his victory in the 63rd edition of the “Great American Race,” at Daytona.
• McDowell has claimed two Xfinity Fastest Lap awards, clocking the fastest lap in the Daytona 500 and again last month at Phoenix Raceway. McDowell and A.J. Allmendinger stand as the only drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series to have secured multiple bonus points through the recently-unveiled program.
• The Arizona native secured Spire Motorsports’ first Busch Light Pole Award last month at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. His 28.833 second lap marks the fastest lap in the Gen 7 era (2022-present) at the 1.5-mile Nevada oval.

Michael McDowell Quotes
What have you learned about the challenges of winning at a superspeedway in your last handful of starts?
“You only get one move and you’re only one bad block away. We were fast, and last year I could obviously see the checkered flag, but I didn’t get there. We have a lot of confidence going into Talladega. I’ve been in position to win those races, and I’ve finished second, third and fourth, but we have been close to seeing that that checkered flag. I enjoy the challenge of going there and putting yourself in position to fight for the win on the last lap. Hopefully we’ll have another opportunity to do it again. You always learn what you could have done differently, how you would approach that differently and whether you think you’re right or wrong. It doesn’t matter, we didn’t win. If you didn’t win, you didn’t do it right. You always go back and analyze how you would do it differently, how you could make better choices and what led to those choices. We feel confident going back there and look forward to having a shot at it.”

Atop the No. 71 Box – Crew Chief Travis Peterson

• As a race engineer at JR Motorsports, Travis Peterson helped Regan Smith to Talladega Victory Lane in the 2013 NASCAR Xfinity Series event. Smith survived late-race carnage to preserve the lead in a three-wide finish, narrowly edging Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne.
• The West Bend, Wis., native earned his first Cup Series victory at the track in May 2015 as a race engineer at Hendrick Motorsports, working alongside crew chief Greg Ives and driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr., on the No. 88 team. After qualifying fourth, Earnhardt, Jr., led 67 laps en route to his antepenultimate Cup Series win.
• The 33-year-old helped McDowell to pole awards in both 2024 Talladega events.

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

• Carson Hocevar will make his fourth NASCAR Cup Series start at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500. The Portage, Mich., native’s venue-best finish came last October in a 14th-place effort.
• Chili’s Grill & Bar is back on the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet ZL1 for their second of three consecutive appearances. Hocevar piloted the western-themed Ride The ‘Dente machine two weeks ago at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. After qualifying ninth for the 500-lap event, he picked up bonus points in the first two stages and was on track for a top-five finish before a slow pit stop late in the Final Stage put him a lap down to the leaders. The race concluded with a long green-flag run, resulting in an 11th-place finish for the No. 77 team.
• With nine Cup Series starts on drafting-style tracks, the 2024 Cup Series Rookie of the Year owns one top-five, one top-10 and six top-20 finishes.
• Hocevar owns three NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts at Talladega with a best-finish of 11th earned in October 2023. In total, he has nine Truck Series starts on drafting-style tracks highlighted by two top-10 finishes at Daytona International Speedway in 2021 and 2023.
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Carson Hocevar Quotes
The last time the Cup Series visited a drafting track, you left Atlanta with a runner-up finish and a change of view on your approach to superspeedways. Explain what changed between the first race at Daytona and the second at Atlanta, and how that applies at Talladega.
“I’ve just never been a fan of superspeedways and drafting. That type of racing isn’t something I enjoyed, up until this year. Even at Daytona, my approach was stay out of trouble and hope to be there at the end when everyone else starts wrecking. That didn’t really work out for us and we ended up not finishing the race. Then at Atlanta, I decided I was just going to race as hard as I could and get as many points as I could. I don’t know if that will always work. These tracks are so different and Talladega is different from Daytona. It really just comes down to what the racing is like that day and how well your car is handling in the draft. I’d love to say we’re going to get stage points and battle for a win, and I hope that is the case. This type of racing is just so unpredictable and you never know what you’re going to get until you’re there.”

Atop the No. 77 Box – Crew Chief Luke Lambert

• Crew chief Luke Lambert has called 23 Cup Series races at Talladega resulting in four top-fives and eight top-10 finishes. In total, Lambert has led his drivers to 18 top-10 finishes on drafting-style tracks.
• In April 2023, the Mount Airy, N.C., native led Noah Gragson to a NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Talladega in April 2023. The result marked Lambert’s lone victory and third top 10 in three races atop the box at the 2.66-mile superspeedway in Xfinity Series competition.

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 March 21, 2025, when Kyle Larson took the checkered flag in the Baptist Health 200 at Homestead-Miami 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.