A promising Sunday (March 9) for Spire Motorsports was wiped out in a matter of moments.
Following a caution period for Michael McDowell’s flat tire, Spire’s other two NASCAR Cup Series drivers, Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley, – along with several others – found out that turn 2 is still the trouble spot at Phoenix Raceway.
A four-wide spin involving Cole Custer and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. occurred due to Phoenix’s patented wild restart early in stage one. However, the field didn’t learn its lesson from the first turn 2 melee.
As the back half of the pack exited turn 2 on lap 99, Chase Briscoe, Haley and Hocevar made contact. As Briscoe’s No. 19 Toyota briefly left the racing surface, Hocevar’s No. 77 Chevrolet slammed into the outside wall, with Haley’s No. 7 Chevrolet hitting Briscoe before turning back down the track and into oncoming traffic.
Shane van Gisbergen, Brad Keselowski, Noah Gragson and Alex Bowman were among the other drivers involved in the crash.
“They just kinda squeezed four-wide and they wrecked underneath me,” Hocevar said. “That was the end of it, just a bad spot.”
“The 19 was pretty tight on my door,” Haley said. “Honestly, I feel like it was a racing deal, I don’t know if any of us did anything wrong, (we) just ran out of room. Hate to tear up two Spire Motorsports Chevys.”
After Hocevar and McDowell paced the field and practice and Spire put all three cars inside the top eight on the grid for the first time in company history, there was plenty of optimism going into Sunday’s race. Unfortunately, said optimism was extinguished in just a handful of laps.
Haley and Hocevar finished 36th and 37th, respectively, while McDowell wound up some 22 laps off the pace in 27th position.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.