• In 12 previous NASCAR Cup Series starts at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway, Spire Motorsports has two top-five finishes with a best result of second earned twice by Zane Smith (2024) and Carson Hocevar (2025). Spire Motorsports fields the Nos. 7, 71 and 77 Chevrolet ZL1s in the Cup Series for Daniel Suárez, Michael McDowell and Hocevar, respectively.
• The 300-lap Cup Series event will be televised live on Prime Video Sunday, May 31 beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The 14th of 36 points-paying races on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule will also be broadcast live on the Performance 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 ZL1 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway.
• Freeway Insurance was established in 1987, Freeway Insurance 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.
• The Monterrey, Mexico native has made five NASCAR Cup Series starts at Nashville, earning one top-10 and four top-20 finishes while leading one lap at the 1.33-mile, D-shaped oval. He holds an average starting position of 14.4 and an average finish of 20.0, with his best result at “Music City” coming in 2021 when he finished seventh. He has completed 100 percent of the laps contested at Nashville over those five starts (1531/1531). Last season, Suárez started 32nd and finished 16th.
• Last week at Charlotte, Suárez earned his third-career NASCAR Cup Series victory, and first since joining Spire Motorsports, in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. NASCAR officials called the race after 373 of 400 laps due to persistent rain. The team also jumped to 10th in the series’ championship point standings, gaining four positions.
• The three-time NASCAR Cup Series winner, is a veteran of 336 Cup Series starts and has notched three wins, 26 top fives and 78 top-10s in NASCAR’s premier division. Suarez has led 925 laps and earned three poles since 2017.
• Out of Suárez’s 336 Cup Series starts, 162 have come on intermediate tracks. Over those races, he earned wins at Charlotte (2026) and Atlanta (2024), 12 top-five and 40 top-10 finishes while leading 405 laps. This season, at venues generally considered intermediate-style tracks, Suárez finished fifth at Atlanta, 30th at Phoenix, 18th at Las Vegas, seventh at Darlington, sixth at Texas and first at Charlotte.

Daniel Suárez Quote
Coming off the Coca-Cola 600 victory, you’ll roll off last in Saturday’s qualifying session for Sunday’s race. What’s your mindset heading into Nashville?
“I really enjoyed one of my favorite races of the year with my family, friends, partners and team, but now it’s time to turn the page and focus on Nashville. Qualifying is so important there, and we want to put together the best lap possible on Saturday. We’re working hard to bring another fast race car this weekend and hopefully put ourselves in position to fight for another win. The momentum and confidence we gained from Charlotte means a lot to our whole group, and we want to keep building on that. It would also be really cool to win the Gibson guitar trophy. I’d love to have that sitting in my garage right next to the Coca-Cola fridge.”

Atop the No. 7 Box – Crew Chief Ryan Sparks

• Ryan Sparks is the Crew Chief of Spire Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro in the NASCAR Cup Series.
• Sparks has called 215 NASCAR Cup Series races since making his debut atop the pit box in 2020, recording one victory, six top-five and 14 top-10 finishes. Sparks earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series win with driver Daniel Suárez in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, which was shortened due to weather. The race-winning call came on the final pit stop, when Sparks opted for two right-side tires on the No. 7 car — a strategy that ultimately secured the victory.
• In total, the newly minted Cup Series winning Crew Chief, has called five races at Nashville since 2021, with his best result coming that same year when he finished 15th. Across 103 starts on intermediate-style tracks, he has recorded one win, three top-five and six top-10 finishes.
• 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 Daniel Suárez.
• Sparks brings more than a decade of experience across all three national 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 Garner Trucking Chevrolet ZL1 in this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway.
• Garner Trucking, the Official Transportation Partner of Spire Motorsports since 2023, will be featured as the primary sponsor aboard McDowell’s No. 71 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for two races in 2026, beginning this weekend. The Garner livery will return to the primary position aboard McDowell’s No. 71 machine next weekend at Michigan International Speedway and include additional branding from Alvys and 419 Black Swamp Bucks at both races. Garner Trucking provides Spire Motorsports with the semi tractors the team utilizes to transport its equipment to NASCAR races across the country and has been named a Best Fleets to Drive For ® carrier for 10-straight years – a national recognition voted on by the company’s professional drivers. The family-owned and -operated business was started in 1960 by Vern and Jean Garner. Headquartered in Findlay, Ohio, Garner Trucking is highly regarded in the industry for its excellent safety record and on-time delivery performance. Garner is now owned and operated by second generation daughter Sherri Garner Brumbaugh.
• In five previous NASCAR Cup Series starts at the suburban Nashville oval, McDowell has earned one top-15 and two top-20 results. The 19-year Cup Series veteran earned a series/venue-best 13th-place finish in the 2022 300-lap event. The Glendale Ariz., native has logged a 19.2 average start and a 22.6 average finish at the 1.333-mile Tennessee oval, highlighted by a qualifying effort of eighth in last season’s 400 miler.
• The father-of-five started 14th and led 31 laps at the series’ 2024 visit to the D-shaped concrete oval but was forced to retire early with a drivetrain issue and settle for a 35th-place finish.
• McDowell has made four NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series starts at Nashville Superspeedway between 2009–2010 and earned venue-best eighth-place finish in the division’s June 2009 visit.
• Last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, McDowell finished 14th in an event that saw his Spire Motorsports’ stablemate Daniel Suarez take the checkered flag in Sunday’s rain shortened Coca-Cola 600.
• Through the first 13 races of the 2026 campaign, the 2021 Daytona 500 Champion owns an average starting position of 16.5, a 19.5 average finish, including two top-five and three top-10 finishes and currently sits 20th in the Cup Series’ championship point standings.
• Over his last three races, the two-time Cup Series winner has earned one top-five and a trio of top-15 finishes, including a runner-up effort at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. He finished eighth in the NASCAR All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway and 14th last weekend at Charlotte.
• McDowell started from the pole position at the venue’s 2007 ARCA Menards Series race where he led 33 laps before an engine failure ended his day just three laps from the checkered flag.

Michael McDowell Quote
The 71 is building momentum, how do you feel heading to Nashville?
“Nashville is a track I’ve always enjoyed. I’ve had the chance to race there quite a bit over the years in the ARCA and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, and when I first got to the Cup Series, it was also a place where we did a lot of testing. It’s a unique track because it kind of blends characteristics of a short track and an intermediate, which makes it a lot of fun from the driver’s seat. In these cars, you’re shifting a lot and managing different opportunities throughout the race, so it keeps you engaged. It’s a place where I feel like we’ve had strong speed, even if the results don’t necessarily reflect that. We’ve had some tough breaks there with incidents and mechanical issues, including last year, but overall, it’s a track where I feel like we’ve shown good pace and had solid potential. With the speed our Spire Motorsports organization has been bringing to the track and the momentum we have been building over the last few weeks, I’m ready to get to Nashville.”

Atop the No. 71 Box – Crew Chief Travis Peterson

• Following the birth of his daughter Sophie that kept him from his crew chief duties at the NASCAR All-Star Race, Crew Chief Travis Peterson returned to pit road last weekend at Charlotte and led McDowell to a 14th-place finish at the Coca-Cola 600.
• The West Bend, Wis., native is a mechanical engineering graduate of the William States Lee College of Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
• The 35-year-old has called 125 races in NASCAR’s premier series, securing eight poles, one win, nine top fives and 26 top 10s.

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

• Carson Hocevar will race Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 Chili’s Ride the ‘DenteTM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Sunday’s 400-mile race at Nashville Superspeedway, his third start on the 1.33-mile concrete oval in NASCAR’s premier division.
• It’s time to Ride the ‘DenteTM … Again’te! Hocevar’s black, white and red Chili’s® Grill & Bar design returns this weekend, a livery featuring pepper vines crawling across the top and sides, a homage to Chili’s founder Larry Lavine and the fashion sense he displayed in the early days of the 50-year-old restaurant brand.
• Through 13 races, Hocevar sits ninth in points, just five markers out of eighth. His one win, three top fives, five top 10s, 356 points scored, average starting position of 11.2 and 15.2 average finish are all career highs through the first 13 points-paying races of the 2026 season. The team’s average starting and finishing positions have each improved by nearly eight spots compared to this point in 2025.
• Last season, the 23-year-old driver started 26th and rallied to score a venue-best runner-up finish at Nashville. Hocevar raced inside the top five for most of the evening and reached the second position over the final 102 circuits before falling just short of what would have been his first career victory. He finished 16th in 2024.
• In three CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts at the suburban Music City oval, Hocevar owns one win, two top fives and two top 10s. He secured his second of six CRAFTSMAN Truck Series victories at Nashville in 2023 when he inherited the lead on Lap 110 and survived a restart on old tires with just three laps remaining to secure the victory.
• One day after his CRAFTSMAN Truck Series victory at Nashville, Hocevar made a rare O’Reilly Auto Parts Series appearance for Spire Motorsports. He qualified eighth, and despite spending the entire day in the top 10, was swept up in an incident during a Lap-53 restart, dealing day-ending damage to his No. 77 Camaro.
• The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year registered his first-career victory last month at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. He survived a late-race restart with three laps remaining with help from his Chevrolet teammates and took the checkered flag. He became the 13th driver to earn their inaugural series victory at Talladega, and registered Spire Motorsports’ first win since the 2019 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway with driver Justin Haley.
• In last Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Portage, Mich., native started 23rd and raced just outside of the top 10 near the halfway point. Unfortunately, an equipment issue during a green-flag pit stop pinned the team one lap down. They were unable to return to the lead lap the remainder of the evening and were credited with a 23rd-place finish.
• 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.

Carson Hocevar Quotes
Nashville has been good to you in the past. It is also very unique compared to anything else on the schedule. Why is that?
“What makes it unique is it looks like a mile and a half but doesn’t race like one, per se. You have to slow down for the corner way more than you’d think and downshift, all while knowing there isn’t much banking there to support you. The size is very deceiving for how tight the corners are.”

Nashville marks Chili’s final race as primary sponsor for the year. What will you take away from this season with them?
“I love having Chili’s on our car, and we had a really fun year. They were on the car when I got my first win at Talladega, then we backed it up with a truck win together at Texas a week later. They have truly come up with one of the most iconic car and suit designs in the garage, and that is obviously reflected by the fan reaction. Thank you to the entire Chili’s team for everything they do for us.”

Atop the No. 77 Box – Crew Chief Luke Lambert

• Crew chief Luke Lambert is in his third season at Spire Motorsports and fourth with driver Carson Hocevar. The duo has logged one win, two pole awards, six top-five and 20 top-10 finishes in 93 races together.
• The 16-year veteran crew chief has called four NASCAR Cup Series races at Nashville Superspeedway, highlighted by Hocevar’s runner-up result last season.

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 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.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (May 26, 2026) – When playing his Dean Z custom guitar or Gibson Les Paul Classic, Cody Ware plays with feel. When wheeling his No. 51 Jacob Construction Chevrolet, the 30-year-old racer drives with feel, too.

It’s an approach that’s especially appropriate this weekend as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to the Music City suburb of Lebanon, Tennessee, for Sunday night’s Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Whether it’s shredding on a six-string or driving a 3,400-pound racecar at 160 mph around Nashville’s concrete-clad 1.33-mile oval, finding the right feel is the fastest way to success. Ware is an avid guitarist who uses music to offset the cacophony of rumbling V8 engines that each produce 750 horsepower.

“Music is almost as big a part of my life as racing,” Ware said. “It’s therapeutic. When you’re playing, it kind of takes you into your own little world. It’s a great way to unwind.”

When you compete in the longest season in all of professional sports, finding a way to unwind is important. Nashville marks the 14th points-paying race on the Cup Series schedule, but it’s actually the 16th race of the year when including the preseason Clash Feb. 4 at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the non-points NASCAR All-Star Race May 17 at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway. After Nashville, 22 races still remain.

“Thirty-eight race weekends isn’t easy, but that’s why not everyone’s out here doing it,” Ware said. “I’ve got a great family and a great support system, and all of us just love racing. We’re committed to it, so we just make it happen.”

Ware and his Cup Series counterparts are coming off the longest race on the schedule – the Coca-Cola 600 last Sunday at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. After 400 laps around the 1.5-mile oval, Ware finished 28th. Now, he visits a Nashville track that is .17 of a mile shorter than Charlotte with 100 fewer laps.

“Nashville is a little bit of a hybrid racetrack,” Ware said. “It’s not quite an intermediate-style track like Charlotte, but it’s also not like the two other concrete tracks – Bristol and Dover.”

Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and Dover Motor Speedway are high-banked behemoths. The .533-mile Bristol oval has corners banked between 24 and 28 degrees, and the 1-mile Dover oval has corners banked at 24 degrees. Nashville, on the other hand, has just 14 degrees of banking, and its added length provides much more room in the corners, allowing drivers to try different lanes to find the fastest line around the track.

“Nashville is a lot more forgiving,” Ware said. “It’s a very wide racetrack, not quite as fast as a full-blown mile-and-a-half, and it’s a little bit shorter, so the speeds aren’t quite as high. But because it’s a little bit bigger, you kind of get sucked into the feeling of it being a mile-and-a-half, so overdriving the corners is very easy.

“You think you can drive a lot deeper into the corners than you really can, so it’s almost about reeling yourself in as a driver and being patient, and remembering that it’s about getting speed off the corner versus getting speed going into the corners.

“So, you have to have the entry patience of a short track with the discipline of an intermediate track, where you have to be consistent with your inputs, both with steering and your right foot. It’s a game of patience with smoothness in your steering, your throttle inputs and your braking inputs. The driver who looks the least out of control is typically the fastest there. It’s all about smoothness and consistency at Nashville.”

It is the same kind of smoothness and consistency heard in the guitar riffs and ballads that greet visitors from the moment they land at Nashville International Airport through their walks along Lower Broadway’s Honky Tonk Highway.

“I appreciate and respect the blood, sweat and tears that musicians put into their craft, just like we do as racers,” Ware said. “That being said, I grew up on heavy metal and rock-and-roll. Megadeth, Metallica, Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden are on my playlist.

“I’ve been playing on and off for almost 20 years now. It’s kind of my hidden hobby. I play a lot of electric stuff, and I do a little bit of acoustic, but I’ve still got some work to do there. I don’t show off too much. I’ve probably only posted about it a few times, but it’s definitely a fun way to relax and unwind.”

With Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 in the rearview mirror – a race that took nearly five hours to complete – and a few new chords strummed on his guitars, Ware is refreshed and ready for Nashville.

Practice begins Saturday at 3:30 p.m. CDT/4:30 p.m. EDT, followed by qualifying at 4:40 p.m. CDT/5:40 p.m. EDT. The 300-lap race goes green on Sunday at 6 p.m. CDT/7 p.m. EDT. All of the action will be broadcast live by Prime Video and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

About Rick Ware Racing:

Rick Ware has been a motorsports mainstay for more than 40 years. It began at age 6 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’s seat and into full-time team ownership. In 1995, Rick Ware Racing was formed, and with his wife Lisa by his side, Ware has since built his eponymous organization into an entity that competes full-time in the elite NASCAR Cup Series while simultaneously campaigning successful teams in the Top Fuel class of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Progressive American Flat Track, FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) and zMAX CARS Tour.