Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Test Session — North Wilkesboro Speedway
Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse, also participated in today’s NASCAR Cup Series test at North Wilkesboro Speedway. He spoke about a variety of topics on Tuesday afternoon.

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO THE FORMAT CHANGE AND DO YOU FEEL IT BENEFITS YOU? “Yeah, I’m obviously a proponent of it. Selfishly, it would have quite easily put us in the playoffs the last several years. Getting kicked out by a last-second winner, I mean obviously that’s on us. We have to win races and do better and just be a little bit better yet, but this new Chase or new, old, throwback, I don’t know what the exact way to go about it is, but I’m excited about it. It’s basically what I hoped we could achieve, understanding that a full season format probably was on the table. This is solid. I really like this. It sets us up, one, it does bring the consistency into it while still rewarding wins in a rather heavy way. It’s just not the guarantee from deep in the field after having just a less than mediocre year or whatever it may have been. Other people have played the system better than we have and it’s bit us, so this one definitely plays into our wheelhouse. We’re still going to adapt a little bit on our side and what we want to do when we go to the racetrack and how we approach, and chances we’re willing to take, but I’m pretty stoked about it. I think it’s a pretty good change throughout all of RFK, but for NASCAR in general. I know this has been a big ask from a lot of people that are sitting up in those stands right now, throughout our garage area. It’s a big win right there.”

“The consistency that’s done us well for a lot of years, whatever it may have come from, I always attribute it to just working on my own race cars growing up and not wanting to fix wrecked ones, so that’s helped us be contenders and run well, but also finish and that’s gotten us really close, just not quite good enough. We’ve won some races along the way, but we need to be a little bit more aggressive on our side, too, and take a little bit more chances and maybe that doesn’t, it’s probably not the best timing for us to say we’re gonna change our ways when everything else is changing around us, but, ultimately, I think it’s gonna be the best thing for us not only to just make the playoffs, but to actually have a run towards a title.”

ARE YOU RUNNING THE NEW DIGITAL DASH? “Yeah, I’m running it today.”

HOW IS IT? “If you didn’t tell me it was new, I wouldn’t have known. We laid ours out to match the previous one we had in the car. Everything looks identical from where I’m at, with the exception of some new lights across the top built in. Their rather small, so I wouldn’t have caught on to it if somebody hadn’t pulled me aside. Our engineer was telling me what he was working on to try and match it up and how he had to alter some things, but it’s a pretty easy plug and play from where I’m at.”

YOU CAUGHT AND PASSED ZANE SMITH DURING PRACTICE. HOW DID YOU FEEL DOING THAT WITH THE ADDED HORSEPOWER? “I can’t give you a great answer on that right now. There’s no telling where the tires were at or what may have been going on, but North Wilkesboro for one is a very racy track. We have moved around from the start of the day, where we had two lanes and one-and-a-half lanes in one and two, and just buried on the bottom in three and four. Right at the lunch break, as soon as you guys rolled in, that opened up and we’ve got two lanes down in three and four, and right near the fence down here in one and two. The track itself does lead itself to better racing, but also you probably don’t notice the power from the get-go, but the tail end of the runs and some of the fall off and some of the struggles we’re fighting in the car, I think that’s where you realize you had more underneath you to get into this run, and now I’m maybe paying a price at this point. I certainly think there’s no down side to it, for sure. And I think that this is a track where even though it’s fresh asphalt, I think this is a track where you will see a little bit more change from it versus a place like Bristol that has just so much banking to hold a tire throughout the run. It’s probably not as big of a change there, but I think it’s definitely on the right track as well. Again, we just have a lot going on through the garage on other stuff to know exactly where I was at, but this track has been a lot of fun. I’m excited to get a big points race in here.”

WHAT WAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP LIKE WITH GREG BIFFLE? “I was several series below, but came into Roush on the development side when Greg was running the 16 car there. I would say it’s been an awful offseason in a lot of ways. It’s just really tragic. We were friends, loose friends, just from being around Roush at the same time and different functions through the years. It’s just something you don’t think about. A lot of things have hit our sport and it’s definitely been a tough go.”

IS THERE A TRACK YOU’RE EXCITED ABOUT GOING TO WITH THIS HORSEPOWER INCREASE? “Everywhere. More horsepower is not gonna hurt us anywhere. Like I said, we have a lot going on today and we’re getting ready to throw a lot more at it. They’re working on big changes right now for some potential packages that could make the racing better. It should help anywhere. I think about the days in my racing career. The most power I ever had in a race car was an ARCA car. About the time I got into the Xfinity Series and Cup was still up there in the 900s. It got knocked back right when I was able to find my way in the door, so it’s exciting to me to have it come on back up and be close to as much power as we’ve run in this Series. We’ll take more, but certainly there’s a lot of excitement around that, and I think it is, coupled with the work that Goodyear has done and the fall off that we’ve seen at a lot of racetracks the second half of last year, I think it could lead to some big movement at a lot of different styles of racetracks. Whether that’s a Richmond, maybe it rolls into Loudon. I think there’s a handful of places where it’ll show up big. Like I said, I don’t know that Bristol is going to be as affected by it, and I hope we come up with something that revives Bristol a little bit more, and they’re probably way ahead of me on that, but I think it feels like something that’s gonna be solid for here. Richmond probably comes to mind as the one that you can certainly decide how hard you want to push it and what penalty you want to pay on the tail end.”

HOW DO YOU THINK NOT HAVING THE WIN AND IN ELEMENT WILL AFFECT THE RACING ON A WEEK TO WEEK BASIS? “Ultimately, the win and you’re in opened up the Hail Mary as the easiest – the ones that had absolutely nothing to lose but everything to gain. Winning is still just that weekend and for that single moment winning is still exciting enough and enough of the goal that whether that gets you into the playoffs or just steps you ahead in a points position, it really doesn’t matter. You’re gonna chase that win right there on that weekend, so if you have that chance and you figure you can send that chance, then I think we’re still gonna see that. It just won’t have the playoff implications that it’s had through the last several years. For the last couple years, we’ve gotten into the playoffs and we’ve known that the first round was going to be an easy round for most of the drivers there. We had a pretty good idea of whose seasons had not been great, had that shining moment and probably weren’t coming out of the first round. That held true for the last couple of years, so that will be gone essentially. We will bring it back to a point of consistency is going to matter all the way into your qualification into the Chase, but your consistency and winning races is gonna matter all the way up to Homestead. I think it’s refreshing to come back around. It’s strange that it’s not as new as we may think, but I think that it did us good back then. We had some great drama and some great races and deserving champions, and I think this is going to just bring that back and get a better buy-in from our fans.”

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE STATE OF RFK Racing NOW? “Through the offseason this car, the Next Gen car is strange when we go into our offseason. Our shops used to look like a bomb went off. You’d have 20 or so race cars per team and bodies cut off and getting sandblasted and painted. Now it’s more the disassembly, the QC, and the changing out of parts that have been worn out or broke or need anything replaced, so the shop is much more mellow through our offseasons now. It’s more about getting all the parts and pieces and equipment ready to go. It’s always different in that sense, but I think about RFK, we’ve had a lot of change in some different key areas throughout our organization, but change is not a bad thing. I think we have a lot of optimism in the key areas where it’s going to impact us and even the ones that we don’t circle as the biggest impact, but we have a lot of good stuff coming on down the line. We’ve acquired a lot of good talent, a lot of things that make us feel like we’re in as good a place as ever to fire off the season. The core groups of our road crew for all of our teams have widely stayed and I think that will help the continuity. Once we get to the racetrack we won’t have a whole lot of learning or relationships to build up once we get there. It’s more back at HQ and about figuring out how we’re gonna make our processes more efficient, our race cars faster, and keep our brands happier. There’s been change and movement, but I think that’s all something that we’re confident will be strong for us at the end of the day.”

HAVE YOU WORKED ON ANY SPECIFIC AREAS OTHER THAN CAMBER AS FAR AS ADJUSTMENTS HERE AT THE TEST? “That stuff is coming. That’s some of the changes that NASCAR has on the list that we can tackle and try to get a read on, so that’s actually some of the bigger aero items are what’s happening right now. We’ve gone through some tires with cambers, a couple different settings there. Some stuff, no real big hitters I would say, but stuff you could see an impact with. Ultimately, it remains to be seen if everybody had the same consensus, but I think I wasn’t in my right mind. I got a little rusty through the offseason. I rolled in thinking there was gonna be three cars here and there are 12 or 14 haulers in here. Fortunately, we have a lot of cars on the racetrack and a lot of rubber going in. It’s probably one of the more productive tests that I feel like I’ve been a part of just car count and conditions even. The last test I did I think was Michigan and it was 28 degrees. This is much better. I didn’t expect it not to be 28 degrees here in January, but I think this has worked out nicely. To come up here, I think we’ve got a lot of information to digest and I don’t think anything that we’re going through would require, and this is probably me speaking out of turn, but I don’t think anything we’re changing would require a massive undertaking from the teams themselves to try and implement. I think we’ve got some good options coming along the way.”

IS ROCKINGHAM A TRACK YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE CUP SERIES GO BACK TO? “Yeah. I was fortunate enough to run I think just one race in ARCA. I wasn’t old then, but it was a blast. It was so much fun. I don’t know if the repave kept some of the character of the racetrack and some of the whoops through the corners, but that’s certainly one I would love if the opportunity presents itself to get back out there and get it back on the schedule. I know Truck and Xfinity is this year, so we’re gonna see some more racing there, which is awesome. I loved racing there way back when, but it’s been a day or two since I’ve been out there.”

Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Test Session — North Wilkesboro Speedway
Tuesday, January 13, 2026

NASCAR conducted a Cup Series test session today at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where the first series points race in 30 years will be held at the track on July 19. Ford Mustang Dark Horse drivers Joey Logano, Zane Smith and Josh Berry visited the infield media center and discussed what they hope to learn, along with their thoughts on the new championship format that was announced yesterday.

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE NEW FORMAT CHANGES? “Honestly, I’m OK with whatever they tell us because the rules are the same for everybody, just like they were before. Everyone started with the same set of rules. We all knew what we had to do to try to win a championship. Now, we have a different set of rules with all of us starting at zero again, and we have to change the way that we go win the championship. The strategy of how you race and prepare and all those things is different. There’s no doubt it’s very different. You just have to kind of go back to the drawing board and do something else. That’s fine. I don’t really care. Personally, I was one of the rare people that liked the old one just from a fan perspective. I enjoyed it, but if the majority doesn’t like that, then, sure, we’ll change it and we’ll go race another way and that’s OK with me, too. That’s kind of where I’m at with it.”

WILL IT BE HARDER TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP NOW AND IS IT HARDER TO REPEAT UNDER THIS NEW FORMAT? “I don’t know that it’s fair to say it’s easier or it’s harder. I mean, it’s hard to win a championship no matter any way you look at it, but it’s different. There’s no doubt it’s different. The things that stand out to me immediately are the bad days are gonna be harder to recover. Consistency is gonna pay off more. Looking at it, I think if you’re 12th or so going into the playoffs, I don’t think you can win it from that far back. You’re gonna be 70-plus points back without knowing the real numbers, and you’re gonna have to make that up against the best cars in 10 weeks. Boy, that’s gonna be tough. That’s gonna take a lot to make that happen. You’re gonna have to be really, really, really good, really special to do that, so that just tells me that you’ve got to be pretty solid throughout the regular season to make sure you’re within that top five or so when the playoffs start. I think it’s a pretty big jump to get yourself into championship contention if you’re too far back. The game has changed. Like I said, and it will change the way we do everything all the way through. It’ll change what we see on the racetrack for racing and what the fans see. I’ll be interested to see how it plays out. It’ll definitely be interesting.”

THERE HAS BEEN A LEADERSHIP CHANGE AT NASCAR. ANY CONCERN ABOUT STEVE PHELPS NOT BEING HERE ANYMORE? “That’s probably a better question for NASCAR leadership, but do feel like there is some depth there. O’Donnell has been around for a long time. A lot of those guys have been around for a long time and worked in different departments. I think they’ve been able to see how the inner workings of the sport and how it works. I assume they’re gonna be fine, but I also don’t work there everyday. I don’t work for NASCAR to see all of the challenges. I’m sure it’s a challenge at the moment, but over time I’m sure they’ll figure it out and I’m confident they’ll be fine.”

HOW QUICKLY DO YOU FEEL YOU NEED TO MAKE ADJUSTMENTS WITH THE SHORT TRACK PACKAGE FOR WHEN THE CHASE STARTS? “We’re here working on some stuff and it will be interesting to see what kind of changes they’re gonna make rules package-wise. Obviously, we’re doing camber stuff today as well as some stuffers and diffuser strakes and all those things. I don’t know if there’s a for sure answer of what we’re gonna do yet, but it’s a long season. I know that. There’s a lot of ups and downs. There are times when teams look great early in the year and they fall off. It’s really hard to stay up there the whole time.”

DOES HAVING ELIMINATION RACES GO AWAY CHANGE THE RACING? IF SO, HOW? “Yeah, it definitely does. When you had multiple times throughout the year a lot of teams and drivers doing desperate things. Desperate people do desperate things and it was a true test of what your morals are in the race car and what you’re OK with and then your memory is always reminding yourself of what’s happened to you. All these things. It was a true challenge mentally deciding what you’re OK with and what you weren’t. I’ll be honest with you, it’s a hard place to be for all the teams of what’s acceptable, and everybody has a different line on what that is. Now that type of do-or-die moment isn’t gonna be here as much anymore, and that’s what it seems like the fans wanted was to have more consistency pay off. Those situations won’t be there as much. It’s one thing if you’re racing for a win or something like that, but those moments where you have to get one point, what are you willing to do? And we’ve seen that happen multiple times throughout the last 12 years – every single year where they would do something big to get to the next round. I mean, the first time they had that playoff format it was Newman riding the wall in Phoenix to get in. Those are the desperate things the people were doing that I don’t see is going to be like that in a lot of scenarios anymore.”

WHAT DID YOU LEARN THIS MORNING AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACHIEVE THIS AFTERNOON WITH THE CAR? “We’re just working through some changes that we wanted to try. It’s an opportunity to try things that you don’t get to try on typical race weekends when all you usually get are wedge and heights and bar arms. Now, you can change some big things that you typically don’t get to try. So, we’re just trying to get some direction on some of those things, and then obviously this afternoon is more toward the new rules package and options and what those could look like.”

ZANE SMITH, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT WAS IT LIKE A YEAR AGO AT THIS TIME WITH ALL OF THE UNCERTAINTY THAT WAS HANGING OVER FRONT ROW? NOW THAT IT’S ALL OVER, IT’S A NON-ISSUE NOW. “From a driver’s standpoint, in my position, obviously there was a lot out of my control and we were always just kind of reading through Twitter and social media about updates and what-not. I mean, I’d be lying to you if I said that I’m not sleeping better now and knowing that my future is clear. That all feels great and, yeah, through last year there was that weird deal that we were going through, but, then again, at the same time I had a one-year contract, hoping for an extension, so I was able to get that probably halfway through this summer. Obviously, that felt great and then I was just hoping that the lawsuit was gonna get figured out, which, fortunately it did. It’s gonna be a win-win for everyone. It’s nice now.”

THE NEW FORMAT ELIMINATES THE WIN AND YOU’RE IN THE PLAYOFFS. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT AND DOES IT CHANGE YOUR APPROACH TO MAKING THE PLAYOFFS? “I think the changes are great. I think it’s gonna obviously reward consistency, which is great. I think this year we weren’t great in points and it was a pretty inconsistent year, especially the back half, but the front half was pretty good for us. With the format that we’ve had, I think we missed out by like three or four spots, so I think it’ll be great for us and I feel confident that we’ll have a fighting chance to get into the Chase and fight for that.”

WHAT IS CONNOR ZILISCH IN FOR DURING HIS FIRST YEAR IN CUP? “Connor actually hangs around a group that we kind of hang around with and he’s a great kid. He’s obviously a tremendous talent, but when I was in Truck and part-time Xfinity I was always warned and told and heard about your first year in Cup. There’s no preparing for it. You just have to go do it. I think it’s gonna be no different for him. Obviously, he’s gonna have some great speed on the road courses and I think he’ll be fast, it’s just way different. When you’re in a really good car, you go from 10-15 guys that you have to worry about to now where it’s literally first through last. Everyone is really strong and incredibly close. The attention to Saturdays will go, I think, a long way for him. That was something that I had to go through and learn. In the other ranks, qualifying is always important but if you are a little off in qualifying or slip up, you’re gonna be 12th maybe. If you do that in Cup, you could easily be in the thirties and that just makes for a long day and a tough start to Sunday. Obviously, I’m hoping the best for him and hope he has a long future on Sunday, I just think racing on Sunday is a whole other animal that you just have to experience.”

HOW DO YOU THINK NOT HAVING ELIMINATIONS WILL CHANGE THE OVERALL RACING? “I don’t think it’s gonna change a whole lot of the racing. I think you’d see the guys that would play some strategy to hopefully try to win and as you were getting pretty close to the cutoff, or whatever you want to call it, I’m just trying to do some strategy, but I feel regardless you’re gonna see guys that do some of these crazy strategies that you see because it still works out for them to get a good result, so I don’t think you’ll see a whole lot different there. I think you’re just gonna see the guys that are really consistent, that are just fast week in and week out be rewarded in a better way.”

JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOUR VEGAS WIN LAST YEAR PUNCHED YOUR PLAYOFF TICKET. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT SCENARIO BEING REMOVED? WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOUR TEAM? “Ultimately, it’s the same for everybody – the system. We know that we’re gonna have to be a little bit better than we were last year. I don’t know exactly where we would have ended up with the new system versus last year, but we just need to be more consistent. Overall, I’m in support of what we’re doing. I think it’s a good change and we’ll see how it all sorts out. For us, the goals are still the same – just go out every week and run the best we can and the points will take care of themselves if we do that.”

HAVE YOU SEEN ANY CHANGE WITH WHAT YOU’RE TESTING TODAY? “It’s always hard at these tests because this is best-case scenario. It’s cold. It’s warming up now, so maybe we’ll get a better idea of it in the afternoon. Obviously, it was really cold this morning. I would say at 10 o’clock this morning if you would have told me there was a motor change, that’s the only way I would have known. There’s just a lot of grip and it’s hard to tell, but as the track rubbers up and it gets hotter, those things are gonna expose themselves more, and I think it’ll be a little bit of a change, but I’m not sure it’s gonna be a huge one.”

HOW HAS THE SURFACE AGED THROUGH THE YEARS? “It’s definitely starting to come in a little bit. I think we saw even in the All-Star Race that the groove widened out a lot, so I think we’re gonna continue to see that. I think even today the groove is getting pushed up pretty high in one and two. I don’t know if we have enough cars on the track to move the groove up in three and four like we probably will in July, but I think it’s gonna continue to age in and ultimately the place is progressively banked and I think it’s gonna make multi-groove racing.”

WHAT DOES THIS SEASON HAVE IN STORE FOR THE FANS WITH ALL THE NEW ELEMENTS? “I think it should be exciting. It seems like that public perception has been that a lot of fans wanted a different format for the Chase. It should be exciting for them to follow and, for us, like I said earlier, it’s really just business as usual. We just want to go out and try to run well each and every week. For me personally, this is first time I’ve ever had the same crew chief the second year, so even being here today it just feels like I’m picking right up from last year. You’re not learning new people with new communication and learning new guys, so I think that’s a positive for us and we’re excited to keep going today and get to Bowman Gray in a couple of weeks.”

DOES MORE HORSEPOWER MEAN MORE ENTERTAINMENT? “Yeah, sure. Of course it does.”

HOW DO YOU THINK THE RACING WILL CHANGE FROM A WEEK TO WEEK BASIS WITH SOME OF THE RISKS DRIVERS USED TO TAKE JUST TO GAIN A POINT POSSIBLY GOING AWAY? “I saw Blaney make that point and ultimately I agree with him. I think we’ve seen times when some moves have gotten made and it’s always, ‘I’ve got to win.’ I think that will change the dynamic a little bit. Wins still mean a lot. Winning in this series is a big deal. Wins still matter a lot, but it’ll be interesting to see if that changes a lot of people’s perceptions of how they race, especially when you look at superspeedway races and things like that. If you only have to win, that changes how you race versus if you go to Daytona or Talladega and walk out of there with a top five and some points would be a good day in this new system, so I think it should change how people think. It’s hard to say if that will show up on track or not, but, ultimately, you’ve got to limit your bad days if you want to have a chance at this. I think that it should mean consistency is more and finishing races is more important. I guess that’s what everybody wants, right?”

FANS GOT TIRED OF HEARING DRIVERS SAY “IT WAS A GOOD POINTS DAY.” HOW IS THAT CONVERSATION GOING TO GO THIS SUMMER WHEN SOMEBODY FINISHES THIRD AT POCONO AND THEY SAY THEY HAD A GOOD POINTS DAY? “It’ll probably be like 2003. That’s what everybody used to say then. Hopefully, that’s not the case, but, ultimately, that’s what everybody has been asking for is the top guys to be at the top and less randomness, must-win and win and your in and all the chaos. They want it to be more structured and about consistency. Hopefully, that’s not the case, but in a year from now we might be sitting here saying that.”

WHAT ARE YOU AND YOUR TEAM LOOKING TO DO AS FAR AS CHANGES TO YOUR MUSTANG THIS AFTERNOON? “Honestly, I’m not entirely sure what exactly they have planned. I think there are some small changes with camber and springs that they’ve talked about maybe doing, but I’m not exactly sure if that’s definitely happening or not. I think that we’re working on some of that stuff just to see how it reacts to our car in case they decide to make some rule changes, I think.”

DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LATE MODEL RACING NEXT YEAR? “At this point, I don’t have anything planned. I haven’t really put a lot of thought into it. Probably the highest one would be going back to Nashville for the race before the Cup race there – that Broadway race. Outside of that, I don’t have any plans.”

THIS TRACK HAS GREAT HISTORY. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HERE AND THEN HEADING TO BOWMAN GRAY IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS? “It’s a lot of fun. It’s a great facility. We’ve seen really good turnouts from the fans each time we’ve raced here, and I think some solid races. I think we’re excited to see it have a full-length race, 400 laps here in the summer. I think it should put on a great show and hopefully we have great turnout and a great race.”

The fan-favorite restaurant brand and ascending race team expand sponsorship of the No. 77 Chevy ZL1 driven by Carson Hocevar

DALLAS – Jan. 13, 2026 – After a year of encouraging NASCAR fans to Ride the ‘Dente with a country music video, mechanical margarita shaker ride and headline-grabbing firesuits celebrating the brand’s world-famous Presidente Margarita®, Chili’s® Grill & Bar and Spire Motorsports are shaking up a multi-year extension that keeps the iconic red pepper on the No. 77 Chevrolet ZL1 driven by rising NASCAR Cup Series star Carson Hocevar.

Chili’s makes its 2026 debut in its home state of Texas at the March 1 NASCAR race weekend at Circuit of the Americas, the first of multiple dates on the No. 77.

“Our partnership with Spire Motorsports continues to grow as we see excitement build at the track and with race fans across the country,” said Chili’s Director of Media Tim Forman. “We both take our business seriously but are eager to embrace opportunities to have fun and show up in unexpected ways together. Last season, Carson took it to a new level, giving fans an authentic reason to connect with Ride the ‘Dente, and we can’t wait to continue that push this year.”

“The team at Chili’s has really become students of the game,” said Hocevar. “I think the Ride the ‘Dente look was one of the cleanest and most iconic schemes of the season, and it feels like we’re becoming one of the most talked about team and partner relationships in the garage. I’m really excited to build on that in 2026. Every race we were in the Chili’s colors, we were really fast, and our plan is to give back to their commitment by getting them a lot of TV time up front, and hopefully, in Victory Lane.”

Chili’s has expanded its racing footprint with Spire Motorsports with primary placement on Hocevar’s dirt late model and the High Limit Racing sprint car driven by fellow Spire Ascent driver Gio Scelzi. At this week’s Chili Bowl Nationals, Chili’s sponsors Scelzi’s midget and is the pre- and post-race show title sponsor for FloRacing’s coverage throughout the event.

“I am infinitely thankful for the relationship Spire Motorsports has built with Chili’s,” said Spire Motorsports Co-Owner Jeff Dickerson. “From what started as a one- or two-race opportunity, to where we find ourselves in 2026 is a true testament to Chili’s commitment to this platform. We’ve built a solid NASCAR Cup Series program with Carson (Hocevar) and our No. 77 team and expanded the relationship to connect with our High Limit sprint car team and dirt late model project. We’ve had a pit road seat to their story too, so we truly appreciate how Chili’s has re-emerged as the go-to, casual dining destination across the country. We’re more than proud Chili’s has joined us on our mission to win races and compete for championships. We’ve enjoyed so much to this point and still have much to accomplish.”

Following up his NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year season in 2024 with a pair of runner-up finishes last year at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway, Hocevar is poised for a breakout third season in the Cup Series. His authentic, lighthearted personality off the track and throwback bravado on it have made him a fan favorite with a rapidly growing fanbase.

More information about Chili’s primary race dates and design reveal for the March 1 weekend at Circuit of the Americas will be announced closer to the race, but for more information about Spire Motorsports, please visit spire-motorsports.com.

About Chili’s® Grill & Bar…
Hi, welcome to Chili’s! A proud leader in the casual dining industry and the flagship brand of Dallas-based Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE: EAT), Chili’s was named Ad Age’s 2025 Brand of the Year. Founded in 1975, Chili’s is known for serving Big Mouth Burgers®, Crispy Chicken Crispers®, and sizzling fajitas, while hand-shaking more margaritas than any other restaurant brand in the United States.

Chili’s operates 1,600 restaurants in 29 countries and two territories with over 70,000 team members. With a purpose to make everyone feel special, Chiliheads take food, drink and service seriously – but not themselves. Chili’s was a proud winner at the 2025 MenuMasters Awards for Best New Menu Item for Nashville Hot Mozz, the breakout addition to the social media-famous Triple Dipper. For more than 20 years, Chili’s has been a proud supporter of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and has raised more than $120 million for the organization through generous guest and team member donations. Find more information at chilis.com, follow on X or Instagram, like on Facebook, or join Chili’s on TikTok.

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 (Tenn.) 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.