Spire Motorsports Fresh From Florida 250 Race Advance

• In nine NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Spire Motorsports has collected two top-five and two top-10 finishes, highlighted by Rajah Caruth’s third-place finish in the 2024 season opener. The Mooresville, N.C., organization fields the Nos. 7 and 77 Chevrolet Silverado RSTs full time in the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series.
• The Fresh from Florida 250 will be televised live on FS1 Friday, Feb. 13 beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The 2026 season-opening race will be broadcast live on the NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Michael McDowell – Driver, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado RST

• Michael McDowell will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Tibbetts Lumber Chevrolet Silverado RST in Friday’s Fresh from Florida 250 at Daytona International Speedway.
• The 100-lap race will mark McDowell’s fifth-career CRAFTSMAN Truck Series start and second at Daytona.
• The 2021 Daytona 500 champion will pull double duty this weekend, driving the No. 71 Modo Casino Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the 68th running of the Daytona 500, his 14th start in “The Great American Race.”
• As one of the largest independently owned lumber and building materials suppliers in the southeastern United States, Tibbetts Lumber Company continues to grow with a vision to be recognized by customers, employees and vendors as the region’s preferred independent truss and building materials supply partner.
• In four-career CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts, McDowell earned a career-best 12th-place in last season’s February contest at Atlanta Motor Speedway behind the wheel of Spire Motorsports’ No. 07 Chevrolet Silverado.
• McDowell strapped in for two CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races during the 2025 season with Spire Motorsports. Prior to his time behind the wheel of the No. 07 Silverado, the veteran had just two starts under his belt dating back to his debut in 2007 and a second start in 2009.

Michael McDowell Quotes
You’ve been vocal about your goal to win in all three series. What do you need to do to make that happen on Friday?
“The CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race is going to be fun. I was a little anxious going into last year, not racing a truck on a superspeedway, and I had not been in a truck for over 10 years. I feel much more confident now, just knowing the shift points, getting through the gears, how the trucks race, and how they draft.”

“I am also eager to have Tibbetts Lumber on the truck for the first time. They helped me with a home project, building a new shop onto my house last year, so I am looking forward to having them on the truck and continue to work with them. Daytona is just another opportunity to try to win in all three series, which is a goal of mine. It’s tough to win in any series, any of the national series is tough, but my goal is to check that box for a win in all three series.”

Atop the No. 7 Box – Crew Chief Brian Pattie

• Brian Pattie returns to the top of the No. 7 pit box, an entry that will see a rotating roster of all-star caliber drivers throughout the 2026 season.
• Pattie is no stranger to Victory Lane at the “World Center of Racing,” where he led Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., to a victory in the 2017 Coke Zero 400.
• The Zephyrhills, Fla., native called the shots on Justin Haley’s No. 7 Chevrolet in the 2025 Fresh From Florida 250, marking Haley’s first NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series start since 2020. After starting 17th, Pattie guided Haley to a respectable fifth-place finish.
• Since joining Spire Motorsports in 2024, Pattie has led the No. 7 team to four victories, including wins with Kyle Busch at Atlanta Motor Speedway (2024 and 2025) and at Texas Motor Speedway in 2024, as well as a triumph with Carson Hocevar at Kansas Speedway last season. Overall, Pattie has recorded four wins, 14 top-five and 24 top-10 finishes.
• Pattie is a 25-year veteran of the sport, 14 of which came in the NASCAR Cup Series. As a crew chief, he earned six wins in Cup Series competition and 11 in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.

Carson Hocevar – Driver, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado RST

• Carson Hocevar will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 IKEA/Best Buy Chevrolet Silverado RST in Friday’s Fresh From Florida 250 at Daytona International Speedway.
• Hocevar will race in all three NASCAR national touring series events this weekend. In addition to his traditional NASCAR Cup Series duties aboard Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 Spectrum Chevrolet Camaro in Sunday’s Daytona 500, he will also drive Young’s Motorsports’ No. 77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ United Rentals 300.
• In three CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts at the “World Center of Racing,” Hocevar has registered one top-five and two top-10s, highlighted by a fifth-place finish in 2021.
• The 23-year-old, a veteran of 81 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races, has logged one pole, five wins, 22 top fives and 34 top 10s while leading 731 laps. He made the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series playoffs in all of his three full-time seasons, reaching the Championship 4 in 2023.
• The Portage, Mich., native registered a victory in one of four CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts in 2025, guiding the Brian Pattie-led No. 7 team to Victory Lane in the Heart of America 200 at Kansas Speedway. He led 75 of the event’s 134 laps and survived last-lap contact with a competitor en route to his most recent victory in the series and first aboard a Spire Motorsports-prepared Chevy Silverado.
• The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year has registered four starts in NASCAR’s premier division on the high banks of Daytona, securing a venue-best 11th-place finish at the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in August 2024.
• The former late model standout will participate in the ASA Stars National Tour Clyde Hart Memorial 200 at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway Tuesday night. He’ll race a Wauters Motorsports-prepared super late model at the half-mile facility located less than 15 miles from Daytona International Speedway.
• At IKEA, the vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people by offering well-designed, functional and affordable, high-quality home furnishing, produced with care for people and the environment. Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V. and its controlled entities) is one of 12 different groups of companies that own and operate IKEA retail under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems. B.V. Ingka Group has three business areas: IKEA Retail, Ingka Investments and Ingka Centres. Ingka Group is a strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system, operating 375 IKEA stores in 30 countries – including 51 retail locations in the U.S. For more information on IKEA U.S., see IKEA.US, @IKEAUSANews, @IKEAUSA or IKEAUSA on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest.
• Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) is the largest specialty consumer electronics retailer in North America. Our purpose is to enrich lives through technology, which we do by providing our customers a unique mix of advice, products and services in our stores, online, and in homes. Our expert associates advise customers on our curated assortment of the latest, name-brand technology, while our highly trained services teams help with designs, consultations, delivery, installation, tech support and repair. We generated more than $41.5 billion of revenue in fiscal 2025, operate more than 1,000 retail stores in North America, and have more than 80,000 employees. For more information, visit corporate.bestbuy.com and investors.bestbuy.com.
• Hocevar will be at the controls of Spire Manufacturing chassis SMT-093 Friday afternoon, a brand new Chevrolet Silverado prepared for the 2026 season.

Carson Hocevar Quotes
You are going to be running triple duty this weekend. What are you looking forward to the most out of it?
“I’m really excited to have the opportunity to run all three. It can’t hurt to be on track. All three vehicles are so different. The Daytona 500 is obviously a very serious moment and there is a lot of pressure surrounding it, but we have two races to have fun and enjoy the experience, all while chasing a trophy. I’m excited to have three shots at it, and excited to kick it off with IKEA and Best Buy Friday night.”

You haven’t been in a truck at a drafting track in nearly three years. Do you anticipate it being any different, or are you expecting business as usual?
“As you can tell from the entry list, this may as well be a Cup race. I’m excited and ready to go. I always liked the drafting tracks in the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series, but never really got the finishes. It’s been a while, and they will probably drive a little different than I remember, but I am excited and ready to go.”

Atop the No. 77 Box – Crew Chief Chad Walter

• Crew chief Chad Walter will stand atop the pit box for Carson Hocevar in 13 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races in 2026.
• In the 2024 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series season opener at Daytona, Walter called Rajah Caruth to a third-place finish.
• During the 2025 season, Walter split time atop the No. 77 pit box, calling the shots for Andres Perez De Lara and Corey LaJoie. Perez De Lara recorded a pair of top-10 finishes under Walter’s guidance, while LaJoie showed consistent speed in eight starts, posting two top fives and six top-10 finishes.
• In Xfinity Series competition on the Daytona Beach high banks, the 53-year-old owns three top fives with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (third, 2008 Feb.; third, 2008 July) and Justin Allgaier (fourth, 2010 Feb.).
• Walter, a veteran race engineer of 20-plus years, picked up a pair of Daytona 500 victories (2001 & 2003) while on the crew for Michael Waltrip during his time at Dale Earnhardt Inc.
• The Albion, N.Y., native earned a mechanical engineering degree from the Cornell University College of Engineering. During his studies, he played defensive end for the Big Red football team.

About Spire Motorsports …
Spire Motorsports fields full-time entries in the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series and 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 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 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 High Limit Racing competition.