Did You Notice? … Justin Haley’s NASCAR Cup Series full-time career may be coming to an end, at least for now?
Haley and Spire Motorsports agreed Tuesday (Oct. 14) to part ways effective the end of the 2025 season. No replacement driver was named for the No. 7 Chevrolet Haley’s driven for a little over a year.
It’s Haley, of course, who Spire has to thank for its one and only Cup win: a miracle of Mother Nature at Daytona International Speedway back in 2019. The team was just a one-car organization then, mired in mediocrity until a simple decision not to pit before a downpour flipped the script.
At just 20 years old, Haley was launched into the top tier of NASCAR prospects after just his third Cup start, running a limited schedule in the team’s merry-go-round driver program at the time. It was the only top-20 finish of the year for Spire and one of just two races it placed a car on the lead lap.
Needless to say, expectations for both driver and team in 2025 were much higher. After snatching Haley from Rick Ware Racing last fall — a de facto baseball-style trade that sent Corey LaJoie to the No. 51 — all sides romanticized the past with their eyes on a playoff spot for Act II.
Haley said after the deal was announced, “I’m excited to come home.”
Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson called it a “win-win all around” and quickly put his money where his mouth was, signing veteran crew chief Rodney Childers to pair with Haley this season.
“I think we’re kind of a test tube baby for a NASCAR team,” Dickerson said last September. “… And I think the two guys that have built this place are Corey [LaJoie] and Justin [Haley].”
Now, Spire will end 2025 without either one a part of its Cup program.
The speed with which this marriage all fell apart is surprising in hindsight. Haley’s tenure with Childers lasted just nine races, and it came with some promising performances: a 10th at Homestead-Miami Speedway and a 13th at Bristol Motor Speedway in their last race together.
But Childers and Spire were not a good fit. By April, Haley was the victim of their fallout, re-paired with former crew chief Ryan Sparks. In a short time together, the Childers-Haley duo had clearly improved the program, sitting 23rd in points with an average finish of 20.2 — far better than the 23.0 LaJoie posted in his last season with the team.
Without Childers, the wheels just simply fell off the train. Haley has had just one top-10 finish in the 24 races since his departure, a third at Daytona in a last-ditch effort to make the postseason. The No. 7 team has an average finish of 22.8 during that stretch, slipping to 31st in points, which is largely in line with what LaJoie was doing with this car.
Those performances are no longer deemed acceptable by an organization that thinks it should be on at least the fringes of playoff contention. Both Carson Hocevar (21.6 average finish) and Michael McDowell (18.5) accomplished that in the other team cars.
So Spire made a move, even with a limited number of drivers available that could upgrade the seat (Daniel Suarez feels like the top option by default). An organization so gung ho on Haley that it traded for him now leaves its “foundational driver” out in the cold, sitting with limited options late in the Silly Season carousel.
At age 26, is there still someone out there who believes in Haley? The first thought would be Kaulig Racing, Dodge and what they’re trying to do in building their program. Haley spent a number of seasons with Kaulig, both in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Cup, and you wonder if it’ll look to pair him with an NXS or NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series opportunity.
If not? It’s slim pickings in a market that hasn’t seen a lot of movement. Even most of the top-tier Xfinity rides are already accounted for. And Haley’s resume suddenly looks bereft of any recent success: he’s gone from six to three to two top-10 finishes over his last three Cup seasons.
Once upon a time, there would be patience for a driver like Haley. Spire showed it itself with LaJoie, giving him three-plus years before making a change. Perhaps the team didn’t want to make the same mistake again.
Turns out the biggest mistake here was Haley’s, thinking Spire really was his home.
Did You Notice? … Quick hits before taking off …
- Everything surrounding Denny Hamlin right now feels like it’s building toward a championship. The way this Las Vegas Motor Speedway race played out at the finish, the emotional victory lane tribute over his ailing father and the most cheers he’s heard from the fans in a decade-plus equals momentum. At nearly 45 years old, Hamlin would also be the second-oldest champion in NASCAR history behind Bobby Allison in 1983. Even with two more years (at least) left in his Cup career, this is feeling very much “now or never.”
- It flew under the radar this past weekend, but Venturini Motorsports officially ended its ARCA ownership after 43 years in the sport. Grassroots organizations like Venturini have served as a proving ground for countless prospects through the years, from Christian Eckes to Erik Jones to Alex Bowman. One less of them means one less opportunity for those young drivers to hone their craft in top-tier, well-cared-for equipment by a family-owned operation. Wishing the Venturinis well in their next chapter … and hoping a new family-owned team comes along one day soon to take their place.
Follow Tom Bowles on X at @NASCARBowles
The author of Did You Notice? (Wednesdays) Tom spends his time overseeing Frontstretch’s 40+ staff members as its majority owner and Editor-in-Chief. Based outside Philadelphia, Bowles is a two-time Emmy winner in NASCAR television and has worked in racing production with FOX, TNT, and ESPN while appearing on-air for SIRIUS XM Radio and FOX Sports 1's former show, the Crowd Goes Wild. He most recently consulted with SRX Racing, helping manage cutting-edge technology and graphics that appeared on their CBS broadcasts during 2021 and 2022.
You can find Tom’s writing here, at CBSSports.com and Athlonsports.com, where he’s been an editorial consultant for the annual racing magazine for 15 years.