TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
Circuit of The Americas
Austin, Texas
March 23-24, 2024

NASCAR SET FOR FIRST ROAD COURSE RACE OF 2024 SEASON

NASCAR is set to make its fourth appearance at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) this weekend, with the 3.41-mile circuit hosting the series’ first road course race of the season. Arguably one of the most technical circuits on the schedule, the course lies within the rolling hills of Austin, Texas – featuring 20-turns and just over 130 feet of elevation change. COTA welcomed Formula One for the circuits’ inaugural event in November 2012, and the venue has since hosted some of the most pristine series in motorsports with NASCAR being the latest addition in 2021.

Chevrolet returns to COTA with a pair of victories in both the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) and NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS), with the manufacturer looking to continue its undefeated season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) by picking up its first win in the series at the circuit.

Chevrolet at Circuit of The Americas: Milestone Memories

Team Chevy’s Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain took Chevrolet on a pair of memorable trips to victory lane in the NASCAR Cup Series’ first two events at Circuit of The Americas.

In the series’ debut at the circuit in 2021, Elliott and the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro ZL1 team gambled on fuel strategy in exchange for prime track position amid inclement weather conditions. Sitting at the top of the leaderboard when the event was red-flagged and ultimately deemed official, Elliott not only became the first-ever NCS winner at COTA, but also delivered Chevrolet its milestone 800th all-time NCS victory. The victory also brought Hendrick Motorsports to a tie with Petty Enterprises’ all-time win record in the series, with the organization going on to break the record the following week at Charlotte Motor Speedway. To date, Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports continue to hold the record as the winningest manufacturer and organization in NASCAR’s top division with 854 and 303 wins, respectively, in the series.

One year later, Chastain took the Bowtie brand back to victory lane at COTA. The triumph was a monumental victory for both Chastain and Trackhouse Racing – marking the first-ever win for both the driver and the organization in NASCAR’s top division. The victory also came with a playoff berth to give Chastain his first appearance in the series’ post-season championship battle, with the Team Chevy driver going on to lead the manufacturer in the final points standings with a runner-up finish.

 
CHEVROLET’S ROAD COURSE HISTORY

Chevrolet’s first NASCAR Cup Series victory on a road course came with Buck Baker in the series’ debut at Watkins Glen International in 1957. To date, the Bowtie brand has tallied 64 all-time road course victories in NASCAR’s top division – seven of which have come since the Next Gen cars began competing in the series at the beginning of the 2022 season.

In recent years:

Chevrolet has earned 17 victories in the past 22 NCS road course events – starting with Chase Elliott’s victory at Watkins Glen International in August 2019, to AJ Allmendinger’s victory at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in October 2023.

Within that time span, the manufacturer notched a streak of 11 consecutive road course wins in the series – beginning with Chase Elliott’s victory at Circuit of The Americas in May 2021.

Six drivers from four different Chevrolet teams contributed to the manufacturer’s streak of 11 consecutive NCS road course victories:
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet:

(Circuit of The Americas; May 2021)

(Road America; July 2021)

Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet:

(Sonoma; June 2021)

(Watkins Glen; August 2021)

(Charlotte ROVAL; October 2021)

(Watkins Glen; August 2022)

AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet:

(Indianapolis Road Course; August 2021)

Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet:

(Circuit of The Americas; March 2022)

Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet:

(Sonoma Raceway; June 2022)

Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet:

(Road America; July 2022)

(Indianapolis; July 2022)

 
ZILISCH TAPS IN FOR NASCAR DEBUT

Trackhouse Racing development driver Connor Zilisch is slated to make his much-anticipated NASCAR debut in Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Circuit of The Americas. The 17-year-old driver will take over the reins of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Silverado RST – a ride that has already found victory lane this season with two-time NCS champion Kyle Busch (Atlanta Motor Speedway – Feb. 2024).

Zilisch grabbed the attention of the motorsports world in the 2024 Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway when the young Team Chevy driver was a part of Era Motorsports’ LMP2 win – making him the second-youngest driver in history to win the event. The rising star made his first and only start in the ARCA Menards Series at Watkins Glen International last season – leading 34 of the event’s 42 laps en route to a runner-up finish.

 
ALLMENDINGER, CHEVROLET SETS SIGHTS ON COTA THREE-PEAT

Chevrolet’s two NASCAR Xfinity Series wins at Circuit of The Americas have come with road course phenom AJ Allmendinger. The 42-year-old California native took his Kaulig Racing Camaro ZL1 to victory lane at the Austin circuit the past two seasons. Now returning to the series full-time, Allmendinger will have the opportunity to make it three-straight in Saturday’s Focused Health 250. Allmendinger will also pilot a third entry for Kaulig Racing in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event. The Team Chevy driver has earned one top-five finish at the circuit in NASCAR’s top division, which came in the series’ inaugural event in 2021.

Allmendinger’s win at COTA last season brought the Team Chevy driver to 11 NXS road course victories – extending his record as the only driver in series’ history to earn a double-digit win count on road courses. He also drove Kaulig Racing to victory lane in the NCS’ event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course last season – marking his 13th career road course victory at the NASCAR national level.

Doing Double-Duty

Allmendinger’s Kaulig Racing teammate Shane van Gisbergen will also be pulling double-duty in the NCS and NXS at COTA this weekend. The 34-year-old New Zealand native has just two starts in NASCAR’s top division – recording a history-making win in the series’ inaugural street course race in Chicago, and a 10th-place finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course last season.

2021 NCS Champion Kyle Larson also adds to the list of Team Chevy drivers set to compete in NASCAR’s top two series this weekend. The 31-year-old California will get behind the wheel of the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro SS to mark his first of two starts in the organization’s NXS entry this season. Two of his four starts in the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro SS have come on a road course – tallying a runner-up finish at Road America in 2022, and a third-place finish at Sonoma Raceway in 2023.

ECKES CONTNIUES CHEVROLET’S UNDEFEATED RECORD

McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes kept the Bowtie brand’s win streak alive at Bristol Motor Speedway – driving his No. 19 Silverado RST to a pole win, going on to lead a race-high 144 laps en route to his first victory of the season. The victory continued Chevrolet’s undefeated record in the NCTS this season, with Eckes becoming the fourth different driver to take the manufacturer to its fourth-straight NCTS victory lane appearance. This marks the seventh time in series’ history that a single manufacturer has won at least the first four races of a NCTS season. Chevrolet’s longest season-opening win streak came in the series’ inaugural season (1995) when the manufacturer tallied eight-straight victories.

 
BOWTIE BULLETS:

· With 13 races complete across NASCAR’s three national series this season, Chevrolet has a winning percentage of 69% with nine victories (NASCAR Cup Series – three wins; NASCAR Xfinity Series – two wins; NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – four wins).

· Chevrolet has recorded four-straight victories to start the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season – marking the seventh time in series’ history that a single manufacturer has won at least the first four races of a NCTS season.

· Active Chevrolet drivers with a NASCAR Cup Series win at Circuit of The Americas:

Ross Chastain: one win (2022)

Chase Elliott: one win (2021)

· Chevrolet has recorded wins in 17 of the past 22 NASCAR Cup Series road course races, including a streak of 11 consecutive wins that started with Chase Elliott’s victory at Circuit of The Americas in May 2021

· Chevrolet has 64 all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins on road courses – starting with Buck Baker at Watkins Glen International in 1957.

· Chase Elliott leads the series’ active drivers with seven road course wins in NASCAR’s premier series – ranking him third on the NCS all-time road course wins list behind Jeff Gordon (nine) and Tony Stewart (eight).

· Within the first three points-paying races of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series races season, each Chevrolet organization had already recorded at least one top-10 finish.

· With its 42 NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Championships, 33 NASCAR Cup Series Driver Championships, and 854 all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins, Chevrolet continues to hold the title as the winningest brand in NASCAR Cup Series history.

Manufacturer Points Standings

Chevrolet: 184
Toyota: 181 (-3)
Ford: 166 (-18)

Manufacturer Points Standings

Toyota: 150
Chevrolet: 148 (-2)
Ford: 120 (-30)

Manufacturer Points Standings

Chevrolet: 160
Toyota: 134 (-26)
Ford: 128 (-32)
 
TUNE-IN:

NASCAR Cup Series

EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix

Sunday, March 24, at 3:30 p.m. ET

(FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90)

NASCAR Xfinity Series

Focused Health 250

Saturday, March 23, at 5 pm. ET

(FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90)

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

XPEL 225

Saturday, March 23, at 1:30 p.m. ET

(FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90)

 
QUOTABLE QUOTES:

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 WORLDWIDE EXPRESS CAMARO ZL1

Can you take me through a perfect lap at COTA as a previous race winner?

“I’ve never done it. I can’t take you through it because I’ve never done it (laughs). There’s a lot of mistakes that happen with 20 turns. There’s a lot of mistakes that happen for every driver, every lap. I can’t even dream of the perfect lap at COTA. I just want to minimize the mistakes.”

Where is the best place to pass at COTA?

“There’s 20 brake zones and 20 acceleration zones on the other side of each corner. I can’t think of one spot that I get really excited about passing because they’re all high risk, very heavy braking. There are some new asphalt patches in some of the corners that are brake zones. So nothing is comfortable about passing at COTA because it’s really easy to slide through the apex and wipe another driver out, or get wiped out, or spin out.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 GET BIOETHANOL CAMARO ZL1

What are your thoughts heading into COTA. It can be a difficult track for drivers …

“COTA is a tough racetrack. It’s got a lot of different corners. Every corner connects to each other. COTA can be challenging because I feel like it has multiple road courses in one, and it’s one of the biggest tracks we’ve ever gone to. We’ve had some success recently on road courses so we’ll be heading to COTA with the goal of backing up some of the runs we’ve had on road courses of late. We’re really focused on being aggressive with the adjustments to the car and how I drive in the race.”

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 MARK III EMPLOYEE BENEFITS CAMARO ZL1

Have you seen where the track at COTA has been repaved and patched? How will that impact the race?

“I don’t think it’s going to impact the race any. I have seen it, yeah. I think they got rid of a bump on the exit of turn one, and I think they did a little bit into the backstretch straightaway through 12 or 13, and then out of the carousel and into 19. I don’t foresee it changing a whole lot. Like you’ll have lack of grip probably through the carousel, and then you’ll pickup grip on the exit and be able to go much faster through 19. But then out of 19, it’s back to the old asphalt and turn 20 is very slow with old asphalt being as slick as it is. I don’t know that it really opens up any more opportunities of passing or anything like that, just smoother surface I would imagine.”

Last year at COTA there were four cautions in the last 15 laps of the race. How mentally challenging is that for a driver?

“I would say that last year’s caution periods towards the end of the race was a challenge because you kept having to go through the restarts so thinking about what line you wanted to line up in and where you needed to be in order to position yourself for the restart all the dive bombs and the disrespect that keeps happening getting into Turn 1 is always an issue so you’ve got to be ready for that, mindful that you know that’s going to be happening so from there you hope for the best.”

Do you prefer stage cautions on road courses or had you rather the race stay green?

“I do not prefer stage cautions on road courses and don’t think that they should be there because of the fact that people jump the stages or they stay out in order to steal points from those that jumped the stages knowing when the cautions are going to fall. I definitely feel like it throws off the strategy of the race for a lot of people but when we were at Watkins Glen last fall, we needed those stage cautions so we could put ourselves back in position when we got behind on our pit road issues.”

DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 31 CIRKUL CAMARO ZL1

“COTA will be a challenge of its own. It will be my first time driving these Next Gen cars with sequential shifting, the brakes, and just the raw capability of the cars. It will be a brand-new experience for me, but I love any opportunity to grow as a driver and as a race team. Kaulig Racing has had solid, road-course success, so hopefully with this new package, we can adapt and learn quickly.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1

Bowman on racing at Circuit of The Americas:

“I’m excited to get to COTA (Circuit of the Americas) and unload to see what we have. With the aero package being different and the little bit of repave, it will be interesting to have to adapt to. They’ve patched COTA so many different times. It has lots of different kinds of surfaces through it and it can be pretty tricky.. and a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to this weekend- COTA has been a good place for us.”

BLAKE HARRIS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1

Harris on racing at Circuit of The Americas:

“I think we’ve had really good runs at road courses and he (Alex Bowman) is statistically really strong at COTA (Circuit of the Americas). The No. 48 team is looking forward to getting there. There are a lot of questions about the new aero package and we get an extra practice session on Saturday, so hopefully we can dive in and get adjusted quickly. I think it (COTA) is probably one of Alex’s favorite road courses, and track in general, so we look forward to work to carry our momentum from Bristol to Texas.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 FREEWAY INSURANCE CAMARO ZL1

What are your thoughts on COTA?

“I feel like COTA owes me one or two. We have run well there since we started, but something has happened at the end of these races to disappoint us. But, we certainly go to COTA knowing we will run up front and that’s always a great feeling.”

Does COTA’s proximity to Monterrey give you extra motivation?

“Yes, I love going to COTA. I hear more cheers than normal when we go around in the pace car before the race. That’s a great feeling knowing we have the support. A win anywhere is great, but winning at COTA would be really cool.”

 
Chevrolet NASCAR Cup Series Statistics

Manufacturers Championships:

Total (1949-2023): 42

First title for Chevrolet: 1958

Highest number of consecutive titles: 13 (2003-15)

Years Won: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2021, 2022, 2023

Drivers Championships:

Total (1949-2021): 33

First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)

Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005-11)

Most Recent: Kyle Larson (2021)

Years Won: 1957, 1960, 1961, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2020, 2021

Event Victories:

Record for total race wins in single season: 26 (2007)

2024 STATISTICS:

Wins: 3

Poles: 0

Laps Led: 390

Top-five finishes: 9

Top-10 finishes: 15

Stage wins: 3

· Chase Elliott: 1

· Kyle Larson: 2

CHEVROLET IN NASCAR CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:

Total Chevrolet race wins: 854 (1949 to date)

Poles won to date: 743

Laps led to date: 249,565

Top-five finishes to date: 4,307

Top-10 finishes to date: 8,876

Total NASCAR Cup Wins by Corporation, 1949 to Date:

       General Motors: 1,188

       Chevrolet: 854

       Pontiac: 154

       Oldsmobile: 115

       Buick: 65



       Ford: 828                                                           

       Ford: 728

       Mercury: 96

       Lincoln: 4



       Fiat Chrysler Automobiles: 467

       Dodge: 217

       Plymouth: 191

       Chrysler: 59



       Toyota: 182

 

About Chevrolet

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

In six NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) races at Circuit of the Americas (COTA), Spire Motorsports has logged one top-15 and two top-20 finishes with four different drivers. Corey LaJoie, driver of Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 finished 11th in last year’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. The Mooresville, N.C., team fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s in the NCS with LaJoie, and fellow drivers Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar, respectively.

The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix from Circuit of the Americas will be televised live on FOX Sunday, March 24, beginning at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The sixth of 36 races on the 2024 NCS schedule will be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. NASCAR RaceDay’s pre-race coverage on FS1 will take the green flag at 2 p.m. EDT and shift to FOX at 3 p.m.

Corey LaJoie – Driver, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• Sunday’s Grand Prix will mark LaJoie’s third NCS start at COTA, all of which have come behind the wheel of the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro for Spire Motorsports. Over the last three season’s LaJoie has finished 11th, 36th and 20th, respectively in the NCS annual visit to the 3.14-mile Austin, Texas road course
• The Concord, N.C. racer has an average start of 28.0, an average finish of 22.3 and has completed 186 of 198 (94 percent) laps contested over those three races.
• Last season, LaJoie started 27th and went on to earn a venue-best 11th-place finish.
• Gainbridge Insurance Agency, LLC (“Gainbridge”), a Group 1001 company, is an insurtech which strives to offer products that are simple, intuitive, and backed by smart technology with no complexity or hidden fees. Gainbridge empowers consumers to take control of their financial future with solutions that are accessible to everyone no matter their budget or financial knowledge. Gainbridge’s digital-first distribution model underpins its mission to reach all communities, including those that have been historically underserved by the national financial system.
• Last weekend at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, LaJoie started 18th and finished 21st.
• LaJoie is currently 22nd in the NCS championship point standings, seven points behind 21st and 15 markers outside the top 20.
• The 32-year-old driver’s best finish of the year is a fourth-place effort at the Daytona 500.

Corey LaJoie Quotes
Last year’s race at COTA was pretty intense as the laps wound down and you came away with a solid finish. What are your thoughts as we head into the first road race of the season?
“We finished well at COTA last season after a couple wild, late-race restarts so I’m ready to get back to down to Austin. I’ve been working hard on honing my road-racing skills and our baseline set-up has been getting better. I think a top-15 is absolutely a realistic goal this weekend, and with a little luck, maybe we can set ourselves up for a top 10.”

Zane Smith – Driver, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• Zane Smith will make his first NCS start at Circuit of the Americas in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix driving the No. 71 Focused Health Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports. Round 6 of the 2024 NCS tour marks Smith’s sixth NCS start for Spire Motorsports and 15th of his career.
• On Sunday, Smith’s start at COTA will be the third road course race in his NCS career. Last year, he raced at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway and the Charlotte Roval in the No. 38 for Front Row Motorsports.
• Smith has a winning past at COTA in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS). The Huntington Beach, Calif., native won the XPEL 225 in back-to-back (’22-’23) seasons.
• Smith’s victory at COTA last season made him the only NCTS repeat race winner at the venue. Smith led the final 15-laps and crossed the finish line 5.451 seconds ahead of second place.
• Join Smith at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday at the EchoPark Automotive FanZone stage for a 15-minute question and answer session.
• Last Sunday, Smith finished 36th in the NCS race at Bristol Motor Speedway. After starting 16th, Smith was fast before being collected in a multicar accident on Lap 31. Smith returned to the track following repairs before mechanical issues in Stage 2 ended his race.
• Smith will carry the No. 71 primary sponsor, Focused Health, Sunday. Focused Health is a National Health Insurance agency founded by industry veterans with over 60 years combined industry experience. Primarily focused on the government programs space, Focused Health partners with payors and employers to deliver health insurance solutions for individuals and families. For more information, visit AtFocusedHealth.com.
• Fans can pre-order Focused Health No. 71 Zane Smith merchandise at shopzanesmith.com.

Zane Smith Quotes
Knowing your success at COTA, how excited are you to race there on Sunday?
“I love racing at COTA. I’ve won there the past two years in the Truck Series so it’s a track that is super special to me. This will be my first time racing the Cup car there so it will be a little different, but I know that we will have a fast Focused Health Chevy Camaro. I’m looking forward to it.”
Sunday marks the sixth race of the year. How are you feeling so far about the start of your season?
“Luck hasn’t been on our side every weekend, but my team continues to work hard every day to bring a fast No. 71 Chevy Camaro to the track. The season is just getting started, so much left to prove. I’m excited to see what we can accomplish this season.”

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

• Carson Hocevar will pilot Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 Delaware Life Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for his first NCS road-course race in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix.
• Hocevar stared 35th and finished 27th in last Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Despite myriad tire issues throughout the race, the 21-year-old completed all but three of the race’s 500 laps at the legendary high-banked, half-mile oval.
• Delaware Life Insurance Company (“Delaware Life”) has made its mission to deliver pure value to its network of financial professionals with a set of tools and products that help them empower their clients to plan for retirement with confidence. Delaware Life’s focus is delivering a seamless experience that gives clients exactly what they’re looking for: the comfort of understanding, the confidence of transparency, and streamlined products without needless features. Learn more at www.delawarelife.com.
• Hocevar leads the NCS Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings and is currently 24th in the division’s championship points standings. He earned a season-best 15th-place at both Las Vegas Motor Speedway (3.3) and Phoenix Raceway (3/10).
• In three previous NCTS starts at COTA, Hocevar has earned two top 10s, completed 95 of 129 laps (74 percent) and logged a 16.3 average finish.
• The Portage, Mich., driver logged four NCTS wins in 2023 and finished fourth in the series’ championship point standings.
• Hocevar made his NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) debut in 2023 at COTA for SS GreenLight Racing where he started 17th before being sidelined early with mechanical issues.

Carson Hocevar Quotes
This weekend at COTA marks your NCS road course debut. Given you haven’t raced a road course in a Cup car before, how have you prepared?
“I’m looking forward to our first road course race of the season. I’ve got a good amount of experience at COTA and with the simulator data we’ve gathered from the Cup car, we should have a really solid showing.”
Shifting gears from the ovals, what excites you most as a driver about tackling a very technical racetrack like COTA?
“I am just excited for the opportunity to really have a lot of pace. There is a lot more separation in lap times on road courses than on ovals, so we have an opportunity to put together a really good day.”
From the Top of the Box

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

• Ryan Sparks serves in a dual role as both Spire Motorsports competition director and crew chief for driver Corey LaJoie and the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro in the NCS.
• Sparks, a Winston-Salem, N.C., native, has been paired with LaJoie since 2020.
• Combined, Sparks and LaJoie have earned four top-five and seven top-10 finishes, including a pair of top four in the 2024 Daytona 500.

Stephen Doran – Crew Chief, No. 71 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• Stephen Doran begins his first full season as a Cup Series crew chief leading Zane Smith and the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet team during the 2024 season.
• In 2006, Doran got his start in NASCAR at Petty Enterprises.
• Prior to his arrival at Spire Motorsports, Doran worked at Stewart-Haas Racing as an engineer, most recently on the No. 4 car driven by Kevin Harvick.

Luke Lambert – Crew Chief, No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• Luke Lambert is the crew chief for Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 team with 2024 NCS Rookie of the Year candidate Carson Hocevar
• The 2005 North Carolina State graduate has led the competition efforts for some of the sport’s most notable names including Jeff Burton, Ryan Newman, Elliott Sadler and Chris Buescher.
• In 2014, Lambert led Newman to a berth in the Championship 4, and ultimately a runner-up finish in the NCS championship point standings.

About Spire Motorsports …
Spire Motorsports is a NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race team co-owned by long-time NASCAR industry executives Jeff Dickerson and Thaddeus “T.J.” Puchyr. In 2024, Spire Motorsports will campaign the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s in the NASCAR Cup Series with drivers Corey LaJoie, Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar, respectively. The team will also field the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet Silverados full time in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. An all-star driver lineup will rotate throughout the 2024 season in the No. 7 Chevy. Rajah Caruth will drive the No. 71 entry and Chase Purdy rounds out the team’s fleet of Chevrolets in the No. 77.

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 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 Speedway. The team’s most recent win came on March 1, 2024, when Rajah Caruth took the checkered flag in the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

JUSTIN HALEY | KAZ GRALA
COTA Advance
Event Overview

● Event: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Round 6 of 36)

● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 24

● Location: Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas

● Layout: 3.426-mile, 20-turn road course

● Laps/Miles: 68 laps/231.88 miles

● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 15 laps / Stage 2: 15 laps / Final Stage: 38 laps

● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Justin Haley, Driver of the No. 51 Fraternal Order of Eagles Ford Mustang Dark Horse

● The Fraternal Order of Eagles returns to the No. 51 Ford Mustang Dark Horse as Justin Haley is set to make his fourth start at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. Haley’s best finish at the 3.426-mile, 20-turn road course came in 2022, when he started ninth and finished 15th.

● The 24-year-old from Winimac, Indiana, has made 18 road-course starts in the Cup Series with two top-five finishes and three top-10s. He led 23 laps en route to a runner-up finish at last year’s inaugural Chicago Street Race.

● Haley also competed in the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at COTA, the first NASCAR race run on at the track, and earned a ninth-place result. In total, he owns four top-fives and 10 top-10s in 16 Xfinity Series road-course starts, including two runner-up finishes – 2020 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and 2021 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington.

● Prior to racing on road courses in NASCAR, Haley competed in the Trans Am Series TA2 class. In 2015, the then 16-year-old driver set the track record at COTA in qualifying.

● Last Sunday at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, Haley and teammate Kaz Grala had the best showing of the year for RWR. Both drivers ran as high as sixth, but severe tire wear affected teams all day, ultimately forcing the Rick Ware Racing (RWR) duo outside of the top-15 in the closing laps. Despite the extreme tire fall-off, it was the first time both RWR cars finished within the top-20 at Bristol. The drivers also improved on the previous best average running positions by RWR cars in a Cup Series race with a 14.7 average running position for Haley and 18.8 for Grala.

Kaz Grala, Driver of the No. 15 N29 Capital Partners Ford Mustang Dark Horse

● Grala, driver of the No. 15 N29 Capital Partners Ford Mustang Dark Horse, will make his second Cup Series start at COTA on Sunday. He completed all 69 laps in the 2022 race to earn a 25th-place finish.

● In 2020, Grala made his first career Cup Series start in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing entry on the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway road course. He started 10th in the field of 39 cars and led three laps en route to a seventh-place finish. In 18 Xfinity Series starts on road courses, Grala has earned four top-fives and six top-10s.

● Grala also owns one Xfinity Series start at COTA, resulting in an 18th-place finish in 2023. He will return to the Xfinity Series on Saturday, competing for RSS Racing in the No. 28 Ford.

● The Boston native is no stranger to making left and right turns. In 2014, at the age of 15, Grala entered the Michelin Pilot Challenge to become the youngest driver ever to compete in an IMSA event. Two years later, he made his debut in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, where he was the youngest driver in the field, piloting a car for RWR president Robby Benton.

Rick Ware Racing Notes

● NHRA Top Fuel driver Clay Millican and the Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series are back on track this weekend at the Lucas Oil Winternationals in Pomona, California. Two weeks ago, Millican competed in the season-opening Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida, where the Parts Plus driver qualified 10th but was bested by Doug Kalitta in the first round of eliminations. A three-time winner for RWR, Millican started the year setting fast time in the first round of qualifying at the PRO Superstart Shootout exhibition event in Bradenton, Florida, Feb. 8-10. He stayed atop the leaderboard to secure the No. 1 qualifying position, then advanced to the final round of eliminations.

● In Senoia, Georgia, Progressive American Flat Track (AFT) drivers Briar Bauman, Kody Kopp and Shayna Texter-Bauman will be back on track for the second event of 2024. In the season kickoff at Daytona two weeks ago, 19-year-old Kody Kopp took home a win in the Thursday-night AFT Singles feature by a margin of 1.502 seconds. The two-time champion followed up with a second-place finish in the Friday feature.

● Rick Ware has been a motorsports mainstay for more than 40 years. It began at age six when the third-generation racer began his driving career and has since spanned four wheels and two wheels on both asphalt and dirt. Competing in the SCCA Trans Am Series and other road-racing divisions led Ware to NASCAR in the early 1980s, where he finished third in his NASCAR debut – the 1983 Warner W. Hodgdon 300 NASCAR Grand American race at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway. More than a decade later, injuries would force Ware out of the driver seat and into fulltime team ownership. In 1995, Rick Ware Racing was formed, and with wife Lisa by his side, Ware has since built his eponymous organization into an entity that fields two fulltime entries in the NASCAR Cup Series while simultaneously campaigning successful teams in the Top Fuel class of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, the LMP3 class of the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup, Progressive American Flat Track and FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX), where RWR won the 2022 SX2 championship with rider Shane McElrath.

Justin Haley, Driver Q&A

How do you envision Sunday’s race at COTA will play out for you?

“These races are long, and they play out in all kinds of different ways. So, I feel like I’ve been fast at COTA before and I feel like I’ve struggled at COTA before. We just have to try to do the best we can. There’s some confidence, I feel like as a driver you can make a bigger difference at a road course, you’re just trying to do your best.”

You and the RWR team showed marked improvement at Bristol last weekend. Should everyone expect to see that continue?

“I think so. This is a building season. Everyone considers RWR to be a lower-level team, so I’m excited for this to continue. Personally, I find a lot of enjoyment in this process and I feel like we can have some great finishes. I do think it’ll take some time just to kind of get everyone meshing together, but we’re seeing that already take place. It’s hard to put a new quarterback onto a team and then just expect him to play. He doesn’t know his guys and that’s kind of what we’re working through. We’re going to have some good finishes and and, most importantly, we’re going to have a lot of fun with it.”

Kaz Grala, Driver Q&A

You have a lot of experience on road courses, whether it be in sportscar or in stock cars. How are you feeling ahead of the first road-course event of the year?

“I’ve been looking forward to the road courses. With extra time on track in practice, we’ll be able to get ourselves in a good place with the handling and I feel like I know what I need for these types of races. I’ve won some sportscar races at COTA and run well in NASCAR, so I think we have potential to get a decent finish.”

You’re running Saturday’s Xfinity Series race this weekend, as well. What kind of benefit does that provide?

“It’s a huge help to get additional track time for the road-course events. Not so much to help the car itself, because they drive completely differently, but to have the extra laps to get familiar with the track and find those spots where you can push a little harder for a big payoff come Sunday.”

What has been the impact of the Bristol run?

“We’ve known from the beginning that we’re capable of running well. Coming in to a new team, you know it’s going to take time, but it was nice to have that moment early in the season to show other people that we can do it. The morale in the shop has been great since Justin’s run at the Clash, but it’s definitely improved after Bristol and I think we can keep it going.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix Media Availability | Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Austin Cindric, driver of the No.2 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse, will be making his fourth NASCAR Cup Series start at Circuit of the Americas and will be trying to extend a streak that has seen him qualify in the top 10 every season. He has registered back-to-back top 10 finishes as well with his best effort coming last season when he ran sixth. Cindric spoke to members of the media earlier today about this weekend’s event.

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DO YOU FEEL GOING INTO COTA? “I think it’s a great opportunity for us to kind of get back on track and hit the reset button. The last couple of weeks have been pretty funky with getting knocked out the first couple of laps at Phoenix and then obviously last week’s craziness and all the tire failures that we experienced, so I’m kind of excited to just get back going and hopefully a lot of green flag running. It’s been a place that we’ve had some good pace. We obviously have to adapt to the new package, but I’m excited to go hit the reset button and get after it.”

THE RESTART ZONE HAS BEEN PUSHED BACK CLOSE TO TURN 20. WHAT KIND OF IMPACT WILL THAT HAVE AND WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE SUCCESSFUL THERE? “I think the restart zone, I would say the initial impressions are that it should hopefully separate the top 10 in the field from the back half to where you don’t have that immediate stack up where you’re trying to fit 40 cars slowing down and have that massive check up that causes guys to make it three, four, five, six, seven, eight, however high you can count, wide into turn one. Upon reviewing it today with where the restart zone is and how many cars there are, I still think turn one certainly has a great opportunity to be messy depending on how the first couple rows play the start, and I think how early the leader goes. I still think there is plenty of opportunity for chaos there on the restarts, but I think it’s a much higher percent chance of cutting some of that down.”

ARE YOU AT A PLACE WHERE YOU HAVE TO GET STAGE POINTS OR IF YOU HAVE A GOOD CAR JUST RACE FOR THE WIN AND GIVE UP THE STAGE POINTS? “I think it all depends on how competitive you feel like you are, whether that’s on Saturday or Sunday. If you feel like you have a chance to win the race or not, I think there’s gonna be some pretty clear-cut guys that are gonna flip the stages. We’re obviously back to playing that game to where you might even win the race and not have a max points day, or have a good finish and not have a very good points day, so you certainly have to weigh that out. I think the points are very tight. I think I was 11th or 10th or third in points two or three weeks ago, so things happen pretty fast this early in the year. I’m not necessarily in a points panic, but points are definitely just as important as getting a good finish if not more.”

YOU TRIED TO WAVE OVER TO RICKY TO TALK TO HIM BUT HE KEPT WALKING AFTER THE RACE. I ASSUME YOUR TIRES WERE JUST ICE AND YOU COULDN’T STOP ONCE YOU MADE THAT MOVE? “Yeah. I certainly was trying to stay on the lead lap and tires were old, but I put us in a bad spot. I drove through marbles, put us three-wide with the 38 and I put complete responsibility on me for that accident. I don’t know what his race was looking like at that point, but I’m sure it wasn’t appreciated. He was fairly frustrated after the race and I think has every right to be, so that was just making a bad situation worse on my end, so I certainly have to do less of that. It’s definitely not fun and I hate to find myself in that situation. It’s totally on me.”

YOU HAVE QUITE A FEW GOOD RUNS AT RICHMOND IN XFINITY BUT CUP HAS BEEN A STRUGGLE. CAN YOU FIGURE OUT WHY THAT IS? WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? “I’m not sure I’ve ever started Richmond in the Cup Series inside the top 30 and I can give you a number of reasons of why, and the one time I did I lost a cylinder about six laps into the race. It’s a very difficult racetrack. It’s a challenging race from a strategy standpoint with long green flag runs. It’s a tough track, but I really do enjoy Richmond, so I am looking forward to going there. I feel like we can kind of get our heads wrapped around the short track package a little bit. I’m certainly not discouraged, but it’s a racetrack where you can’t hide if you have a weakness or an issue throughout the race. It’s a racetrack where veterans really perform well, not to say that I can’t with my experience level, but it is a track that I actually feel somewhat confident about what I need to do with the car and how I need to take care of the race and how the track moves and so on, just kind of putting it together has still yet to happen for me in a Cup car.”

IS A HOT DOG A SANDWICH AND WHEN YOU HAVE ONE WHAT ARE YOUR TOPPINGS? “A hot dog is not a sandwich. The hot dog is the actual weiner itself, like the bun is the vessel that makes it. It’s not a sandwich. It’s like saying a taco is a sandwich. As far as what my toppings are on my hot dog, I’m pretty basic. I could maybe put some cheese on it or something like that, but I just go straight dog.”

WHAT DID YOU FEEL DURING PRACTICE WITH THE NEW SHORT TRACK PACKAGE AND DO YOU FEEL THERE WILL BE ANY SIMILARITIES? “I think the similarities are just what our information tells us as far as from aerodynamically how is it different. I think you’re kind of splitting hairs to really feel like the aero package is going to be a ton different. I look at it more as a simplification to have a similar product from a car pieces and parts standpoint versus how the car actually drives. That’s kind of how I’ve approached it. I know everyone’s hoped to have closer racing and greater fall off and sliding cars more and all that. I don’t think this change was big enough to really make me believe that any of that was going to be a whole lot different than what we had last year from my expectations, and as far as how that relates to COTA, I think a lot of the same. I’m not expecting a massive shift from last year to this year. I think the things we don’t know about, more straight line braking events, then it’s more lateral, grip limitations at Phoenix, so I think you’ll see the car maybe perform in different ways at that track so we should have a pretty good picture of the total limitations or changes from last year’s short track package.”

IS THERE A LITTLE MORE EMPHASIS ON THIS WEEK KNOWING THERE ARE TWO ROAD COURSES IN THE PLAYOFFS? “Yeah, for me it’s make it to the playoffs and then focus on that, but certainly it’s important now having Watkins, which I would say Watkins is kind of a different ball game compared to more of a traditional road course like Circuit of the Americas or even Sonoma, so some of the relations between all the road courses on the schedule are quite different I feel like. This has been a difficult one for us because I feel like we’ve been OK with our road course package, but COTA has kind of been our outlier. That’s been one of our best events since we started the Next Gen car, our meaning specifically for me and the 2 car, so it’s kind of hard to convince yourself to do something a ton different and especially after the last couple weeks you almost want to just have a base hit and do something you know that works, so it should be an interesting weekend for us. Hopefully, we have some repeatability and have the same speed that we’ve shown the last couple of events there.”

WHEN DO YOU START LOOKING AT COTA AS KIND OF A RELIEF TYPE OF RACE THAT YOU WILL PROBABLY RUN WELL? “It’s funny because two weeks ago I would have gotten the same questions from a lot of folks saying how great the start of your season has gone. Two weeks later it’s all you’re in a rut. It’s so to react to that kind of stuff. It’s a pretty long game here, so I feel like I have to defend that in a moment that it’s a long season. Yeah, the last two weeks have been wildly out of the control of what I feel like our race team is capable of in a few different ways, but as far as COTA stacks up for me, yeah, no matter how you cut it, it’s been a racetrack that I’ve been able to be competitive at and lead laps every time I’ve been there in a Cup car. Personally, it’s not necessarily my favorite racetrack, to be honest, but it’s somewhere that we’ve performed well. We seem to have a package that works well there and after the last couple of weeks I’m very hungry to just execute and everyone get to do our jobs – that comes down to my pit crew as well and everybody just kind of getting in a rhythm again because we haven’t been able to and as much as we race, it feels awkward to not have anything to really think about from a normal standpoint of like, ‘Oh, maybe we need to do this to improve the car or that,’ and not have these massive issues, whether if it’s getting wrecked out early or having this tire and track debacle or any of that. Let’s just reset and I think it’s a great weekend to do it.”

HOW WOULD YOU RATE YOU AND TEAM PENSKE SO FAR THIS SEASON? “Plate events have been really great for us across the board as a team. Daytona and Atlanta, two absolute stand out events. I think all three of our cars were probably the best in the field, the class of the field, and obviously frustrating not to have any of us win those races, but I think it was an A+ for those events. I think the last three weeks have just been learning, whether that’s offset with the Dark Horse Ford Mustang, to figure out where we’ve made gains or where we’re different as well as just kind of getting started off into the season. Obviously, like I’ve said before in here, the last two weeks have just been kind of a mess regardless of anything that we’ve really done outside of our preparation, so it’s a bit difficult to get a read, but it’s certainly been interesting. Obviously, the Toyotas and specifically the Gibbs cars have been pretty strong on the short tracks so far this year, so I think that’s a pretty easy stand out to make, but otherwise, it’s early days.”

WHAT STANDS OUT ABOUT COTA COMPARED TO OTHER ROAD COURSES NASCAR RUNS? “I think it has everything – every type of corner imaginable. High speed, low speed, lefts and rights, braking zones, medium speed corners. You go through the whole gearbox. There is some tire wear. We’ve got some patches in some places, but if anything that will make the tire wear maybe a little bit less, and I also don’t’ feel like this tire necessarily wears anymore than any of the rest, but it’s somewhat of an abrasive racetrack, so past that it’s just got everything in it and you just have to have the complete picture to be competitive there.”

DOES YOUR TEAM CONSULT WITH RFK TO IMPROVE FORD’S PERFORMANCE AND HOW HAS THE DYNAMIC GONE WITH YOU AND BRIAN WILSON? “There’s obviously a lot of collaboration between Ford teams as far as some information shared on race weekends and then obviously the work that all of the teams did as well as Ford Performance to get aerodynamically ready for the season and make the improvements that we know we’ve made with the Ford Mustang Dark Horse, but past that, obviously, we’re still competitors. Brian and I, we obviously got the last 10 races of the year to get the wheels back on the bike. We know each other extremely well. We’ve been in the same building since the start of both of our Cup careers and it’s been great. I think we’re just trying to find our footing right now as far as things that are important to us car setup-wise and communication throughout the race weekends. We’ve been put in some different situations than what we might have been in the Xfinity Series as far as practice and qualifying, so we’re just kind of playing a little bit of catch-up in comparison to Ryan and Joey, who have kind of had their same groups for the last couple of years. I think things are progressing well and the mentality is all in the right way. Brian and I are a good fit because I think we think a lot alike and I think process information the same way, and I think we also put in a very similar level of effort and that’s about all you can ask for in that pairing.”