Spire Motorsports YellaWood 500 Race Advance

• In 25 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Spire Motorsports has logged one top-five, three top-10 and nine top-15 finishes. Corey LaJoie earned a team-best third-place result 2.66-mile Alabama oval in October 2023. Spire Motorsports fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet ZL1s with Justin Haley, Michael McDowell and Carson Hocevar, respectively.
• Throughout the month of October, Spire Motorsports is trading its signature “Ascent Yellow” for “Breast Cancer Pink” in celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness month, honoring the incredible strength and resilience of those who have been affected by the life-altering disease. Fans can purchase limited edition “Spire Goes Pink” merchandise online or at the team’s race shop located at 351 Mazeppa Road in Mooresville, N.C. All proceeds will be donated to support breast cancer research. In addition to the financial contribution, Spire Motorsports will recognize the team’s employees, friends and family members who have been impacted by breast cancer. Their stories will be shared across the organization’s social media channels over the next five weeks.
• The YellaWood 500 will be televised live on NBC Sunday, Oct. 19 beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The 34th 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 Gainbridge Assists Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
• Haley has recorded 11 previous Cup Series starts at Talladega and earned a venue-best sixth-place finish in October 2023. In total, he’s collected two top-10 finishes, paced the field for 13 laps and has finished inside the top 20 in all but four of 11 races.
• The Winamac, Ind., native made his Cup Series debut for Spire Motorsports on April 28, 2019, at Talladega Superspeedway on his 20th birthday. He went on to pick up both his and the team’s first win – an upset of practically unprecedented proportions – less than three months later in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 behind the wheel of the No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
• In Xfinity Series action, Haley notched two Talladega wins, earning his first career series victory in June 2020 and following it up by sweeping both races that season with another checkered-flag finish in October. Across five total starts at the 2.66-mile Alabama track, Haley has earned one pole, two top fives, five top 10s, an average starting position of 5.4 and an impressive 4.6 average finish. In the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series, Haley has a pair of starts and one top-five finish.
• Haley captured his first asphalt victory in the ARCA Menards Series in May 2017 at Talladega in a one-lap, overtime finish.
• Last Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the Winamac, Ind., native started 27th and battled handling issues throughout the day to come away with a less-than-ideal 27th-place finish.
• The Gainbridge® Assists Powered by Parity grant program awarded $222,000 to 32 organizations and athletes across 21 states, supporting efforts to expand access and opportunity to sports and education for girls and women. In its third year, the initiative continued to drive equity by funding grassroots programs, elite athletes, and community leaders who used sport to build confidence and opportunity. Each recipient received $5,000, with special grants of $50,000 awarded to the Turnstone Center for Children and Adults with Disabilities and $22,000 to the Caitlin Clark Foundation. The program honors Gainbridge ambassador Billie Jean King and her lifelong commitment to equality in sports. Gainbridge® teams up with Parity and the Women’s Sports Foundation to fuel #GainbridgeAssists.
• 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.
• Sunday’s race at Talladega will mark Haley’s 177th 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 Superspeedway in April 2019 and has since made 76 Cup Series starts with the team.

Justin Haley Quotes
You’ve been impressive on superspeedways throughout your career. What is the key to being successful at a track like Talladega?
“I have just always really enjoyed superspeedway racing. I’m not sure why that is, but it has just come easier to me and fits my style of racing better. I try to be very patient in the car, wait for the right moment to make the pass and I think that’s why I tend to do better on the bigger tracks. Talladega and Daytona are really just tracks that test your patience. You want to go and be at the front but you know that anything can happen at any moment. It’s a balance of knowing what is needed to get to the front but making it to the end. The Spire cars have been really good at superspeedways this year and I think we can continue that this weekend.”

Atop the No. 7 Box – Crew Chief Ryan Sparks

• Ryan Sparks serves a dual role as Spire Motorsports’ Competition Director and crew chief for driver Justin Haley.
• The Winston-Salem, N.C., native has been atop the pit box for 199 NASCAR Cup Series races, earning four top-five and 10 top-10 finishes over the course of his career.
• Sparks has called 11 NASCAR Cup Series races at Talladega Superspeedway and has one top-five and two top-10 finishes. He posted a venue-best fourth-place result in October 2023 with driver Corey LaJoie.

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

• Michael McDowell will race Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 Carolina Handling Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
• McDowell will showcase primary sponsorship from Carolina Handling aboard his No. 71 machine and race a vibrant white, black, and red paint scheme during the 500-mile contest.
• The father-of-five owns three top-five and four top-10 finishes at Talladega, highlighted by a pair of third-place results in May 2021 and Oct. 2022.
• Last season, the 40-year-old earned two of his five pole awards at Talladega where he led a combined 78 laps at the famed 2.66-mile Alabama tri-oval. Unfortunately, he was involved in late-race incidents in both races, leaving him 31st (April) and 37th (October), respectively at the checkered flag.
• Over the course of 33 races in 2025, McDowell has tallied three top-five, five top-10, 14 top-15, and 20 top-20 finishes. To date, the veteran racer has earned an average starting position of 15.6, an 18.4 average finish, led 86 laps, and been running at the finish of all but two of the season’s first 33 points-paying races.
• The 2021 Daytona 500 Champion qualified 14th and led 10 laps on his way to a respectable 11th-place result in April’s Jack Links 500.
• In his last six races, the Cup Series veteran has earned an average finish of 12.3 highlighted by an eighth-place effort at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and fifth-place finish at the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
• The Bank of America ROVAL 400 marked the No. 71 team’s third top five of the season, a single-season record for the first-year Spire Motorsports driver.
• Last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, McDowell qualified 18th for the 267-lap event, and despite an early pit-road penalty, rallied back from a lap down to record a respectable 16th-place finish.
• Founded in 1966, Carolina Handling is one of the Southeast’s leading integrated material handling solutions providers and the exclusive Raymond Solutions and Support Center for North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida’s Central time zone. The company provides forklifts and automation solutions for manufacturers, warehouses and distribution centers, along with parts, racking, storage, lighting and dock and door equipment.
• McDowell has claimed three Xfinity Fastest Lap awards this season, clocking the fastest lap in the Daytona 500, at Phoenix Raceway and Talladega 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.
• 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 winning 12.587-second stop topped all entries for both the NASCAR All-Star Open and NASCAR All-Star Race, earning them the title of the fastest team on pit road.

Michael McDowell Quote
How do you balance being aggressive while racing for the win and not ruining a playoff contenders’ day?
“When it comes to playoff contenders, you do think about them at most of the races, but not Talladega. There’s just no way of actually doing that, because you can’t help what’s going to happen at Talladega. That’s actually one of the less stressful races because of that. You can’t control the big one, when it’s going to happen, or who it’s going to take. So, for us, we don’t have any pressure but to go there and try to win the race. So, it’s low pressure and low stress going into it. We’re not in a spot where we have to worry about the cutoff. 
We’re not in a spot where we’re worried about points. We can just go and try to run up front and win the race.”

Atop the No. 71 Box – Crew Chief Travis Peterson

• As a race engineer at JR Motorsports, Peterson played a key role in Regan Smith’s 2013 NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Talladega. Smith survived a late-race multi-car incident to win in a three-wide finish.
• The West Bend, Wis., native earned his first Cup Series victory at the track in May 2015 as a race engineer at Hendrick Motorsports, working alongside crew chief Greg Ives and driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr., on the No. 88 team. After qualifying fourth, Earnhardt, Jr., led 67 laps en route to the win.
• Peterson led McDowell to pole awards in both 2024 Talladega events.

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

• Carson Hocevar will make his fifth NASCAR Cup Series start at Talladega Superspeedway in Sunday’s YellaWood 500. The Portage, Mich., native’s most recent finish at the 2.66-mile track – his best – a sixth-place effort in April.
• Modo Casino, America’s fastest-growing social casino from ARB Interactive, returns to the No. 77 for the third time this year with a reimagined scheme. Modo Casino is proudly built in the U.S. and offers players the thrill of casino-style gaming online. This free-to-play platform features hundreds of popular slot titles, live dealer experiences, and classic table games like Blackjack and Roulette. Players use free coins to compete and can redeem winnings for real-world prizes and experiences, creating a fun, accessible and low stress way to play. Through partnerships with major sports properties, Modo Casino delivers exclusive content, unique fan experiences, and culturally relevant entertainment for millions of players nationwide. Modo Casino follows the International Social Games Association’s and the Social Gaming Leadership Alliance’s best practice principles, as well as all relevant consumer protection, competition, advertising and privacy regulations. Modo Casino will return to the No. 77 Chevy once more this season at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
• In the five races on drafting-style tracks this year, Hocevar has one top-five and three top-10 finishes. His top result was a runner-up finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March.
• In 12 Cup Series starts at Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta, Hocevar owns one top-five, three top-10 and eight top-20 finishes.
• Additionally, the 22-year-old driver owns three NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts at Talladega with a best-finish of 11th earned in October 2023. In total, he has nine CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts on drafting-style tracks highlighted by two top-10 finishes at Daytona International Speedway in 2021 and 2023.

Carson Hocevar Quotes
Spire Motorsports as a whole has been strong on superspeedways this year. What have you learned since the season opener at Daytona that you can apply in Sunday’s race?
“For me, I think I’ve gotten more comfortable with pushing for position during a superspeedway race. I had always been so worried about just making it to the end and staying out of trouble, and learned early this year that if I wanted a shot at a win that just wasn’t going to work. We had a good run at Talladega earlier this year and if all goes right, we should be able to knock out a top five.”

Atop the No. 77 Box – Crew Chief Luke Lambert

• Crew chief Luke Lambert has called 24 Cup Series races at Talladega resulting in four top-five and nine top-10 finishes. In total, Lambert has led his drivers to 11 top fives and 17 top 10s on drafting-style tracks.
• In April 2023, Lambert led Noah Gragson to a NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Talladega. It was the first victory and third top 10 in three races called from the pit box at the superspeedway.

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.