FANTASY NASCAR Racin

SPIRE MOTORSPORTS - is a brand new team to the NASCAR Series as of 2019. In December of 2018 Spire Sports + Entertainment announced they purchased their charter from the now-defunct Furniture Row Racing. At the same time, the team announced they would use the #77 and field the Chevrolet Camaro. Furniture Row Racing President Joe Garone joined the team to serve the same position and provide guidance to the fledgling team. Spire Motorsports formed a partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing to field the #40 for Jamie McMurray at the 2019 Daytona 500 and Advance Auto Parts Clash, using the newly-acquired #77 charter to effectively renumber it to the #40 for a

one-off and guarantee it qualified for the race. Garrett Smithley and Reed Sorenson drove the car at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, respectively. Quin Houff signed with Spire for a part-time ride and would wheel the vehicle for 13 races. In April, NASCAR Xfinity Series regular Justin Haley made his Cup debut with the team at Talladega Super speedway. On July 7, the team won their first Cup race at Daytona in just their 18th race at the rain-shortened 2019 Coke Zero Sugar 400, with Haley behind the wheel. Bad weather had been in the area all day; and with about 30 laps to go, Austin Dillon and Clint Bowyer tangled, causing "The Big One". Haley, narrowly avoided it and sneaked into third. Weather had

been an issue all weekend and rain was in the area. NASCAR announced that they would go green next time by; so leaders Kurt Busch and Landon Cassill peeled off and headed for the pits leaving Haley on the point. Before the field got back around a lightning strike occurred. For the 2019 season most major sports (including NASCAR) had implemented a rule that if lightning struck, things stopped and went into a 30 minute delay. So instead of coming to the green flag; the pace car pulled the entire field down pit road and things ground to a halt to wait out the 30 minute delay. Before the 30 minutes was over lightning struck again and the 30 minute clock started over. During that time heavy rains came and as dark was closing in, NASCAR pulled the plug and called the race official, leaving Haley as the winner. This gave Haley his

first career Cup win in only his third start, and Spire Motorsports their first win in their maiden season. Haley and the team were not eligible for the Cup Series Playoffs, but did receive the Daytona winner's check and is now eligible to race in the All Star race and Busch Clash, providing Haley drives the car. Along with Houff's 13 starts; Sorenson would drive eleven events. Before the season was over drivers Timmy Hill, Blake Jones, DJ Kennington all drove at least one race. For 2020, Houff drove the #00 of StarCom Racing. It was not known who would drive the #77 but the team run in partnership with

Premium Motorsports. In 2020 Spire Motorsports operated much the same way it did in 2019. They hired a bevy of different drivers to race their car. Once again Reed Sorenson drove the most races (12), with J.J. Yeley racing six times and Ross Chastain and Garrett Smithley run five each. Five other drivers also raced at least once. The results was also much like 2019. Justin Haley had the teams best finish as he came home 11th at Talladega. Ross Chastain had a 16th place finish at Daytona and was 17th at Indianapolis. These were the only Top 20 runs for the team. For the Michigan double-header the #77 team was renumbered to the #74 with

sponsorship from "Fake Steak" as a tie-in promotion with the Netflix sitcom The Crew. Spire Motorsports appears to be looking to improve their performance in 2021. They purchased the assets of Leavine Family Racing along with their Charter as they expanded to a two car operation. In October 2020, it was announced that Spire Motorsports had secured a third charter which would be leased to Trackhouse Racing for the 2021 season. In November 2020, Spire Motorsports announced that Corey LaJoie signed a multi-year agreement with the team starting in 2021. In addition, the team selected the #7 with permission from Tommy Baldwin Racing to pay tribute to

Alan Kulwicki and Geoff Bodine. Spire Motorsports returned to the Cup Series in 2021 with two drivers. Justin Haley drove 30 races, while Corey LaJoie would run 35 events. They also fielded a car for Jamie McMurray in his final farewell drive in the Daytona 500. Haley posted two Top 10 finishes, with a best of sixth at Daytona in August; and added an eighth at the grand prix at Indianapolis. LaJoie would finish ninth in the Daytona 500 for his only Top 10 and we’d see McMurray finish eighth in the same race. Justin Allgaier, Josh Berry and Ben Rhodes was called upon to fill in when their regular drivers got sick. Stewart Friesen was picked to drive the #77 on the dirt at Bristol.

He got a lap down early when someone spun him, and he was unable to get refired before the leader lapped him. That is the only lap he lost, and ran up front with the leaders much of the race. He probably could have posted a Top 10 if not for his incident. LaJoie will be back in the #7 for 2022, and no one has been announced to drive the #77. It has been announced that Spire is expanding to the Truck Series in 2022. Spire Motorsports again fielded two full time cars in the Cup Series. Justin Haley had moved on from Spire at the end of the 2021 season, to go drive for Kaulig Racing. In his place, Spire used several different drivers to race the car; per the NASCAR rule that "any car with a Charter must race every race, or forfeit it's Charter". So Josh Bilicki, and Landon Cassill made 33 of the cars 36 starts. Cassill also ran full time in the Xfinity series driving for Kaulig Racing. Cassill had a season's best fourth place

finish at Daytona in August, after much of the field crashed out. That was his only top ten finish. He had 13 finishes outside the top 20. Bilicki had only one finish inside the top 20 with 12 finishes being worse than 28th. Meanwhile Corye LaJoie run the other Spire car full time. LaJoie has shown to be a fairly decent super speedway racer over the last couple years. He finished 14th when the season opened at Daytona, and when the series went to the newly reconfigured super speedway of Atlanta he had a great run finishing fifth. At Talladega he was 14th; and when the series returned to Atlanta he was leading late in the race. With two laps to go LaJoie was ahead with a snarling pack

on his tail. Chase Elliott made a move to go under him entering turn three and LaJoie's car drifted up and into the outside wall causing substantial damage. He ended up 21st, but had shown he could win on the big fast tracks. He had seven runs inside the top 15; however most of his runs saw finishing inside the top 25. In the Truck Series Spire made selected starts. Six drivers would make a total of 11 starts. William Byron made one start; and parked it in victory lane at Martinsville. Chase Elliott and Austin Hill would also add one top ten finish each. Spire Motorsports made a slight improvement in 2023, and is working on becoming more competitive. For the first time since Spire

Motorsports was formed, they had a driver have more thanone top five finishes. Corey Lajoie finished in the top five twice, finishing fourth at Talladega and also at Atlanta. He had three top tens, adding a tenth place finish at Bristol. Team-mate Ty Dillon was only able to post a best finish of eleventh at Daytona. He only had five finishes inside the top 20, and at the end of the year was released. Carson Hocevar will move up from the Truck series in 2024 to take over that seat. Spire and Track House Racing are collaborating in 2024 to provide a ride for Zane Smith in the Cup series as he too moves up from the Truck series to the Cup level. TrackHouse has signed Smith to a multi-year deal, but he will drive a Spire Motorsports car in 2024; then move to TrackHouse in 2025. Spire also had a part-time