Smith, Hocevar make team history for Spire Motorsports

BROOKLYN, Mich. — It was a new NASCAR Cup Series team record that Spire Motorsports set Monday at Michigan International Speedway.

For the first time in Cup Series team history, Spire Motorsports had multiple drivers get a top-10 finish on a non-drafting-dependent track.

Zane Smith led the way with a seventh-place finish in his No. 71 Chevrolet. His other top-10 finish of the year was a runner-up finish at Nashville in June, just five races ago.

“I’m proud of everyone sticking with it and making it better. Ever since Nashville, we’ve really made our year better and have clicked off some great runs,” Smith said.

Smith had a speeding penalty under caution on lap 138. He restarted 23rd and drove to 15th before a caution flew with a handful of laps to go to set up overtime.

Smith stayed out ahead of the first overtime and restarted 12th. While the tide of drivers on newer tires swept him back to 15th, he took charge on the second overtime and rallied to seventh at the finish.

“Defintely made a lot of gains all throughout (Sunday) and (Monday),” Smith said. “I’m just so proud of our group. I was mad at myself when I got that speeding penalty but we came alive and flew through the field.”

Teammate Carson Hocevar also had to overcome a penalty to finish inside the top-10. Thankfully, it was much earlier in the race – on lap 53 – and he had a long, 54-lap green-flag run in stage two to rally from 35th to 16th.

In the final stage, Hocevar stayed around 10th -15th. He gained a position in the first overtime, up to eighth and then lost four spots coming to the white flag. On the final lap, he gained two of those spots back to finish 10th.

Hocevar earned his fourth top-10 finish of the season and also his second in a row. Being just an hour-and-a-half from his hometown of Portage, Michigan, it was special for him to succeed.

“Really great to finish good at home, but also to have two top-10s, back-to-back, that’s no small feat,” Hocevar said. “We were able to do it at home with a lot of friends and family. We just had a super strong car and it’s great to have good momentum heading into Daytona, where anything can happen.”

Flipping out

The rookies’ teammate, nine-year NASCAR Cup Series veteran Corey LaJoie, finished 32nd after contact with the right-rear quarter panel of Noah Gragson sent LaJoie flipping down the backstretch in the final stage.

“That’s just about how the year has gone,” LaJoie said. “We have a good car and I find a way to flip it upside down. Twice this year, we’ve been upside down and I hadn’t been upside down my whole career. That’s just unfortunately how the year for the No. 7 team has been all year.”

With two races left until the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, all three drivers mathematically cannot qualify for the playoffs on points alone.

A win Aug. 24 at Daytona or Sept. 1 at Darlington would, then, automatically qualify any of the three Spire Motorsports drivers, or the other 15 playoff-eligible drivers below the cutline, for the playoffs.

In five full-time seasons, Spire Motorsports has never had one of its drivers qualify for the playoffs.