Spire Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series Martinsville Race Advance

• In 28 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, Spire Motorsports has logged four top-20 finishes. Michael McDowell owns the team’s best finish, a 12th-place effort earned in March 2025. Spire Motorsports fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s in the Cup Series with Daniel Suarez, McDowell and Carson Hocevar, respectively.
• The 400-lap NASCAR Cup Series race from Martinsville Speedway will be televised live on FS1 Sunday, March 29 beginning at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The seventh of 36 points-paying races on the 2026 Cup Series calendar will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Daniel Suárez – Driver, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• Daniel Suárez will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Group1001 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
• The Monterrey, Mexico native has made 18 starts at Martinsville, earning two top-10 and six top-20 results with 20 laps led at the .526-mile layout.
• Group 1001 proudly celebrates Women’s History Month in March, recognizing women’s invaluable contributions throughout history. Each participating employee’s name will be featured on the Group 1001 Chevy this weekend. 671 female employees at Group1001 will be displayed on the hood of Suárez’s machine.
• Last year at Martinsville, Suárez finished 21st in the Spring race and returned in October to pick up a 22nd-place result.
• Suárez has made four NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts at Martinsville, earning two top 10s and four top 20s. He recorded his venue-best CRAFTSMAN Truck Series result at Virginia half-mile with a pair of sixth-place finishes in March 2015 and October 2016.
• Last Sunday at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Suárez earned his second top-10 finish of the 2026 season and his best finish (seventh) in 17 Darlington starts in NASCAR’s premier division.
• The two-time NASCAR Cup Series winner sits 14th in the driver standings after the first six races of the season.

Daniel Suárez Quote
Coming off your second top 10 of the season, how are you feeling heading into Martinsville?
“I am so proud of this No. 7 Spire Motorsports team. We are bringing really fast cars to the track, and I am super excited to keep the momentum going and to keep building off what we have done in the past six weeks. Martinsville is a place that I love, but in the past few years, it’s been very bad for me. I’m looking forward to working with my group of guys and hopefully, I can turn my numbers around there.”

Atop the No. 7 Box – Crew Chief Ryan Sparks

• Ryan Sparks has called 208 NASCAR Cup Series races, earning five top-five and 12 top-10 finishes since making his Cup Series debut atop the pit box in 2020.
• The veteran crew chief led Suárez to his second top-10 finish at Darlington in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 following a top-five result at Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this season.
• The Winston-Salem, N.C., native’s best finish calling a Cup Series race at Martinsville came in June 2020, when he earned an 18th-place finish with former Spire Motorsports driver Corey LaJoie.
• Sparks joined Spire Motorsports in 2021, where he served as both Crew Chief and Competition Director, leading the organization’s competitive and technical efforts. In 2026, Sparks serves in a singular role as crew chief for Daniel Suárez.
• Sparks brings more than a decade of experience across all three national series, highlighted by 13 seasons at Richard Childress Racing and contributions to title-winning campaigns in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (2011) and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (2013).

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

• Michael McDowell will pilot the No. 71 Delaware Life Women’s History Month Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway. Delaware Life will celebrate Women’s History Month this weekend, proudly displaying the name of all the women employed by Delaware Life.
• McDowell made his first career NASCAR Cup Series start at a snowy Martinsville Speedway on March 30, 2008, over 6,500 days ago, for the now defunct Michael Waltrip Racing.
• Not only did he make his Cup Series debut at Martinsville Speedway, but McDowell also made his NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series debut at the Ridgeway, Va., oval. In October 2007, he qualified 29th and ran 181 of the possible 200 laps before being collected in a late-race incident, leaving him 31st in the final rundown.
• Across 30 starts at the famed half-mile, the veteran racer has earned two top-15, and six top-20 finishes on NASCAR’s senior circuit. He earned his career best Martinsville finish when he qualified 15th and finished 12th in last spring’s 400-lap contest.
• In the Cup Series’ most recent visit to Martinsville, McDowell’s Travis Peterson-led team qualified 11th and led five laps but fell off the pace during the late goings and were left with a 24th-place result at penultimate race of the 2025 season.
• Last weekend, McDowell qualified 20th and finished 20th in the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway.
• Across the first six races of season, the 2021 Daytona 500 Champion currently sits 17th in points. McDowell has earned one top five, two top 10s and led 15 laps with 30 races remaining on the 2026 calendar.
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Michael McDowell Quote
What makes Martinsville so special, and what have you learned since your first start there?
“Martinsville is one of those tracks where I feel like if I can win there, I’ve truly arrived as a Cup Series driver. It’s such a unique and technical place, and short-track racing isn’t something I grew up doing like a lot of these guys. You’re beating and banging all race long, and you have to keep your guard up the whole race. It’s also a track with a lot of history for me since that’s where I made my first Cup Series start. It’s a tough place to get around with how high the intensity is. You don’t get much time to catch your breath and reset. We’ve been able to find a good groove in practice and qualifying, but the smallest mistake can ruin your day. Hopefully, we can continue to build on that speed and put together a complete weekend at Martinsville.”

Atop the No. 71 Box – Crew Chief Travis Peterson

• Travis Peterson served as race engineer for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s fourth-place Martinsville finish in November 2015 for Hendrick Motorsports and was part of Earnhardt’s three-win Cup Series team that season.
• The 34-year-old contributed to several victories during his tenure at RFK Racing, Hendrick Motorsports and JR Motorsports and played a key role in Chase Elliott’s 2014 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship.
• The duo of Peterson and McDowell secured a venue-best 12th-place finish in last March’s race at Martinsville.
• Across 119 starts serving in the crew chief role, Peterson has called eight poles, one win, eight top-five and 25 top-10 finishes.
• 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.

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

• Carson Hocevar will race Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 Chili’s Ride the ‘Dente Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Sunday’s 400-lap event at Martinsville Speedway, marking his sixth start in NASCAR’s premier division at the legendary half-mile oval.
• It’s time to Ride the ‘DenteTM … Again’te! After debuting last month at Circuit of the Americas, just to be set aside while the No. 77 Chili’s Camaro featured a Nudie Cohn-inspired design at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a 1981 Dale Earnhardt, Sr., “Marg Machine” throwback at Darlington Raceway, the black, white and red Chili’s® Grill & Bar design returns this weekend. The livery features pepper vines crawling across the top and sides, a homage to Chili’s founder Larry Lavine and the fashion sense he displayed in the early days of the 50-year-old restaurant brand.
• The No. 77 team is currently 13th in the NASCAR Cup Series championship point standings, thanks in part to a collection of 23 stage points through the first six points-paying races of the year. Hocevar was also awarded nine points for a second-place finish in the America 250 Florida Duel at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
• Last week at Darlington Raceway, Hocevar was forced to start at the tail of the field following right-rear suspension repairs Sunday morning, which stemmed from an incident in Saturday afternoon’s practice session. Despite falling one lap down to the leaders in Stage 1, Hocevar kept his head down, worked his way through the field and restarted the final 100-lap segment 19th in the running order. After a spirited charge through the field, the 23-year-old passed seven cars over the final 25 laps to secure an impressive fourth-place finish. He gained 32 positions from the drop of the green flag to be named the “hard charger” of the day, earning the best result for the Chevrolet camp and leading the field with 128 green-flag passes.
• Last spring at Martinsville Speedway, the 2024 Cup Series Rookie of the Year finished 17th, his best result in five Cup Series races at the famed venue.
• Hocevar has competed in 15 short track events in NASCAR’s premier division, collecting three top-10 finishes. His seventh-place finish at Bristol last September is a career-best effort on short tracks.
• In CRAFTSMAN Truck Series competition, Hocevar owns four previous starts at Martinsville, earning a venue-best 12th-place finish in October 2021. He won at another Virginia short track, Richmond Raceway, in 2023 while competing full time in the series for Niece Motorsports.
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Carson Hocevar Quotes
How does a day like you had at Darlington boost your confidence heading into Martinsville?
“I’m just glad we positioned ourselves for a good qualifying metric for Martinsville. We normally really struggle at Martinsville, but I think we can take good advantage of the good qualifying draw and set ourselves up for a good day. We need to continue to stack these kinds of finishes. It will be very important as we head down the stretch of the schedule into the summer.”

We are coming into the third short-track race of the year with the higher horsepower and lower downforce package. Do you believe it has been playing to your advantage?
“We were super-fast at Bowman Gray, and had a good speed at Phoenix, but we just haven’t gotten a hold on Martinsville. The guys have been working hard at it, and our cars are getting better. I think you will see comers and goers like we did last week at Darlington, and think if things play out right, we can roll late in the final run.”

Atop the No. 77 Box – Crew Chief Luke Lambert

• Crew chief Luke Lambert enters his third season at Spire Motorsports and fourth with Carson Hocevar. The duo has logged one pole award, five top-five and 17 top-10 finishes in 86 races together.
• The 16-year veteran crew chief has called 25 NASCAR Cup Series events at Martinsville, earning one top five and six top 10s, highlighted by a third-place finish in November 2014 with Ryan Newman. He tacks on another third-place result at the half-mile speedway in March 2008 as a race engineer for Jeff Burton.

About Spire Motorsports …
Spire Motorsports fields full-time entries in the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series and Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing.

The team, co-owned by longtime NASCAR industry executive Jeff Dickerson and TWG Motorsports CEO Dan Towriss, 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. 21, 2026, when Kyle Busch took the checkered flag in the Fr8 Racing 208 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

In 2026, Spire Motorsports will campaign the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s in the NASCAR Cup Series and the Nos. 7 and 77 Chevrolet Silverado RSTs in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. The Mooresville, N.C., organization will also field the No. 77 410 sprint car in Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing competition.