Spire Motorsports FireKeepers Casino 400 Race Report 2026

The Spire Motorsports trio of Carson Hocevar, Daniel Suárez and Michael McDowell continue to show how far the Mooresville, N.C.,-based organization has come with a top-five and top-10 finish in Sunday's FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Hocevar advanced two spots in the driver championship point standings to seventh while Suárez's strong points day padded his position in ninth. McDowell sits 20th in points with 11 races left before The Chase field is set.

Hocevar started on the front row in the No. 77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and led the first 14 laps of the 200-lap event. The Portage, Michigan, native battled for the lead during the final restart of the afternoon before tire wear inhibited his progress. Hocevar led twice for a total of 21 laps to earn a venue-best fifth-place finish in his third start at the 2-mile speedway. Suárez added 10 laps to Spire Motorsports' laps-led total en route to his fifth top-10 finish of the season in the No. 7 NationsGuard Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. The Monterrey, Mexico, native remained in contention after giving up the lead on Lap 161, ultimately securing a sixth-place finish. McDowell rounded out the day in 26th following an incident on Lap 154. The driver of the No. 71 Garner Trucking Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 qualified 20th and struggled with handing woes throughout the race prior to taking his Chevy to the garage for his first DNF of the 2026 season. 

Up next for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway on Sunday, June 14. The 160-lap race will be streamed live on Prime at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The 16th 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’m really proud of my team, pit crew, and Spire Motorsports, as we’re doing a really good job as a group of bringing fast, competitive Chevrolets to the track. We definitely had a Chevrolet that could contend all day long, and I’m super happy with my NationsGuard car, but we just need to keep improving and building on this momentum. This No. 7 NationsGuard Chevrolet team did a great job, and I’m just really proud of this group. I felt like we had a top-five car on the short run and a top-10 car on the long run, with our strength definitely in the short-to-middle part of the run.”

"Not the day we needed here at Michigan. We struggled all day to find the right balance on our Garner Trucking Chevrolet and finally found some track position in Stage 3. This one is tough, felt like we were starting to pick up some momentum in the last few weeks and might have been able to salvage some of the day there at the end before that wreck, but that's part of it. Our Spire Motorsports team had a lot of speed today — Carson (Hocevar) with a top five and Daniel (Suárez) with a top 10 — so we won't hang our heads. It just means we have to make it up in the next few weeks, but we have some strong tracks ahead of us."

"Overall, I know it was a strong day for the No. 77 team, it just hurts a little more to be so fast and lead laps at home, but not close it out. I just really want to win at Michigan. Towards the end I just plugged the wall really hard and I think the tire started going down a little bit. I could feel it start vibrating. I felt like I probably could have pushed through it, maybe run second, but at the same time there's a good shot I push through it and flatten it out or plug it in the wall. I thought if I could just inch this thing back, I'll be okay. Ultimately, these last two races are going to be important for us when it comes to the standings, so I'm glad we got a lot of points, because we have the road courses coming up, and I'm not great at those. I'll work on those, and hopefully minimize the loss there, and then go back to going hard."

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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