High expectations sour for Spire Motorsports
AVONDALE, Ariz. — High expectations soured early on for Spire Motorsports in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway.
Carson Hocevar and Michael McDowell topped practice Saturday before they and teammate Justin Haley all qualified inside the top-8.
By lap 100, all three of them had crashed with only Michael McDowell left on the track — 20 laps down.
McDowell qualified seventh but had to start in the rear after took the option tires under caution for stage one, which ended on lap 60. Further up front, Hocevar placed seventh in the stage.
In stage two, Haley and McDowell’s crews bolted on the option tires and their drivers bolted to the front. Haley moved up to fourth while McDowell moved up to ninth on lap 93 when the organization’s demise began. McDowell blew a right-rear tire and hit the outside wall, taking him to the garage for repairs.
On the subsequent restart, seven laps later on lap 100, Ty Gibbs washed up the track and bumped into Justin Haley. Haley got into Hocevar, with Chase Briscoe sandwiched in the middle as they crashed into the outside wall exiting turn two.
The wreck ended Haley and Hocevar’s days in 34th and 36th, respectively. McDowell finished 27th, 22 laps down, the best finish for the organization.
If there was any bright side to a disappointing day, McDowell ran the fastest lap of the race (27.020 seconds), running a full three tenths of a second faster than the next-fastest driver (Joey Logano, 27.335).
McDowell is still in a playoff spot (15th, +13 points to the cutline) while Hocevar is below the cutline but not by much (18th, -11 points to the cutline). Haley has some work to do, sitting 30th in points, -33 to the cutline, heading to Las Vegas Motor Speedway next weekend.
Last year at Las Vegas, the No. 7 team finished seventh in both stage one of the spring race and stage two of the fall race. Haley was the driver in the seventh-place stage effort in the fall before finishing 16th.
Hocevar finished 15th last spring and 23rd after starting sixth in the fall.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com