Spire Motorsports Hollywood Casino 400 Race Advance

• In 25 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Kansas Speedway, Spire Motorsports has logged one top-10 and three top-20 finishes. Zane Smith earned a team-best 10th-place result at the Kansas City, Kan.-venue last June. Spire Motorsports fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet ZL1s with Justin Haley, Michael McDowell and Carson Hocevar, respectively.
• The Hollywood Casino 400 presented by ESPN Bet will be televised live on USA Sunday, Sept. 28 beginning at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The 31st of 36 points-paying events on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series calendar will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Channel 90.

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

• Justin Haley will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 NationsGuard Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan.
• In nine previous Cup Series starts at Kansas Speedway, dating to May 2021, Haley has earned three top-20 finishes and calls a pair of 18th-place efforts a series/venue career best. He has logged a 26.2 average start, a 27.1 average finish and has been running at the finish of all but two of those nine races.
• The 26-year-old has four NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Kansas Speedway where he posted two fourth-place finishes (October 2019 and 2021). He’s recorded a 9.8 average starting position, a 5.3 average finishing position, and has never finished worse than seventh on NASCAR’s junior circuit at the popular mile-and-a-half quad-oval.
• In CRAFTSMAN Truck Series competition at Kansas (2017–2018), Haley led four laps and recorded ninth- and 10th-place finishes, respectively. In his single ARCA Menards Series race at Kansas, he started fourth and finished sixth in October 2017.
• Last Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Haley started 21st but was collected in a multi-car incident on Lap 118. Following extensive repairs, he returned to the track multiple laps down to the leaders but soldiered home to a 33rd-place finish.
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• Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway will mark Haley’s 175th career NASCAR Cup Series start. Over the course of the last seven seasons, the 26-year-old has collected one win, six top five, 18 top 10s and led 123 laps. He made his first premier series start with Spire Motorsports at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in April 2019 and has since made 74 Cup Series starts with the team.

Justin Haley Quotes
You’ve had solid showings on intermediate tracks this year. How do you feel heading into Kansas this weekend?
“We’ve had lots of speed at the mile-and-a-half tracks this year and that’s credit to the team at Spire Motorsports and their remarkable attention to detail. I feel really comfortable at Kansas and we were fast in the Spring. Hopefully, we can get luck back on our side and have a good day.”

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. The potent duo was first paired together at Bristol Motor Speedway last September.
• The Winston-Salem, N.C., native has stood atop the pit box for 196 NASCAR Cup Series races, where he’s called four top-five and 10 top-10 finishes over six seasons.
• Sparks has called 11 previous Cup Series races at Kansas Speedway, where he’s earned two top-20 and six top-25 finishes.

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

• Michael McDowell will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 Gainbridge Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN Bet at Kansas Speedway.
• In 28 NASCAR Cup Series starts at the 1.5-mile tri-oval, McDowell has posted an average starting position of 24.8 and an average finish of 26.8. Over his last 11 starts, he has improved to a 16.5 average start, including four top-10 qualifying efforts, and a 20.0 average finish.
• The No. 71 Chevrolet will return to its black and yellow Gainbridge livery for Sunday’s 400 miler.
• McDowell’s front tire changer, Max Marsh, spent his college years playing football at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. Marsh earned varsity letters all four seasons, finding a home as the team’s backup safety and on special teams before shifting gears for his pit-road duties on NASCAR’s senior circuit.
• Last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, McDowell qualified 11th and earned his fourth top-10 finish of the season. It was his first career top-10 finish at the one-mile venue and first top 10 on a track measuring one mile or less this season.
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• McDowell qualified 11th for May’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway, a team/venue best at the Kansas City, Kan., racecourse for the No. 71 Gainbridge Chevrolet.
• The 18-year Cup Series veteran has claimed three Xfinity Fastest Lap awards this season, clocking the fastest lap in the Daytona 500, Phoenix Raceway and Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The team is one of just three in the series to tally three or more bonus points via the program.
• The No. 71 team secured Spire Motorsports’ first Busch Light Pole Award in March at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. McDowell’s 28.833-second lap marks the fastest lap recorded in NASCAR’s seventh-generation Cup Series car (2022-present) at the 1.5-mile Nevada oval. The team also earned Spire Motorsports’ first stage win during the Grant Park 165 on the streets of downtown Chicago.
• McDowell’s team earned a handsome $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 blistering 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.
• Michael McDowell Quote
• A lot of drivers refer to Kansas Speedway as the perfect 1.5-mile track, what makes it so versatile and dynamic?
• “I think it’s probably because it’s the easiest to get multiple lanes going, even Lap 1 in practice you can run the top there where you know places like Charlotte, Texas, and other 1.5-mile tracks, you don’t you have to build up to it. So, the track has multiple lanes, multiple grooves and that all comes together fairly early in the run. In general, Kansas seems to produce a pretty good race.
I’d mostly say because you can move around.”

Atop the No. 71 Box – Crew Chief Travis Peterson

Across five Cup Series races at Kansas Speedway, McDowell’s crew chief Travis Peterson has led his driver to a 14.0 average start paired with a 22.8 average finish.
As a race engineer at JR Motorsports, the West Bend, Wis., native played a key role in Regan Smith’s third-place result in 2013. After qualifying fifth, the team dominated the race and led 81 of the 200 laps en route to his seventh-of-eight top-five finishes during the 2013 season.
Prior to his time as a crew chief, the 33-year-old worked as a race engineer for Dale Earnhardt Jr., at Hendrick Motorsports where he played a key role in Earnhardt’s third-place result at Kansas Speedway in 2015.

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

• Carson Hocevar, driver of the Delaware Life Chevrolet ZL1 for Spire Motorsports, will make his fifth NASCAR Cup Series start in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 presented by ESPN Bet at Kansas Speedway.
• This May, Hocevar took the checkered flag in the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Heart of Health Care 200 at Kansas Speedway driving for the Brian Pattie-led No. 7 Spire Motorsports team. He led 75 of the event’s 134 laps and survived last-lap contact with another competitor to earn his fifth victory in the series and first aboard a Spire-prepared Chevy Silverado.
• The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year has a best finish of 20th in four prior Cup Series starts at Kansas.
• Hocevar owns six CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts at Kansas, including one win, two top fives and three top 10s. He’s led a total of 135 laps at the Kansas City, Kan., venue.
• In 18 starts on 1.5-mile tracks in NASCAR’s premier series, the Portage, Mich., native owns one top-five and three top-10 finishes. He has combined to lead 32 laps this season at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway and Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.
• Last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Hocevar registered a venue-best sixth-place qualifying effort. He spent a majority of the day racing inside the top five until handling issues during the race’s final segment left him with an 11th-place result. The finish marked his fourth-consecutive top 15.
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Carson Hocevar Quotes
You’ve expressed your excitement for this weekend’s race at Kansas Speedway. Given your team’s recent performance and your personal preference for mile-and-a-half tracks, what do you think will be key to success?
“I’ve always loved mile-and-a-half tracks. They’re where I feel most comfortable and our team’s been showing a lot of speed the last few weeks. We won the truck race at Kansas in May, and I’m hoping we can translate that into success in the Delaware Life Chevy this weekend. I love running on the fence, but you really have to move around and try different lanes. I think we’re in a good position to have a strong weekend.”

Atop the No. 77 Box – Crew Chief Luke Lambert

• Crew chief Luke Lambert has called 23 Cup Series races at Kansas, collecting three top-10 finishes and a pole position with driver Daniel Hemric in Oct. 2019.
• Lambert has stood atop the box for two Kansas races in Xfinity Series competition where he led Noah Gragson to Victory lane in Sept. 2022.
• Following a seventh-place result with Hocevar at Bristol, Lambert now owns 100 top 10s in the Cup Series, ranking eighth among active Cup Series crew chiefs.

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 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series 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. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Silverados in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series and an ARCA Menards Series Chevrolet in select events.