Spire Motorsports eero 400 Race Advance

• The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., after a seven-year hiatus. Spire Motorsports has one previous start at the 1.5-mile oval dating to 2019, though Daniel Suárez and Michael McDowell have combined for 12 Cup starts at the track.
• The eero 400 from Chicagoland Speedway will be televised live on TNT Sunday, July 5 beginning at 6 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The 19th of 36 points-paying races on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series calendar will also 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 Modo Casino Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Sunday’s eero 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.
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• Suárez’s Modo Casino livery bursts with colorful sugar skull designs that celebrate Mexican heritage and brings a striking visual identity to the racetrack.
• The 2026 Coca-Cola 600 winner sits ninth in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with 484 points, trailing seventh place by just 25 points after Sonoma Raceway.
• The Monterrey, Mexico native has made three Cup Series starts at Chicagoland, where he’s earned two top-20 results and led one lap. He carries an average starting position of 17.0 and a 15.7 finishing position at the 1.5-mile oval. His series/venue best result came in 2018 when he finished 11th.
• Halfway through the 2026 season, Suárez is averaging a 14.6 finish, seven positions better than his average showing at this point last season.
• Last week at Sonoma, the final road course of the season, Suárez started 21st but handling issues and an unscheduled pit stop left him with a disappointing 31st-place finish.
• Out of Suárez’s 341 Cup Series starts, 163 have come on intermediate tracks, where he has consistently shown some of his strongest speeds. In those races, he has recorded two victories (Atlanta 2024/ Charlotte 2026), along with 12 top-five, 40 top-10 finishes and led 415 led. This season on intermediate tracks, he has posted finishes of fifth at Atlanta, 30th at Phoenix, 18th at Las Vegas, seventh at Darlington, 19th at Kansas and sixth at Texas.
• In his last start at Chicagoland in 2019, the 34-year-old driver qualified 28th and finished 24th.
• In NASCAR O’Reily Auto Parts Series competition, Suárez has recorded six starts at Chicagoland, earning two top fives, four top 10s and led 21 laps.
• The three-time NASCAR Cup Series winner is a veteran of 341 Cup Series starts and has notched three wins, 26 top fives and 80 top-10s in NASCAR’s premier division. Suárez has earned three poles and led 945 laps since making his series debut in 2017.
• Daniel Suárez Quotes
• Your last race at Chicagoland was seven years ago. What do you remember most about racing there and what do you think will be the biggest key to success when you return?
• “I’m excited to get back to Chicagoland. It’s a track where you have to stay patient because the race can change quickly over the course of a long run. Tire management is important, and you have to be willing to move around the racetrack to find grip as the conditions evolve. I feel like our team has done a good job this season of making our cars better throughout the race, and that’s something that can really pay off at a place like Chicagoland. The goal is to execute all day, avoid mistakes, and put ourselves in position to fight for a strong finish.”

Ryan Sparks – Crew Chief, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• Ryan Sparks is the crew chief for Spire Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and driver Daniel Suarez in the NASCAR Cup Series. Sparks has called 220 Cup Series races where he’s earned one win, six top-five and 15 top-10 finishes since calling his first race in NASCAR’s premier division in 2020.
• The Winston-Salem, N.C., native 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 Suárez.
• Sparks brings more than a decade of experience across all three of NASCAR’s national touring series, highlighted by 13 seasons at Richard Childress Racing and contributions to title-winning campaigns in the 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 Delaware Life/Veterans 1001 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Sunday’s eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.
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• McDowell owns nine starts at the Joliet, Ill., venue which returns to the Cup Series schedule for the first time since 2019. In the division’s most recent visit, the 2021 Daytona 500 Champion qualified seventh and finished 20th.The event marked McDowell’s best qualifying effort and finish at the suburban Chicago mile-and-a-half.
• Chicagoland will mark the second round of NASCAR’s annual In-Season Challenge, where McDowell will be matched against Chase Elliott.
• Last weekend at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, the 41-year-old driver qualified fourth, collected eight stage points and went on to earn his fifth top-10 finish of the 2026 season. Following his Sonoma result, McDowell earned back-to-back top 10s for the second time in 2026 after notching a 10th-place showing at Naval Base Coronado.
• After qualifying fourth last weekend, McDowell became tied for the highest average qualifying position on road courses in 2026 (5.25). Meanwhile, with all four road races in the rear view, Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 team earned a 6.5 average finish on road-course configurations this season.
• Across the last seven races, the 19-year Cup Series veteran holds an average finish of 13.2, while pacing the field two times for eight laps (Watkins Glen/Charlotte).
• After 19 points-paying races on the 2026 calendar, the father-of-five currently sits 21st in the Cup Series championship point standings. With eight races remaining before NASCAR’s playoff format begins in September at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, McDowell sits just 32 points below the cutline on the strength of two top-five and five top-10 finishes.
• McDowell has a pair of NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series starts at Chicagoland Speedway, where he earned a series/venue best 25th-place finish in 2009. In ARCA Menards Series competition, the Glendale, Ariz., native earned a trip to Victory Lane in 2007, marking his third of four ARCA victories that year.

Michael McDowell Quote
Chicagoland is back on the schedule. What are you expecting to see?
“I have a lot of experience at Chicagoland. I did a good bit of testing there for other teams before I earned my first full-time season. I am fairly comfortable on track and it always puts on a great show. It will be really cool to see how this NextGen car handles on the track. We got some laps on the simulator to test a few things, but you never really know until you’re there. Our No. 71 team has started to build some momentum over the last few weeks. We’ve started to close the gap on playoff cutline. We have to maximize our day as best as possible to keep this momentum rolling.”

Travis Peterson – Crew Chief, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• Travis Peterson is the crew chief of Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the NASCAR Cup Series with driver Michael McDowell.
• Sunday’s eero 400 will mark Peterson’s first opportunity to call a NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.
• Peterson has called 131 races in NASCAR’s premier division where he’s led McDowell to one win, eight poles, nine top fives and 28 top 10s.
• In his previous role as a race engineer for Jr. Motorsports, the West Bend, Wis., native played a key role for driver Chase Elliott’s 2014 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chicagoland win. The victory was Elliott’s third of the season where he led 85 of 200 laps enroute to the division’s 2014 title.

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

• Carson Hocevar will race Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Sunday’s eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.
• Zeigler Automotive Group is one of the largest privately-owned dealer groups in the U.S. with 88 franchises across 41 locations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Vehicle brands represented include all the domestic and majority of the imported manufacturers. Besides its extensive automotive portfolio, the organization owns and operates Zeigler Motorsports, an 85,000-square-foot motorsports dealership and action park, offering 19 different powersports brands, plus its own onsite restaurant: Trak Houz Bar & Grill. Additionally, Zeigler Motorsports houses the Elevate Leadership & Team Building Academy, an executive training company. The Kalamazoo-based dealer group also owns three Byrider franchises, three finance companies, several insurance firms, and a leasing firm.
• Sunday marks Hocevar’s 100th NASCAR Cup Series start. He made his series debut at World Wide Technology Raceway in June 2023 in a fill-in role for Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Chevrolet, and has since amassed one win, two pole positions, seven top-five and 22 top-10 finishes while pacing the field for 238 laps.
• Just over one year ago, Hocevar documented a trip to Chicagoland Speedway on his YouTube channel. Now, the third-year Cup Series driver returns to the facility for the first time competitively in the series’ first event at Chicagoland in seven years.
• Last Sunday at Sonoma Raceway, the 2024 Cup Series Rookie of the Year earned his second consecutive front-row start with a second-place qualifying effort. Hocevar maintained top-15 track position most of the day, and after leaving pit road 18th during the final round of green-flag pit stops, raced his way to an 11th-place finish.
• After defeating Zane Smith in the opening round of this year’s In-Season Challenge last weekend, the 23-year-old driver turns his attention to Todd Gilliland in the Round of 16. He’s outperformed Gilliland in 12 races this season, as well as 53 of the 99 Cup Series races the two have competed head-to-head. He also holds the edge in 11 of 20 races on 1.5-mile tracks.
• Through 18 races, the Portage, Mich., native sits eighth in points, just nine markers out of seventh. His one win, four top fives, seven top 10s, 509 points scored, average starting position of 10.8 and 14.6 average finish are all career highs through the first 18 points-paying races of the season. The team’s average starting position has improved by over eight spots while its average finish is seven positions better compared to this point in 2025.
• The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year registered his first-career victory earlier this season at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. He survived a late-race restart with three laps remaining and brought home the checkered flag. Hocevar became the 13th driver to earn his inaugural series victory at Talladega, and registered Spire Motorsports’ first win since the 2019 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway with driver Justin Haley.

Carson Hocevar Quote
What are your thoughts heading into NASCAR’s return to Chicagoland Speedway?
“I’m excited to get out there. I haven’t gotten the opportunity to race at Chicagoland yet. The last time there was racing there, I was still a few weeks from my Truck Series debut. I have flown over the track so many times and was able to walk around inside last year after a Zeigler Auto Group event. Here we are just over a year later and we are loading up to race at Chicagoland. We tend to run well on the mile-and-a-half tracks and have had super-fast cars this year. I’m looking forward to the weekend. It should be fun.”

Luke Lambert – Crew Chief, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• Luke Lambert is the crew chief of Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the NASCAR Cup Series with driver Carson Hocevar.
• Lambert is in his third season at Spire Motorsports and fourth with Hocevar. The duo has logged two pole awards, one win, seven top-five and 22 top-10 finishes in 98 races.
• While Hocevar has yet to compete at Chicagoland Speedway, Lambert brings years of experience. In eight NASCAR Cup Series events at the 1.5-mile D-shaped oval, the Mount Airy, N.C., native earned a venue-best fourth-place finish in 2015 with driver Ryan Newman.
• The 16-year veteran crew chief led Elliott Sadler to NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Victory Lane at Chicagoland in the series’ first of two races at the facility in 2012. Sadler led 35 laps and survived a NASCAR Overtime restart to secure his third of four victories on the season.

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 its first NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series win April 7, 2022, at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The team’s most recent victory came May 24, 2026, when Daniel Suárez won the NASCAR Cup Series Series’ Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.

In 2026, Spire Motorsports campaigns 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 also fields the No. 77 410 sprint car in Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing competition.