Six seasons into its existence, Spire Motorsports continues to evolve in the NASCAR Cup Series.
A team once derided by some for its lowly performances has made considerable progress this season. Co-owner Jeff Dickerson took pride when the organization placed all three cars in the top 10 for the first time last month at Watkins Glen and it wasn’t the big story.
The accomplishment was significant to Dickerson — because of how the cars improved from practice the day before to the race — but he also saw the results as acceptance by the sport of what the team has done since he and TJ Puchyr bought Furniture Row Racing’s charter after the 2018 season and suddenly became car owners.
“We don’t have a Spire way yet,” Dickerson told NBC Sports. “We don’t have like a 150-page handbook ‘This is how we do things.’ We’re still writing it. We’re always looking for different ideas. We’re always looking for different opinions.”
Spire Motorsports has been inventive and proactive. In the last year, the organization has:
- Signed Carson Hocevar to a multi-year deal.
- Purchased Live Fast Motorsports’ charter to expand to a three-car team and bought Kyle Busch Motorsports to serve as the team’s home.
- Added Doug Duchardt as team president.
- Signed crew chief Luke Lambert for this season and champion crew chief Rodney Childers for next season.
- Signed Michael McDowell to drive the No. 71 car next season.
- Swapped Corey LaJoie for Justin Haley last month and signed Haley to a multi-year contract.
Heading into Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway (pre-race coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. ET on NBC), Hocevar is 21st in the points and is on pace to have the team’s highest finish in the season standings. The best finish by a full-time driver in the points for Spire is 25th by LaJoie last season.
Hocevar has finished 11th or better in four of the last eight races, including a third-place finish at Watkins Glen. Zane Smith, on loan from Trackhouse Racing this season, has had his four top-10 finishes in the last 12 races, including a runner-up result at Nashville. Haley finished 33rd last week at Kansas in his return to the team.
Haley drove 34 races for the organization between 2019-21, scoring the team’s only win in the summer Daytona race in 2019. He admits this is a much different Spire Motorsports team than the one he left three years ago.
“I knew it was something that gave me more long-term stability and a good path for the future,” Haley said of his return to the team.
While some may overlook Haley, AJ Allmendinger says don’t do so. Allmendinger saw Haley’s talent up close as a teammate at Kaulig Racing.
“He’s getting opportunities that he deserves because I do think he’s got the ability to go out there and win races consistently,” Allmendinger told NBC Sports. “We’ve seen what he’s done with Rick Ware (Racing) this year and how good he’s made them and just to run up front consistently in a car that hasn’t in the past, he’s showing that.”
Allmendinger said “as we look to next year (Haley will be) one of the guys that will be fighting for a playoff spot that we’re going to have to consistently try to outrun.”
That’s the challenge for Spire Motorsports. While it has shown growth since its debut season in 2019, it faces the difficulty of racing against Hendrick Motorsports — which Spire is aligned with — Joe Gibbs Racing, Team Penske and others. Hendrick, JGR and Penske took 11 of the 16 playoff spots this year.
“You just got to keep rocking,” Dickerson said of trying to grow while racing against the sport’s top teams. “They’re not waiting for you. We’ve got to go almost twice as hard and you’ve got to make unconventional moves. We have to do things different. … You’ve got to push. You’ve got to believe in what you believe in.”
It’s a daunting task but one Ross Chastain says the organization is up to reaching.
“Never bet against Jeff Dickerson,” Chastain told NBC Sports. “It’s going to work out. If it’s a 50-50 toss up, I tell our group that we always go with Jeff any chance.”
2. What’s happening?
Tyler Reddick has had his worst stretch of the season in the six races since winning at Michigan in August.
It has left the regular season champion befuddled.
“We’ve just been lacking performance and a good handling car,” Reddick said this week. “At this point, it’s definitely a head scratcher.
Reddick heads into Sunday’s race at Talladega below the cutline. He’s four points behind Chase Elliott and Joey Logano, who hold the final two transfer spots with two races left in this round. He won the most recent race at Talladega in April.
Reddick has fallen in the standings due to performance. Since placing sixth in the playoff opener at Atlanta, he has not finished better than 20th in the next three races.
“Coming off of the regular season, I felt no emphasis to change what I was doing,” Reddick said. “I don’t think anyone on this team has either. (But) we haven’t been been putting together good races. We haven’t had speed. We haven’t been able to get stage points. It’s been tough.”
Reddick noted one change that has not gone well for the team.
NASCAR added an air deflector on the right rear windshield at Daytona to help keep cars from getting airborne. That was done after Corey LaJoie’s car flipped at Michigan.
The air deflector is used for the higher speed tracks. Kansas was the second race that teams had with it. Reddick said he felt the device altered his car’s handling.
“While I feel like a lot of folks on the NASCAR side said it wasn’t going to change the characteristics of how the car drives, it was a massive swing in how the car reacts to sliding,” Reddick said. “I thought I was driving the Gen 6 car again this past Sunday.
“You can slide it so much farther than you could before. Typically, with (the Next Gen) car if you get sideways, you’re wrecking or spinning out. (But) you could just slide it and continue to slide it (at Kansas).
“So, I don’t know if that’s part of it. I think on our end, we understood it was going to be a decent change to the car. … It was really on the extreme side for us. Nothing we can really point our fingers at, to be honest.”
3. What happens to 23XI, Front Row at track?
With the antitrust lawsuit filed by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR, a question was asked in Wednesday’s media session about how the teams expected to be treated by NASCAR officials in terms of inspection and rule enforcement at the track.
Jeffrey Kessler, an attorney representing 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, responded by saying:
“I’ve spent my career where we’re representing plaintiffs who have to continue to do business with or be employed by the people we’re suing. And I will tell you that usually on the other side, there will be counsel who will caution the other side to not take retribution, to not treat the parties seemingly unfairly, because if that were to happen, it will be immediately addressed in the lawsuit.
“And as you can imagine, it’s not a great place for a defendant to be. So most of my cases, we don’t see any of that type of behavior, and I don’t think we’ll see it here. If it came we’d be ready for it.”
4. Bounce back race?
Justin Allgaier entered the Xfinity playoffs as the No. 1 seed but all has not gone well.
He goes into Saturday’s race at Talladega — the middle race of the opening round — one point out of a transfer spot.
It has been a rough stretch for Allgaier. He has finished 30th or worse in three of the last four races. While he has won two races and 14 stages this season, he also has eight finishes of 28th or worse this season.
“This year has been really weird,” he said ahead of the playoffs starting. “I would say, arguably finish-wise, it’s been one of the worst years we’ve had. It just seems like if it could go wrong, it’s gone wrong.”
Talladega hasn’t been much better for him. He’s placed 28th or worse in six of his last nine starts there. He’ll look to turn that around Saturday.
5. Numbers to know
4 — Consecutive poles by Michael McDowell at drafting style tracks, the longest streak since Bill Elliott won six in a row from 1985-86.
8 — Different winners in the last eight races at Talladega Superspeedway. Those winners are: Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick.
9.9 — Average finish for Kyle Busch in the last 10 drafting track races, the best in the series.
12 — Cup races have ended in overtime this year, the most in a season.
22.8 — Average finish for Kyle Larson at Talladega, making it his worst track.