Spire Motorsports Quaker State 400 Race Report 2026

Carson Hocevar earned Spire Motorsports' ninth top-five finish of 2026 with a third-place effort in Sunday's Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart. It was Hocevar's fifth top-five finish of the season and third top-five at a drafting track in 2026. Michael McDowell took the checkered flag at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 15th and Daniel Suárez in 21st. With six races remaining in the regular season, Hocevar is eighth in the driver championship point standings, Suárez is 11th and McDowell is 21st.

Hocevar started 14th in the No. 77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the 263-lap race and found his place inside the top five by Lap 16. He took the lead for the first time on Lap 83 following a sixth-place finish in Stage 1, but fell back to eighth prior to a three-hour delay for inclement weather. The Portage, Mich., native drove from 29th to fifth late in the Final Stage and contended for the win before ultimately earning his third top-five finish in six Cup Series starts at Atlanta. McDowell showed speed early in Sunday's event as he drove into the top 10 just five laps after starting the race in 18th. Despite handling woes, the No. 71 Delaware Life team found themselves 17th with just 30 laps remaining. McDowell persisted through two late-race cautions to secure a 15th-place effort. Suárez qualified the No. 7 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 fifth and was running 17th ahead of the red flag for weather in Stage 2. When the race resumed, the Monterrey, Mexico native charged to a fifth-place stage finish, but a tight-handling condition plagued the No. 7 team in the Final Stage resulting in a 21st-place finish.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway on Sunday, July 19. The Window World 450 will be broadcast live on TNT beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The 21st of 36 points-paying races on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule will be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

“We struggled at the beginning because I really didn’t have any front or rear grip, and it made it tough to keep up with the track. The team kept working on the Freeway Insurance Chevrolet, and after the weather delay we made the car a lot better and raced our way to a fifth-place finish in Stage 2. Unfortunately, the car got tight again in the final stage, and we just didn’t have enough to keep moving forward. It's frustrating because I think we had a better car than a 22nd-place finish, but we'll keep working and be ready for next week.”

“It just wasn't a very good night here in Atlanta. We never really could get the balance where we wanted to. We were either going for track position or it just kind of felt like we were stuck there at mid-pack, and the times when we got up there near the front with not taking tires, we couldn’t maintain that track position. We didn't quite hit it right on our Delaware Life Chevrolet.”

“It was fun. I’m happy for Ryan (Blaney, race winner). I just didn’t quite have enough help there at the end, unfortunately. Once I got a big lead, I needed them to stay three-wide and I think I would have just ran away. But they got cleared and it was just too big of a run to throw a block. We got three-wide there and I just needed a little help. Our No. 77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet team had a lot of fun. We were able to execute at a high level all night.”

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 win came on May 24, 2026, when Daniel Suárez took the checkered flag in the 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 will also field the No. 77 410 sprint car in Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing competition.

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