The Growth of Spire Motorsports

 

    Originally founded in 2018 by Jeff Dickerson and Tj Puchyr, Spire Motorsports would go full time in the cup series during the 2019 season after purchasing one of the Furniture Row Charters. Spire would end up fielding one car that season with a mixture of drivers subbing in. Today, I want to discuss Spire Motorsports growth since their inception in 2018 and discuss what the future could look like for the organization.

The First Win

    Spire Motorsports was never super competitive in 2019. They were a backmarker for most of the season, but they were able to pick up a win during the 2019 season. It did come in a rain shortened race, but Justin Haley and the 77 team made the right strategy call during the summer Daytona Race. Kurt Busch and others gave up the lead to pit right before the storms came. Haley and the 77 team, however, stayed out and caught the storm at the right time. NASCAR was never able to get the race restarted, giving Haley and Spire their first career win. It was an awesome moment at the time, though it looks insane to me in hindsight seeing Spire win in that way. Regardless, Spire Motorsports and Justin Haley got their first career win which was great.

    Spire Motorsports and that 77 entry would end up finishing 36th in the owner points. They finished second to last out of all of the teams that attempted each race. They finished behind Gaunt Brothers racing, who only started 15 races that season. It was not a great season for Spire, but they had an awesome moment with Haley winning.

The Pandemic

    The 2020 season was a very intriguing season with practice and qualifying being slashed entirely. Furthermore, the Cup Series season was very much condensed after NASCAR returned to Darlington in mid-May. Spire Motorsports, however, did not really benefit from this. Spire continued to run in the back of the pack with the likes of Rick Ware Racing and Starcom Racing. They finished 34th in the owner points, which was 5th worst among teams that ran every race. Spire did not really have any standout moments that season, but they were able to get a second charter. They purchased that charter from Levine Family Racing and all of the assets. This was Spire's first major upgrade that they have experienced, and they would sign Corey LaJoie to run the 7 car full time. The 77 car, would be primarily ran by Justin Haley in the 2021 season.

2021

    Spire Motorsports started to show a little bit of improvement in the 2021 season. They did not have a ton of strong finishes, but there were flashes being shown. LaJoie ran in the top 15 for most of the Southern 500 that year and got a top 10 finish in the Daytona 500. As for Justin Haley, he did not run as well as LaJoie, but was still able to get a couple of top 10 finishes at Indy and the summer Daytona race. The 7 and 77 cars would finish 29th and 31st, respectively, in the owners standings. The team was slowly improving as they outran a Frontrow Motorsports car, Live Fast, all of Rick Ware, and Starcom. It was clear that there was still a lot of work that needed to be done, but Spire Motorsports was on the rise.

    Prior to the 2021 season, Spire motorsports announced that they had bought a 3rd charter which they leased to Trackhouse Racing that season. Spire, that same year, sold the 77 charter and the charter that they leased to Trackhouse racing that season. That left Spire with only one charter, but they weren't done with the charters yet. Later in 2021, Spire announced that they bought a charter from Rick Ware Racing to field a second entry for the 2022 season. Spire would roll with Corey LaJoie in the 7 and a combination of Josh Bilicki,  Landon Cassill, Justin Allgaier, and Mike Rockenfeller in the 77 for the upcoming season

The Next Gen Era

    The Next Gen car was supposed to even the playing field between the top teams and the smaller ones like Spire. That said, Spire was not great during the 2022 season. LaJoie had a couple moments where he nearly won, including at Atlanta in the summer race, but wrecked out on the final lap after a late Chase Elliott block. The 77 team was not very good either, as they only had 1 top 10 finish all year which came from Landon Cassill in the summer Daytona race. Spire would finish 31st and 32nd in the owner standings. There wasn't much progress made from the year prior, and there were a lot of questions about if Spire was super serious about becoming a cup series contender. 

    At the same time, Spire announced that they would expand into the Truck Series in October of 2021, where they fielded the 7 truck part time and a rotating cast of drivers in it. The team got their first win with William Byron at Martinsville that season, which was a big confidence boost for this team. Spire would operate similarly to what they did in 2022 in the 2023 season. LaJoie still was the driver for the 7 team, Ty Dillon was tabbed to drive the 77 cup ride, and 7 truck was split among a few drivers on a part time basis.

2023

    2023 was an improvement in some areas for Spire. Corey LaJoie had his best season with Spire and got the team to a 26th place finish in the owner standings. This was Spire's best result since they debut in 2019, which was quite impressive. LaJoie had 3 top 10 finishes, all coming at superspeedway tracks. LaJoie had plenty more top 15 and top 20 runs that season, as he was just more competitive throughout it all. The same cannot be said for Ty Dillon, who was just not good. The 77 team finished 33rd in the owner points, only ahead of Rick Ware Racing and Live Fast Motorsports. Spire was starting to show clear improvement within their Cup Program, as shown through LaJoie. Spire was able to get a technical alliance with Hendrick Motorsports at the start of the year, which has helped them out a lot.

    The Truck Program was largely similar to what it had been the year before. Kyle Larson got a win at North Wilksboro and the team had some other competitive runs with Layne Riggs and Derek Kraus both getting a top 10. The real change, however, came off the race track. Spire got a huge partnership with Gainbridge, who hopped into the team and sponsored a lot of the remaining races of the 2023 season. Furthermore, Spire bought the Live Fast Charter and would be expanding to a 3 car team in 2024. Along with this, they expanded their Truck Series operations by buying Kyle Busch Motorsports. For their cup program, Spire would have LaJoie run the 7, Zane Smith running the 71 after being leased from Trackhouse, and Carson Hocevar in the 77. For their truck series program, the 7 car had a few drivers split time in it, Rajah Caruth in the 71, and the 77 was Chase Purdy. Spire finally looked like they were going to start taking off in 2024.

The Breakout

    Spire Motorsports had the best season of their short history in 2024. Carson Hocevar got the 77 team up to 21st in the owners points which was really good. Hocevar had an 18.3 average finish and showed flashes of contending up front. Hocevar was looking to be the future of Spire in their cup series program at least. The other two teams struggled a lot, however. Zane Smith had one of the worst starts to a season that a driver could have, as he was dead last in points by a lot. In the first 18 races, Zane Smith only had 4 top 20 finishes which was awful. Smith, however, had 10 top 20 finishes in the final 18 races. Smith got the 71 car up to 31th in owners points, which isn't great but he showed improvement as the year went on. The 7 team was a very big mess, as LaJoie was so bad that he got traded for Justin Haley near the end of the season. Haley and LaJoie had a combined 4 top 10s in the car, leading to a 32nd place finish in the owner's points. 

    Spire's truck series program had some success as well. Chase Purdy did not make the playoffs and was pretty mediocre for most of the season. Rajah Caruth, on the other hand, won at Las Vegas early on in the season and made the playoffs. Caruth made it to the round of 8, but was eliminated at Martinsville. Still though, a 7th place finish in the standings was nothing to scoff at. The 7 team got a couple wins with Kyle Busch and they did make the owner's playoffs. They ended up finishing 8th in the final owner standings, which was not too bad. 

    Spire would continue to make moves off of the track, as they brought in Matt McCall and Dax Derringer to help with vehicle performance and the technical side of the business. Furthermore, Spire brought in Dan Towriss as a new owner, after T.J Puchyr sold his stake and went to Rick Ware Racing. Towriss and Dickerson were now left to run the show at Spire. Spire would also bring in Michael McDowell to replace Zane Smith in the 71 car for the 2025 season. Spire also hired Rodney Childers to be the crew chief of Justin Haley in the 7. Spire's truck lineup was also a bit different, as Andres Perez de Lala was brought in to drive the 77 for the 2025 season.

2025

    In many ways, 2025 has been an improvement over 2024. Carson Hocevar continues to be the strongest Spire car in the cup series. Hocevar is 18th in the standings, but has had the speed to win races this year on a consistent basis. He just has not gotten the finishes that he really deserves, including Charlotte when he was running 2nd but blew an engine at the start of the final stage. Michael McDowell is currently 22nd in the standings, which is alright. McDowell has been more under the radar compared to Hocevar, but still has some decent results this year. He recently finished 5th at Mexico City and 7th in the Coke 600. McDowell has a decent shot to win one of the remaining road courses to qualify for the playoffs. Justin Haley has been the only disappointment, as he sits 30th in the standings. To Haley's defense, he lost Rodney Childers mid season, got his entire pit crew swapped out, and lost his car chief to Ty Gibbs. Haley has gotten a lot taken from him, but he also just has not been quick this year.

    In Trucks, all 3 teams are experiencing similar results to what they had in 2024. Rajah Caruth got a win at Nashville Superspeedway and will race again in the playoffs for a 2nd straight year. Andres Perez de Lala has largely been similar to that of Chase Purdy. He sits 17th in the points with only a couple top 10s. The 7 truck has 2 wins this year with Kyle Busch and Carson Hocevar picking up a win each. Spire also added a fourth truck, the 07 truck which operates similarly to the 7 truck. Kyle Larson picked up a win at Homestead with this truck. Corey LaJoie is slated to run most of the races the rest of the season. 

The Future of Spire

    Spire is at a really intriguing place right now. They are kind of like a mini-Hendrick with their technical alliance, but they are starting to figure things out. Carson Hocevar is a threat to win almost every single week, and I think there's a good shot that he could win later this season at a track like Bristol or one of the mile and a half tracks. Hocevar should be a playoff contender for years to come with Spire, assuming he stays there. McDowell has been decent for Spire, but I don't really see him being a guy that gets much better. McDowell will be around 20th in points each year, but likely won't be anything more than that. Justin Haley is the driver that I would be worried about. I think Haley will stick around for another season in the 7 car, but I could see a world where a guy like Rajah Caruth replaces Haley down the line especially if Caruth gets better. I don't see that happening, but I do believe that Haley will be replaced down the line.

    I think the ceiling for Spire is similar to a Trackhouse. I think they can contend for the round of eight when they are really on, but I just do not see them advancing past that. As long as they have this alliance with Hendrick, though, then I see Spire being a playoff threat. I think Carson Hocevar has far underachieved in the results section, compared to how much speed he has shown. Hocevar should be in the playoffs at the moment, but he isn't at the moment. That said, Spire is still super young and I think the expectation moving forward should be to try and get two cars into the playoffs. It will be tough for them, as Hendrick, JGR, Penske, 23XI, RFK, and Trackhouse are all teams that I would say are better at the moment. Still, Spire has shown a ton of growth and I am super excited for their future!