Finally, after nearly a month off, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to action on Friday (July 25) at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park for the TSport 200.
The 35-truck entry list features a few surprises, such as Jordan Anderson driving a second Young’s Motorsports entry for his first Truck Series start since 2022, Greg Van Alst making his debut as a Truck Series team owner and Boston Oliver making his series debut for the recently-rebooted Truck Series program of Mike Harmon Racing.
One of the least surprising things on said entry list is Spire Motorsports and its regular fleet of four trucks hitting the track as it does every week. It’s Nos. 71 and 77 are filled by its full-time drivers Rajah Caruth and rookie Andres Perez, while its two all-star trucks, the Nos. 07 and 7, will see one new and one familiar face, respectively.
This week, the No. 07 will be driven by ARCA Menards Series point leader Brenden Queen (affectionately known by fans as “Butterbean”) in his first Truck Series start of 2025. The No. 7, meanwhile, will be driven by Corey Day, who will be making his seventh start of the season in the truck, and first since Nashville Superspeedway back in May.
As mentioned, it’s not all that surprising to see Spire’s four-truck fleet on the entry list — all four trucks are full-time and are in the thick of the drivers’ and owners’ point battles.
But could that change soon?
According to the latest stirs in the rumor mill, Spire is selling off a bunch of its Truck Series equipment, including assets it got from its purchase of Kyle Busch Motorsports following the 2023 season. This was confirmed by ARCA Menards Series driver Colby Evans, who posted a link to the rumored sale from the popular website racingjunk.com, which allows users to sell off their racing equipment for a price of their choosing.
Should the rumor be true, it’s alleged that the No. 77 team of Perez would be out of a ride, with some speculating as soon as after the Truck Series race at IRP. Perez, the 2024 ARCA champion, currently sits 17th in the point standings and third amongst the rookies in the 2025 Rookie of the Year battle.
Crazy enough?
Well hang on, because I’m not finished yet. Some speculate that the reason for Spire selling its Truck Series equipment is because it will plan on going Xfinity Series racing full-time in 2026. Spire’s only made a few Xfinity Series starts, making four starts with Carson Hocevar in 2023.
If the team wanted to go Xfinity racing, then selling off some Truck Series equipment could give the team the funding it needs to, say, purchase the assets of the now-defunct Our Motorsports?
Needless to say, there’s a lot to unpack here.
First, the idea that the No. 77 truck would shut down instead of either the No. 07 or No. 7 is insane. Why take a full-time opportunity away from the reigning ARCA champion in Perez instead of just folding its two all-star trucks into one? The No. 07 only exists because Spire ended its partnership with Rev Racing and acquired that truck, which was built in-house at Spire (and previously KBM before Spire bought it).
The smart thing would have been to just shut down the No. 07 (formerly the No. 2 with Rev) truck before the season and have one combined all-star truck with a bunch of drivers.
Taking Perez’s first full-time NASCAR season away doesn’t quite seem fair to the development of the young Mexican. While Perez has had limited luck in the way of sponsors, team co-owner Dan Towriss owns Gainbridge and Group 1001, a frequent sponsor of other Spire trucks and Cup Series cars and could easily pick up other races (that is, if funding is truly an issue for Perez).
Spire selling equipment in and of itself isn’t exactly a bad move — I mean, does it really need to be a four-truck team with two all-star trucks? Downsizing might be in the best interest of the team, lest it fall into the same trap that teams like Trackhouse Racing and Kaulig Racing have in the past few years — expanding operations too quickly and suffering a dip in performance.
But trading a truck out for an Xfinity car isn’t really downsizing so much as it’s just shuffling its resources for the same equipment. Yet at the same time, the fact that Spire hasn’t made more than four attempts in an Xfinity car isn’t curiously fascinating.
It’s proven it can win in the Truck Series, and has competed for wins on multiple occasions in the Cup Series (for the purpose this column, we’re not going to count Justin Haley’s shock win at Daytona International Speedway in 2019 because, let’s be honest, Spire was a completely different team in 2019). In its four Xfinity starts, Hocevar earned two top 10s. That’s impressive.
Not to mention its presence in ARCA and the zMAX CARS Tour, and now it seems like an Xfinity car is the next logical step for the team. With Our shutting down, Spire could scoop up its assets and start an Xfinity team — it helps that both Our and Spire run Chevrolet as a manufacturer.
And it has just the driver to drive the car.
Last week in this column, I discussed that Caruth is overdue for a promotion into the Xfinity Series, yet Hendrick Motorsports looks less and less likely to be the team that gives Caruth that chance. A Spire Xfinity seat becoming available might (and arguably should) have Caruth’s name written all over it.
Perez, while this author wants to see him finish his first full season in the Truck Series, is just not ready for a full-time Xfinity seat yet (though he should absolutely still make select starts like his one-off this season at his home track of Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez).
But then, there’s Day.
Much like Caruth, Day also has support from Rick Hendrick in some capacity — the only difference is that Day has the support of Hendrick Cup driver Kyle Larson, who sees a lot of potential in his fellow dirt racer. With Hendrick only running an Xfinity car part-time, a full-time Spire car feels like a landing spot for Day, especially given his past with Spire in Xfinity and ARCA.
We’ve seen time and time again (coincidentally, mostly from Joe Gibbs Racing) that drivers will skip the Truck Series entirely and jump straight from ARCA to Xfinity, and Day certainly feels like one of those drivers who might get that treatment, given how many starts he’s scheduled to make already in Hendrick’s No. 17 Xfinity car.
However, we’ve also seen drivers who make that ARCA-to-Xfinity transition really struggle to adjust to the Xfinity car, and then get questions about whether or not skipping the Truck Series was the right move. So if Spire has any sense, if it runs a full Xfinity season in 2026, it’ll go with the guy who has paid his dues in the Truck Series and seen success in limited Xfinity starts. Truth be told, Day isn’t ready for anything beyond maybe a full Truck Series season, so it wouldn’t be wise to throw him in an Xfinity seat and rush him.
But have we considered the very slim possibility that Spire is selling off its Chevrolet equipment to prepare to move to Ram?
This is a far-fetched hypothesis, but since Ram announced it was returning to the Truck Series back in early June, not a single team has made an indication of a manufacturer switch. Maybe these rumors are all smokescreens to hide a potential manufacturer switch for Spire — which could then lead to a manufacturer switch in its Cup program in 2027 or 2028 when Stellantis intends to enter Cup competition.
If there’s something to be taken from this column, it should be this: Perez should get a full season, as Spire should merge its two all-star trucks. Additionally, Spire needs to be weary about expanding too quickly (though selling off Truck Series equipment — if it does indeed plan to downsize its Truck Series program — isn’t the worst idea), and if an Xfinity team is coming soon, it’d be wiser to go with Caruth over Day.
Though as I always say, rumors are just that — rumors. We can speculate all we want, but we won’t know what’s true and what isn’t until we hear from the parties involved.
But it is fun to speculate though, isn’t it?
Truckin’ Tidbits
- Granite State De-Icing Supply will be the primary sponsor aboard Spencer Boyd’s No. 76 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
- McAnally-Hilgemann Racing will swap the entire crews of Daniel Hemric’s No. 19 team and Jack Wood’s No. 91 team — including crew chiefs Josh Graham and Kevin Bellicourt. Additionally, the team will welcome back its 2024 regular season champions Christian Eckes for two races. Eckes, a full-time Xfinity driver for Kaulig, will drive a fifth entry, the No. 16 (MHR’s flagship number in ARCA West competition), at Richmond Raceway and New Hampshire.
- NASCAR will move its street race to the Naval base Coronado in San Diego for 2026 — only this time, all three of NASCAR’s premier series will race there. The Truck Series will join Xfinity and Cup from June 19-21.
Follow @AnthonyDamcott on X.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.