Spire Motorsports Southern 500 Race Advance

• In 31 previous NASCAR Cup Series starts at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Spire Motorsports has one top-five and four top-10 finishes. Carson Hocevar earned the team’s best result at Darlington with a fourth-place effort in March. Spire Motorsports fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s in the Cup Series with Daniel Suárez, Michael McDowell and Hocevar, respectively.
• For the first time since the organization’s inception in 2018, Spire Motorsports’ NASCAR Cup Series team will compete in the sport’s 10-race championship playoff format, The Chase. Suárez and Hocevar begin The Chase seeded 11th and 12th in points, respectively.
• The Southern 500 will be televised live on USA Network Sunday, Sept. 6 beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The 27th 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 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Sunday’s Southern 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway.
• Freeway Insurance was established in 1987 and is one of the largest and fastest-growing personal lines insurance brokers in the United States, offering coverage through a “click, call, or come in” approach that connects customers nationwide. The company continually researches, grows, and diversifies its product offerings to stay responsive to the evolving insurance market. Freeway provides a wide range of options—from basic to premium coverage—in auto, truck, commercial vehicle, homeowners, renters, small business, motorcycle, recreational vehicle, fire, and flood insurance. In 2008, Freeway Insurance became part of Confie, the nation’s leading personal lines insurance distribution company. Customers can access Freeway Insurance through neighborhood offices, online at www.freeway.com, or by calling (800) 300-0227.
• Suárez finished second in Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway to earn his third top-five finish of the season and secure top-finishing bragging rights amongst his Team Chevy stablemates. He also scored three stage points by finishing eighth in Stage 2 and briefly held the lead before being scored second at the checkered flag.
• Sunday’s annual Labor Day Weekend classic at Darlington kicks off The Chase, NASCAR’s 10-race playoff format to determine the Cup Series’ 2026 champion. After NASCAR re-seeded the points for the 16 drivers who are eligible to compete for the title, Suárez sits 11th with 2,025 points, 75 markers behind the leader. He enters the postseason with one win, three top-five, seven top-10 and 21 top-20 finishes. The 34-year-old driver carries a 14.4 average start and a 14.7 average finish through the first 26 races of the season.
• The Monterrey, Mexico native finished 10th in points in 2022 after making it to the Round of 8 in the previous iteration of NASCAR’s playoffs. He returned to the playoffs in 2024 but was sidelined from championship contention following the Round of 12.
• Suárez’s best Darlington finish came in March, when he came home seventh. In 17 career starts at the venerable South Carolina speedway, the 34-year-old driver has two top 10s, seven top 20s and led one lap. He holds an average starting position of 21.4 and an average finishing position of 22.1. Last Fall, he started 17th but was involved in an early crash and relegated to a 25th-place result.
• In NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series competition, Suárez has recorded two Darlington starts (2015-2016) where he finished third both times.
• Suárez is a veteran of 349 Cup Series starts and earned three wins, 27 top fives and 82 top-10s in NASCAR’s premier division. He’s led 947 laps and earned three poles since 2017. Suárez has collected checkered flags at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway (2022), Atlanta Motor Speedway (2024) and Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway (2026).

Daniel Suárez Quote
How are you feeling heading into Darlington?
“I’m really proud of my team and the work we’ve put in to get to this point. To start The Chase at Darlington, we have some good notes from the spring and a solid notebook to build from. The night race is always a lot of fun and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the track changes as the sun goes down. It’s supposed to be pretty hot, so I think the track is going to be tough on tires, which will make tire management a priority. Hopefully, we can take what we learned in the spring, make the right adjustments throughout the night, and put ourselves in a good position to start The Chase strong.”

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

• Ryan Sparks is the Crew Chief of Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with driver Daniel Suárez in the NASCAR Cup Series.
• Sparks will call his first Chase race at Darlington as he and the No. 7 team begin their pursuit of the NASCAR Cup Series championship. Sparks’ best finish at the South Carolina track came this spring, when he guided Suárez to a seventh-place finish. He has called 13 Darlington races in NASCAR’s premier division.
• The Winston-Salem, N.C., native has called 228 NASCAR Cup Series races, earning one win, seven top-five and 17 top-10 finishes since making his Cup Series debut atop the pit box in 2020.
• Sparks 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. He 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 NASCAR 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 Chevrolet ZL1 in Sunday’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
• Delaware Life is an insurance and annuity company that empowers financial professionals with a wide array of customizable solutions. A subsidiary of Group 1001 Insurance Holdings LLC, Delaware Life focuses on delivering a seamless experience for advisors. The company understands how important it is to find the right fit for every client, every situation and every individual need. Delaware Life is passionate about equipping advisors with annuities that give their customers peace of mind and a successful future, allowing them to plan with confidence for whatever’s next.
• McDowell has earned three top-10 finishes in 22 career Cup Series starts at the “Lady in Black”. Meanwhile, the two-time race winner has registered eight top-20 finishes at the iconic 1.33-mile South Carolina venue.
• In the Cup Series’ most recent visit to Darlington, McDowell raced his No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet to a 20th-place finish.
• The Glendale, Ariz. native, earned back-to-back of top-10 finishes in 2022, when he came home seventh in the spring, and sixth that summer.
• Last weekend at Daytona International Speedway, the 2021 Daytona 500 Champion finished fourth, marking his third top-five finish of the 2026 season. With that effort, McDowell matched his previous total number of top fives in a single season (2025).
• In 26 races this year, the 19-year Cup Series veteran has led 24 laps and logged three top-five and six top-10 finishes. He’s recorded a 16.3 average start, an 18.8 average finish and currently sits 20th in points.

Michael McDowell Quote
How do you maximize the momentum from Daytona heading into The Chase as a driver who is not eligible for the title?
“Daytona was a much-needed result for us. The last few weeks have been tough and we aren’t exactly where we want to be this season. Regardless, having two of our Spire Motorsports Chevrolets locked into The Chase is huge for us as an organization. Our No. 71 team wants to win, and that is still our goal while we keep building our notebook and focus on quality results that we can use as building blocks for next season. Darlington, especially the Southern 500, is such a fun race. Managing tires, running the wall, and watching the track transition from day to night makes for a great weekend all the way around. Hopefully, we can carry the momentum from last weekend into the final stretch of the season and finish 2026 strong.”

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

• Travis Peterson serves as the Crew Chief for driver Michael McDowell and Spire Motorsports’ No. 71 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the NASCAR Cup Series.
• Across 138 starts serving in the Crew Chief role, Peterson has called eight poles, one win, nine top-five and 28 top-10 finishes.
• The Peterson/McDowell combination previously worked together at Front Row Motorsports where they posted a 10th-place finish in the 2024 Goodyear 400.
• Peterson was part of Chase Elliott’s 2014 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Darlington win in April of that season while working as a race engineer for JR Motorsports. The victory came one week removed from Elliott’s first series victory at Texas Motor Speedway and seven months prior to clinching the division’s 2014 championship.
• The 35-year-old is a 2012 graduate of the Williams States Lee College of Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.

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

• Carson Hocevar will race Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 Spectrum Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Sunday’s Southern 500, the first of 10 races in The Chase.
• Spectrum is a suite of advanced communications services offered by Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR), a leading broadband connectivity company available to 58 million homes and small to large businesses across 41 states. Founded in 1993, Charter has evolved from providing cable TV to streaming, and from high-speed Internet to a converged broadband, WiFi and mobile experience. Over the Spectrum Fiber Broadband Network and supported by our 100 percent U.S.-based employees, the Company offers Seamless Connectivity and Entertainment with Spectrum Internet®, Mobile, TV and Voice products. More information can be found at corporate.charter.com.
• Hocevar and the No. 77 team, along with teammate Daniel Suarez and the No. 7 team, will compete for 2026 championship honors. The opportunity marks the first appearance in The Chase for Hocevar and the first time a Spire Motorsports team will compete for a Cup Series title. The team kicks off the 10-race championship contest 12th in the standings, five points behind 11th.
• Through 26 races, the Portage, Mich., native has already set career-highs in multiple categories:
• Season-to-date results of one win, five top fives, nine top 10s
• 157 laps led
• 673 points scored
• 12.2 average start
• 16.7 average finish
• The 23-year-old driver has been one of the most improved on the circuit throughout the 2026 campaign. The team’s average starting and finishing positions have each improved by over five spots compared to this point in 2025. Hocevar is on pace to improve his average finish by 4.9 positions at the end of the season while his 12th position in the series’ points is an 11-position improvement compared to the end of 2025.
• In the series’ last visit to Darlington Raceway this spring, Hocevar was forced to start at the tail of the field following right-rear suspension repairs Sunday morning, which stemmed from an incident in Saturday afternoon’s practice session. Despite falling one lap down to the leaders in Stage 1, he kept his elbows up, raced his way through the field and restarted the final 100-lap segment 19th in the running order. After a spirited charge up the leaderboard, Hocevar passed seven cars over the final 25 laps to secure an impressive fourth-place finish. He gained 32 positions from the drop of the green flag, the most of any driver in the field, earning the best result for the Chevrolet camp and leading the field with 128 green-flag passes.
• In six career NASCAR Cup Series Starts at the iconic egg-shaped oval, Hocevar owns one top-five and two top-10 finishes, including a venue-best fourth-place finish (April 2026). He also adds five CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races – collecting three top fives – and a lone O’Reilly Auto Parts Series start – a sixth-place result during his series debut in 2023.
• The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year hit the ground running at “The Track Too Tough to Tame.” In his first Cup Series start at Darlington in the 2023 Southern 500, he qualified 15th and finished 17th in a race that marked just his second start in NASCAR’s premier division. He returned in 2024 with Spire Motorsports and qualified on the outside pole to become the youngest driver to start on the front row at the legendary facility.
• Hocevar 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 to register Spire Motorsports’ second Cup Series win and first since the 2019 Coke Zero Sugar 400.

Carson Hocevar Quotes
With The Chase officially under way, does your mindset shift, at all, heading to Darlington and the final 10 races of the season?
“I don’t think anything changes for us. We just get to enjoy it. It is Spire Motorsports’ first time as a part of The Chase, and we’ve got two of us in it. Us and the over 200 employees at Spire get to enjoy, have fun on the journey, and get to go racing for a championship. We are approaching it as we would any other race. Luke (Lambert, crew chief) has a lot of experience in The Chase, and so does Matt McCall (Cup Series Competition Director). No one expected Ryan Newman to make it all the way to Homestead and have a chance in 2014, but they were there, they were competitive, and they did it all with consistency. In that time, the format didn’t reward consistency, and now it does. That’s how we are going to look at it, and we will see how the chips fall while playing the hands we are dealt each week.”

Does the Southern 500 have an atmosphere comparable to the other crown jewel events?
“For me it does. I enjoy it. First off, I love to rip the fence at Darlington. Then as the run goes on, you really struggle as the tires wear out and you are just trying to hang on. A lot of my friends go to that one just because of the eye candy of the track. You have the old school feel, but you add in the sunset throughout the opening portion of the race, then pure under-the-lights racing for the second half. I think the track suits the nighttime racing more than the daytime, and the place always gets packed out for this one.”

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, eight top-five and 24 top-10 finishes in 106 races.
• The 16-year veteran crew chief has led his team to the NASCAR Cup Series postseason for the fourth time, and first since 2017 with Ryan Newman and Richard Childress Racing’s No. 31 team. A runner-up finish in the 2014 point standings is a career-best for Lambert.
• The North Carolina State University graduate has called 19 NASCAR Cup Series events at Darlington, earning seven top 10s, most recently with Hocevar in the 2026 Goodyear 400. He tacks on a trio of top-10 results between 2007-2010 as a race engineer for Jeff Burton during his time at Richard Childress Racing.
• The Mount Airy, N.C., native led Noah Gragson to Victory Lane at “The Lady in Black” in September 2022. Gragson led 82 of the event’s 147 laps but was running third when the field took the white flag. He survived a thrilling finish with Sheldon Creed and Kyle Larson, passing both drivers in Turns 3 and 4.

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’ 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.