Spire Motorsports Coke Zero Sugar 400 Race Report 2026

Spire Motorsports ended the NASCAR Cup Series regular season with two top-five finishes in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. Daniel Suárez finished second with Michael McDowell close behind in fourth. Carson Hocevar's night ended four laps early after he spun while fighting for the lead and made hard contact with the outside wall. Suárez and Hocevar will begin their hunt for a championship next weekend at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway and will start The Chase seeded 11th and 12th, respectively. McDowell's strong run at Daytona advanced him to 20th in points.

After starting 23rd, Suárez needed clean air in Stage 1 to find the right balance in his No. 7 Coke Zero Sugar Chevrolet. The team continued to make adjustments throughout the race, and the 34-year-old driver earned three stage points with an eighth-place finish in Stage 2. Despite briefly taking over the top spot thanks to a push from McDowell, Suárez was ultimately passed by eventual race winner Ryan Preece prior to the caution on the final lap that brought the race to an end. He was scored second at the time of caution, becoming the highest-finishing Chevrolet driver in the race and earning his third top five of the season. McDowell started 18th in the No. 71 Fly Alliance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, and spent the first stage feeling out the handling of his car. He bided his time in the second stint, conserving fuel to make it to the stage break without stopping. Fuel conservation to start the Final Stage held McDowell deep in the field, but once the team had enough to make it to the end he charged to the front to claim his third top-five finish of the season. Hocevar, driver of the No. 77 MINER Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, also spent the majority of the night near the rear of the field in order to conserve fuel. After restarting 38th for the Final Stage, the Portage, Mich., native was eventually turned loose to race for position within the pack, reaching the top eight with 17 laps remaining. Despite reaching the front and leading the field on Lap 153, Hocevar got loose just three laps later in the middle of Turn 3 as he was passing to retake the lead. Hard contact with the outside wall ended his night early and relegated the team to a 38th-place finish.

The NASCAR Cup Series begins The Chase next Sunday, Sept. 6 at Darlington Raceway. The Southern 500 will be broadcast live on USA beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The 27th of 36 points-paying races on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

“I felt like we were a solid top-10 car, and then we put ourselves in position to race for the win. My team is really strong right now. The car raced well all day, it was just a little sensitive with the aero when we got around other cars. We kept making adjustments and kept fighting, and I couldn’t be more proud of this team. We executed well, and to finish second and be the top Chevrolet is something we can all be proud of.”

“We just needed a couple hundred feet more there at the end. I don’t think I would have won, but I think Daniel (Suarez) would have had a shot. We had a good run, and I had just picked him up when the caution came out. The timing was unfortunate, but you know how these races end here. If you make it to the finish line, you feel very fortunate. I’m proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports to get two of the three cars into The Chase. To have a strong night like we did tonight and get two Spire Chevrolet’s in the top five is a great run.”

"I was always super tight behind other cars, it seemed. And so, I just changed from top to bottom and that was the first time I really got a ton of air on my nose into Turn 3 and I just lost it. It just kept going. I had the wheel straight, man, it just kept going with all the air on the nose. I'm shocked that it did that. It caught me off guard, for sure. We gave ourselves a shot to win it at the end. We were up front, had track position and led laps, and that's all I can really ask for from a team standpoint. Overall, I thought we did a pretty good job here tonight.”

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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