Spire Motorsports Würth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY Race Advance

• In 16 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS), Spire Motorsports has logged one top 10, five top 20s and one pole award. Carson Hocevar owns the team’s best finish, a 10th-place effort earned in April 2024. Spire Motorsports fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s in the Cup Series with Daniel Suarez, Michael McDowell and Hocevar, respectively.
• The Würth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY will be televised live on FS1 Sunday, May 3 beginning at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The 11th of 36 points-paying races on the 2026 Cup Series calendar will be broadcast live on the Performance 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 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Sunday’s Würth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY at Texas Motor Speedway.
• Across 13 previous Cup Series starts at Texas, the Monterrey, Mexico native, has earned three top-five, six top-10 and nine top-20 results with 35 laps led. He’s finished in the top 15 in each of the last five races. He carries an average starting position of 16.6 and a 14.7 finishing position at the 1.5-mile oval. His series/venue best came in 2019, where he finished third in both races that year.
• The 34-year-old driver qualified 25th last spring and came home with a respectable 10th-place finish.
• Out of Suárez’s 333 Cup Series starts, 160 have come on tracks measuring one mile or longer. In those races, he’s delivered one win (Atlanta 2024), 11 top-five finishes and 38 top 10s, while leading 388 laps. This season, his performance on those speedways includes an average finishing position of 15.8.
• Last week at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Suárez started 16th and despite sustaining damage during the race’s second stage, rallied to notch a workman-like 12th-place finish.
• In NASCAR O’Reily Auto Parts Series action, Suárez has five starts at TMS where he’s notched one top five, two top 10s and led three laps. His best result came in the 2016 O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge where he finished fifth.
• After 10 races, Suárez sits 14th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings after gaining two positions following Talladega. The two-time Cup Series winner has one top five, two top 10s and is averaging a 16.1 finish—four positions better than this time last season.
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Daniel Suárez Quote
What do you like about Texas Motor Speedway and what is going to be a challenge for you?
“Texas is definitely a good racetrack, It’s very fast. It gets tricky in Turns 1 and 2 because Turns 3 and 4 are so much different with the banking and load. Sometimes you have to make a compromise in one of the corners to be fast. It’s impossible to be perfect in both turns, so it’s going to be tricky, but good. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve had some success there in the past and I’m looking to carry that on with the No. 7 team.”

Atop the No. 7 Box – Crew Chief Ryan Sparks

• Ryan Sparks has called 212 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 Winston-Salem, N.C., native’s best finish at Texas came in September 2022, where he earned a 14th-place finish with former driver Corey LaJoie.
• Sparks led Suárez to a top-10 finish at Darlington Raceway and a top-five result at Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this season.
• 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 Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 Modo Casino Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s Würth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY at Texas Motor Speedway.
• In 27 NASCAR Cup Series starts at the high-speed, 1.5-mile oval, McDowell has logged a 25.6 average start and a 28.6 average finish. Over his last five starts, he has earned an average starting position of 12.75 and a 20.8 average finish.
• McDowell has led 37 laps at TMS with 31 coming over his last four starts. Last season, he paced the field for 19 laps after tying his venue-best qualifying effort of fifth for the 271-lap contest. Contact with the backstretch wall while battling for the top spot in the late goings forced the No. 71 team to retire seven laps shy the checkered flag.
• Last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, McDowell was collected in a two-car incident as the result of a fellow competitor’s tire failure and was ultimately credited with a 32nd-place finish.
• Ten races into the season, the 41-year-old driver has paced the field for a total of 15 laps and collected one top-five, two top-10 and five top-20 finishes. McDowell sits 23rd in points with 26 races remaining on the 2026 schedule.
• Modo Casino returns to McDowell’s No. 71 Chevy this weekend, sporting a patriotic-themed livery, while proudly showcasing the iconic Texas Lone Star on the hood.
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• In addition to the support of Modo Casino, the No. 71 will add NEFCO as an associate sponsor this weekend. The tool supply company will continue its support of the No. 71 machine with nine more associate placements this season and serve as McDowell’s primary partner for the 2026 Brickyard 400 on the hallowed grounds of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Michael McDowell Quote
How have the challenges developed at Texas Motor Speedway over the years?
“The bump in Turn 4 on the high side is a big challenge, especially during restarts. It took us out in 2024 so you just need to be aware of how you hit that bump. The track is very fast paced and can be intimidating to this day, even as it ages, because the speeds are so high and these cars are right on the razor edge. Now, you have some of that character with those bumps, and our cars are so low that when you bottom out, they can take off on you. I wasn’t the only car to back it into the fence there while trying to get clear in the past few years. You have to hit it just right in Turn 4. We saw a few other guys do that recently, as well. Traditionally, Cup guys don’t make a ton of mistakes, but we have seen a lot of hiccups at Texas. I think it really proves how challenging this track is. It’s still one of those places that can take your breath away.”

Atop the No. 71 Box – Crew Chief Travis Peterson

• Across three Cup Series races at Texas Motor Speedway, crew chief Travis Peterson has led McDowell to an average start of 11.7 paired with an average finish of 25.3.
• As a race engineer at JR Motorsports, Peterson played a key role in Chase Elliott’s 2014 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win. After qualifying sixth, the team led 38 of 200 laps en route to Elliott’s first of three wins during his rookie season.
• Prior to his time as a crew chief, the 34-year-old worked as a race engineer for Dale Earnhardt Jr., at Hendrick Motorsports where he recorded an average finish of 4.0 across four NASCAR Cup Series starts, including a runner-up finish in 2016.

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

• Carson Hocevar will race Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 Spectrum Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Sunday’s Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway, one week removed from his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega Superspeedway.
• Hocevar survived a late-race restart with three laps remaining, and with help from his Chevrolet teammates, surged to capture his first checkered flag in NASCAR’s premier division. The hard day’s effort propelled the No. 77 team to eighth in the series’ championship point standings.
• The newly minted Cup Series winner is the 13th driver to earn his first-career victory at Talladega Superspeedway, and first since Bubba Wallace in 2021. Hocevar joins an elite list of drivers to secure their maiden win at Talladega including Ron Bouchard, Davey Allison, Ken Schrader and Brad Keselowski.
• Hocevar earned Spire Motorsports its second Cup Series win in team history, and first since capturing a weather-shortened Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway with Justin Haley in 2019.
• Through 10 races, Hocevar sits eighth in points, 13 markers out of seventh. His one win, three top fives, four top 10s, 292 points scored, average starting position of 11.0 and 14.0 average finish are all career highs through the first 10 points-paying races of the 2026 season. The team’s average starting and finishing position are each over seven positions better than this point in 2025.
• The 23-year-old Michigan native will compete in his fourth Cup Series start at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. Last season, he earned his first career pole position and became the youngest pole sitter in the track’s history. Hocevar led the first 22 laps and ran no worse than seventh until Lap 215 when the team made its final pit stop under green-flag conditions. Unfortunately, an untimely caution trapped him one lap down and was ultimately scored with a 24th-place result.
• Hocevar notched his first-career top-10 finish at the Fort Worth track in just his 19th start during his 2024 Rookie of the Year campaign.
• Aside from his NASCAR Cup Series duties, Hocevar will also pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 Chili’s Ride the ‘DenteTM Chevrolet Silverado RST in Friday evening’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 250.
• The five-time CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race winner captured his first checkered flag at Texas in April 2023. He capitalized on a late-race restart to claim the lead on the final lap and earn his inaugural victory in the series. In total, Hocevar has logged one win, two top fives and an 8.3 average finish in four starts at the venue.
• Hocevar will round out his busy weekend as the infield reporter for Saturday’s Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing Stockyard Stampede at the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track. Coverage of the event can be found on FloRacing.
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Carson Hocevar Quotes
Coming off you first win, how do you refocus on the task at hand this weekend?
“I feel good about it. Obviously, we were on the pole last year and had speed, and I won my first ever truck race there. We have a lot of momentum and excitement behind us right now, while we go into a track that it is realistic to be up front and contend all day. We have been looking forward to and circling Texas for a couple weeks, so what happened last weekend is really an added bonus.”

You won your first truck race, earned your first Cup Series top 10 and won your first Cup Series pole at Texas. Why has it been such a good track for you throughout your career?
“I don’t really know, it just works out. The two ends are different, which makes you keep thinking about the line you are going to run and how you will make it through the corner. It is a really fast place with a high grip levels, and on the Cup Series side, we really excel at tracks with similar characteristics. It has just been a good place for me and I look forward to going every year.”

Atop the No. 77 Box – Crew Chief Luke Lambert

• Crew chief Luke Lambert is in his third season at Spire Motorsports and fourth with driver Carson Hocevar. The duo has logged one win, one pole award, six top-five and 19 top-10 finishes in 90 races.
• Last weekend’s victory at Talladega marked Lambert’s second in NASCAR’s premier division and first since March 2017 with Ryan Newman at Phoenix Raceway. In total, he has been atop the box for 14 victories across NASCAR’s Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
• The 16-year veteran crew chief has called 21 NASCAR Cup Series races at Texas, where he’s earned one pole award and a pair of top-10 finishes (Newman, Nov. 2017; Hocevar, April 2024).
• As a race engineer at Richard Childress Racing, Lambert played a crucial part in Jeff Burton’s April 2007 victory at “The Great American Speedway.” Burton restarted fifth for the final 76-lap run to the checkered flag, reaching the runner-up spot with 14 laps remaining. He engaged in a spirited battle with leader Matt Kenseth before wrestling away the top spot on the final lap to secure his 19th career victory.
• The Mount Airy, N.C., native has been atop the war wagon for four NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races at Texas, earning three top-15 results including a victory with Noah Gragson in September 2022. The win marked the fourth of four consecutive series victories by the Lambert-Gragson duo (Darlington Raceway, Sept. 3; Kansas, Sept. 10; Bristol, Sept. 16; Texas Motor Speedway, Sept. 24).

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 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 April 7, 2022, at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The team’s most recent win came April 27, 2026, when Carson Hocevar earned his inaugural Cup Series win in the Jack Links 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

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.