Spire Motorsports Black's Tire 250 Race Report 2026
By PGORDON
Shane van Gisbergen earned his third top-five finish in four NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts with Spire Motorsports during Saturday's race at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, ultimately contributing to the No. 7 team's berth in The Chase for the owner's championship. Tristan McKee earned an eighth-place finish in his CRAFTSMAN Truck Series debut. The Williamsburg, Va., native became the second-youngest driver to make a start in one of NASCAR's national touring series when he took the green flag in the Black's Tire 250 presented by BTS Rewards. The No. 77 team sits ninth in the owner standings, 41 points above the cut line, with one race remaining before The Chase field is set.
Van Gisbergen claimed his first CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Pole Award in the No. 7 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado and ran inside the top five throughout the opening two stages, finishing second in Stage 1 and fifth in Stage 2 after holding the runner-up position through much of the second stage. A pit road penalty during the stage break lined the Auckland, New Zealand, native up to restart 18th for the final stage. Van Gisbergen climbed through the field and took over the runner-up position as his competitors completed green-flag pit stops. A timely late-race caution allowed the team to pit under yellow, maintaining their track position to fight for a fourth-place finish. In his first CRAFTSMAN Truck Series start, McKee started 13th and battled with veterans of the series to earn a ninth-place result in Stage 1. A lack of rear grip held the 16-year-old driver back early in the run, but he never fell below 15th and completed the second stage in 12th. McKee started 10th for the final stint and maintained his position to sit eighth when the final yellow flag of the day was displayed on Lap 217. The Workforce driver fought hard on the final restart to earn his first top 10 finish in the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series.
The CRAFTSMAN Truck Series regular season concludes next Saturday, August 22 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The Team EJP 175 will be televised live on FS1 at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The 18th of 25 races on the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series calendar will also be broadcast live on the NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
“It was a decent day. Honeycutt was obviously the fastest truck in the field. He was very, very good. Huge thanks to Spire Motorsports, HendrickCars.com and Chevy for having me. I had a lot of fun! I felt that we got a little worse every stint, I just couldn’t quite run with those guys, then got a penalty. But, it was pretty cool to recover from that.”
"I feel really good about today and really good about going into the next race at New Hampshire with 250 laps under my belt. We had a good day on pit road and a good day on the track in the Workforce Chevy. I got some good experience working with handling that wasn't quite where I wanted it and it was really tough to pass, so I think we a lot we can build on to run for a top five next week."
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’ 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.
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