Spire Motorsports Brickyard 400 presented by PPG Race Advance

• In five NASCAR Cup Series starts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), Spire Motorsports has logged top-15 two and four top-20 finishes. Carson Hocevar earned a team-best 12th-place finish in last year’s Brickyard 400. Spire Motorsports fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet ZL1s in the Cup Series for Justin Haley, Michael McDowell and Hocevar, respectively.
• The Brickyard 400 presented by PPG will be televised live on TNT and streamed on Max, Sunday, July 27 beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The 21st of 36 points-paying races on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series calendar will be broadcast live on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio 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/TEDSports Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• Last season, in his lone Cup Series start at the famed 2.5-mile Indianapolis oval, Haley started 35th and raced his way to a respectable 20th-place finish. He posted a spirited fifth-place finish during the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ 2019 100-lapper.
• TEDSports Indianapolis, TED’s inaugural event dedicated to the transformative power of sports, will partner with Gainbridge to serve as co-primary sponsors aboard Justin Haley’s No. 7 Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• TED is a nonprofit dedicated to discovering, debating and spreading ideas that spark conversation, deepen understanding and drive meaningful change. The first-of-its-kind global confluence of athletes, innovators, scientists, creatives, and change-makers will convene Sept. 9-11, 2025 at the historic Old National Centre in downtown Indianapolis to explore how sports intersect with technology, culture, health, and social impact. The event will be held in partnership with the Indiana Sports Corp and Next Practice Partners.
• While many drivers, native to the Hoosier State, pursue careers in the open wheel ranks, Haley was drawn to stock cars and made his mark on the national stage in his early teens. After making his maiden ARCA Menards Series start in May 2014, he turned heads by recording his first pole position and top-three finish one race later. Haley earned four top 10s that season and would secure his first win two seasons later in just his 13th start on the ARCA national tour. Haley made six CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts from 2015-2016, before joining the series full-time in 2017, following his 18th birthday. He notched the first of three 2018 wins in June at World Wide Technology Raceway and went on to visit Victory Lane later that season at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Texas Motor Speedway prior to finishing the season third in points.
• He shifted his full-time focus to the Xfinity Series in 2019, where he’s earned four wins, 24 top-five and 69 top-10 finishes. He further cemented his pedigree with a 2019 NASCAR Cup Series win at Daytona International Speedway.
• The 26-year-old racer earned one top-10 and five top-15 finishes this season and is coming off a 17th-place effort in the division’s most recent stop at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway.
• Founded in 2018, Gainbridge® is an insurtech subsidiary of Group 1001 that empowers consumers to take control of their financial future with solutions that are accessible to everyone, no matter their budget or financial knowledge. Its platform provides access to financial products that are simple, intuitive, and backed by smart technology with no complexity or hidden fees. Gainbridge® is headquartered in Zionsville, Ind. For more information, visit www.gainbridge.io or follow and connect with us on X and LinkedIn.
• Haley is one of just 41 drivers to have won in all three of NASCAR’s National Touring Series, collecting four Xfinity Series wins and three in the Truck Series.
• The Indiana native is a veteran of 165 Cup Series starts and has notched one win, five top fives, 16 top 10s and led 103 laps in NASCAR’s premier division.
• In total, Haley has made 64 Cup Series starts for Spire Motorsports, including his first start in NASCAR’s premier division at Talladega Superspeedway on his 20th birthday.

Justin Haley Quote
What makes racing at Indianapolis so meaningful to you?
“I’m looking forward to racing in my home state this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’s always great going back to Indianapolis. Track position is always at a premium at Indianapolis because it’s so tough to pass. We’ve got a really cool paint scheme so that’s another piece I’m looking forward to. It’s always fun when our partners do something unique and explore non-traditional ways to activate their sponsorships. Gainbridge and Group 1001 are always on the leading edge when it comes to thinking outside the box and innovating across multiple sports platforms. Racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is always special but, for a kid from Indiana, being able to represent Gainbridge and TEDSports Indianapolis is a big deal. Our entire team is looking forward to the weekend and eager for the opportunity to make everyone proud.”

Atop the No. 7 Box – Crew Chief Ryan Sparks

• Ryan Sparks serves in a dual role as both Spire Motorsports Competition Director and crew chief for driver Justin Haley and was first paired with Haley at Bristol Motor Speedway in September 2024.
• The Winston Salem, N.C., native has called 189 NASCAR Cup Series races where he’s earned three top-five and nine top-10 finishes.
• In total, Sparks has called two Indianapolis Motor Speedway races, where he earned a venue-best 14th-place finish last season with Corey LaJoie at the controls.

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

• Michael McDowell will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 Delaware Life Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS).
• McDowell has a dozen starts at the world-renowned “yard of bricks” where he earned a venue-best seventh-place finish in 2020. He qualified eighth and finished 16th in last year’s return to track’s traditional two-and-a-half mile oval configuration.
• In three previous starts on the venue’s 2.439-mile grand prix circuit, McDowell secured one win, and two top-10 finishes. The two-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner started fourth in the 2023 Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, led 54 laps and went on to win the race by a slim .93-second margin.
• Last weekend at Dover Motor Speedway, McDowell started seventh and earned a solid 13th-place finish. The top-15 effort marled his best finihs in NASCAR Cup Series competiton and the daunting one-mile oval.
• Group 1001, parent company of Delaware Life and Gainbridge, calls Zionville, Ind. home with its headquarters located less than 15 miles away from IMS.
• The No. 71 team earned a $100,000 payday and a trip to Victory Lane after winning the Mechanix Wear Pit Crew Challenge during May’s NASCAR All-Star Weekend at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. The crew’s blazing 12.587-second stop topped all entries for both the NASCAR All-Star Open and NASCAR All-Star Race, earning the title of the fastest team on pit road.
• The 40-year-old has claimed three Xfinity Fastest Lap awards this season, clocking the fastest lap in the Daytona 500, Phoenix Raceway and Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
• The No. 71 team secured Spire Motorsports’ first Busch Light Pole Award at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March. The 28.833-second lap marks the fastest lap in NASCAR’s seventh-generation Cup Series car (2022-present) at the 1.5-mile Nevada oval. The team is also credited with securing Spire Motorsports’ first stage win three weekends ago in the Grant Park 165 contest on the streets of downtown Chicago.

Michael McDowell Quote
You’ve won on the road course at Indianapolis, but you’re still in search of the elusive victory on the oval. How much would it mean to you as a driver to win on the traditional layout?
“It would be unbelievable. It’s hard to put into words. I’m a traditionalist when it comes to motorsports history and crown jewels, and I’m so thankful to have won at Indianapolis. There’s nothing cooler than kissing the bricks. I’ll cherish that moment forever with my family. But to me, that’s not a Brickyard win. We won on the road course — the Indy Road Course — which is awesome. But it’s not the Indy 500 and it’s not the Brickyard 400. You can only win those races on the oval. That’s a separate piece of history. A separate win. Separate everything. It’s like the Southern 500, Bristol Night Race, and Coca-Cola 600. It’s a crown jewel that we haven’t won yet — even though we’ve won at Indianapolis.

It’d be super important and awesome. I came into this sport as a road racer. Nobody really knew that, but I knew it would be my strength. It took a long time for it to actually be my strength. A lot of that was equipment. In my mind, I always said if I could win at Bristol or Martinsville — a place like that — that would really stamp my mark as a NASCAR guy. Not the road courses or superspeedways. I still haven’t done that. The Gateway pole — last year or maybe the year before — was one of those cool moments. Then we got a pole at Las Vegas this year. That was awesome, too. Now that I’m in cars with more speed and opportunities, those feel like real chances to add to that list of crown jewels. So, I’m excited about that potential and continuing to try to add wins and do it at some of those iconic places.”

Atop the No. 71 Box – Crew Chief Travis Peterson

• Crew chief Travis Peterson called his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory with Michael McDowell during the 2023 Verizon 200 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The duo started fourth and led 54 laps before earning their first win as a driver-crew chief tandem.
• Prior to his win with McDowell in 2023, West Bend, Wisc., native earned back-to-back top-10 finishes at IMS as a race engineer for Ryan Newman (2021) and as crew chief for Chris Buescher (2022) on the Grand Prix Circuit during his time with RFK Racing.

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

• Carson Hocevar is set to make his second NASCAR Cup Series start at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 presented by PPG. The driver of the No. 77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet finished 12th in his 2024 debut at the 2.5-mile oval.
• Hocevar has made two NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in Indianapolis where he earned a fourth-place result in 2023. He also made two ARCA Menards Series starts at LOIRP resulting in a fifth- and ninth-place finish in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
• The Portage, Mich., native began his racing career at nine-years-old. He traveled the country racing USAC quarter midgets at venues like Indianapolis where he won the Battle at the Brickyard in multiple divisions. Hocevar holds the USAC quarter midget win record with 79 victories and 16 national championships.
• In last weekend’s race at Dover Motor Speedway, Hocevar started 33rd after qualifying was rained out. He led eight laps and was holding strong in the top 15 before making contact with the wall during Stage 2. Despite returning to the track after lengthy repairs, Hocevar retired to the garage on Lap 360 and was credited with a 35th-place result.

Carson Hocevar Quote
Indianapolis is an iconic venue across all forms of motorsports. What does it mean to you to get to race at The Brickyard?
“I just love everything about Indy. I’ve raced quarter midgets in the parking lot, right behind the suites and, I’ve won there a few times. I think it’d be super cool to be the first to win the quarter midget race and the Cup race. And then if I can do that, maybe try the Indy 500 and the BC39. I just love that track so much. I want to win every race that runs there, even the Xfinity Series race. I want to sweep them all there at some point in my career. It’s always been one of my favorite tracks to think about, dream about. The feeling you get when you roll into that place is really hard to describe. It’s iconic. But it’s also a very difficult track and can lead to a lot of frustration. I remember the first 10 laps of practice last year, we were first in 10-lap average, and I think it was just because I was the only one out there pretending I was running the final 10 laps of the Indy 500. I was just sitting there smiling the whole time, almost touching the wall on exit. You know, just being me, being aggressive. I was having a lot of fun out there which is sometimes rare. It can be hard to get out of that competitive mindset and just go have fun, but it’s really easy to do at Indy because it’s one of those places that I dreamed of racing at and now I’m there.”

Atop the No. 77 Box – Crew Chief Luke Lambert

• Luke Lambert has called eleven Cup Series races from atop the box at Indianapolis, nine of those being the Brickyard 400 on the oval. His best finish came in 2017, a third-place finish with Ryan Newman.
• The Mount Airy, N.C., native has also called 425 Cup Series race with 65 of those coming with Carson Hocevar at Spire Motorsports.

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 May 30, 2025, when Rajah Caruth took the checkered flag in the Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway.

In 2025, Spire Motorsports campaigns the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolets in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team also fields 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.