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Editor’s Note: This marks the final story in a three-part series as Spire Motorsports allows NASCAR Digital Media to cover its preparation for the 2025 Daytona 500.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Luke Lambert knew in the summer of 2023 that Carson Hocevar was the real deal. On the precipice of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, the crew-chief-driver combo is ready to prove it.
Hocevar highlights an exciting, fresh roster of driver talent at Spire Motorsports, lined up for his second full season in the Cup Series behind the wheel of the No. 77 Chevrolet with Lambert atop the pit box. Alongside him is Justin Haley in the No. 7 car, another young driver who has showcased his own bursts of potential, as well as 2021 Daytona 500 champion and two-time Cup race winner Michael McDowell, who steps into the No. 71 Chevy after seven years with Front Row Motorsports.
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Now 22, Hocevar made his Cup debut at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in June 2023, coincidentally at Spire in the No. 7 car. He immediately proved his natural speed and ability despite his novice nature — and before a mechanical failure ultimately sidelined him. So when Legacy Motor Club needed a substitute driver through nine of the final 10 races of that season, the Michigan native got the call with Lambert then calling the shots for the No. 42 Chevrolet.
That combination produced improved results nearly immediately, netting top-20 finishes in each of his first four starts and including an 11th-place effort in his first 500-lap feature at Bristol Motor Speedway. Together, Hocevar and Lambert moved to Spire’s No. 77 team ahead of the 2024 season and became a weekly fixture inside the top 20 — evidenced by his 18.3 average finish — as Hocevar earned Rookie of the Year honors.
There is more than hope that his sophomore year as a full-time Cup driver will produce even better results. Rather, there is an expectation to contend for a spot within NASCAR’s 16-driver playoff field on the front end of what could be a lengthy stay at the sport’s top level.
“I feel like his runway is really long here,” Lambert said. “I feel like that my role in it with him is to work with him and help him to expect some of the things that are going to be big challenges in this sport and learn the right times to push the right times to make aggressive moves really try to reinforce the discipline that it takes to compete at this level.”
Managing that aggression level may stand as the most significant challenge for both Lambert and Hocevar. A young, fast and fiery driver, Hocevar has found himself in the center of controversy over the past few years — first as a full-time Craftsman Truck Series contender from 2021-23 and continuing to the Cup level last year, earmarked by a Nashville Superspeedway run-in with Harrison Burton that resulted in a $50,000 fine and 25-point penalty after spinning Burton under yellow-flag conditions.
“It might explain sometimes when I do dumb things or make mistakes, but a lot of times, it’s literally just going off instinct and doing everything and literally being on autopilot,” Hocevar told NASCAR.com Feb. 4. “That’s why I want to race every day of my life, just because the more I can be on that autopilot, the better I think I am.”
Therein lies the impossible balance Hocevar must navigate: Keep doing what has worked and gotten him to the world’s top level of stock-car racing, but refine those rough edges and eliminate any doubt that he belongs — and perhaps remove any lingering friction among his competitors.
“Fortunately, he’s in this position as a 22-year-old now,” Lambert said. “I think it’s an awesome opportunity to be that young and to be competing at the top level of motorsports in the United States. I want to be a part of watching all of that develop and see him be the best version of himself. And so I want to be able to be a part of that by helping reinforce the discipline and helping him learn how to work within the rest of our team. But as much as anything else for me, it’s fun to be a part of the ride and to do it with him, with his team. And we have a good time working together, and that is icing on the cake.”
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Lambert and Hocevar head the only Spire team that returns intact from its 2024 campaign. Within the shop are plenty of new faces that had to navigate competing against Hocevar in prior years.
“It’s been interesting because a lot of the guys that came in this building have raced against me,” Hocevar said. “It’s funny. A lot of them didn’t like racing against me, but they like racing with me. So that’s been fun for me. And truthfully, like I know Matt McCall, like, he loves it. I feel like I’m one of the most confident persons in myself. And I feel like that’s part of the reason that was fast in a Cup car right away was you have this confidence as a race car driver, and some of it’s mixed with delusion and daydreaming and pipe dreams and everything. But if you have the confidence to just go and do it, there’s a lot of times there’s speed and availability there.
“The only thing I’ve ever been scared of was being slow. I’ve never been scared of pushing too hard or making mistakes.”
In his inaugural Daytona 500 appearance one year ago, Hocevar qualified ninth but completed just five laps after falling victim to other drivers’ mistakes and getting collected in a multi-car crash, ultimately finishing 40th — last — in the “Great American Race.”
“Superspeedways are not my forte,” Hocevar said.
His typical strategy, he continued, is to ride near the back of the field for the majority of the race and capitalize on others’ misfortune. That strategy generally played in his favor in the other five drafting-style races in 2024, averaging a 15.4 finish across them.
This year, Hocevar has two new teammates behind the wheel. Haley, a Daytona winner in 2019, replaced Corey LaJoie in the No. 7 car for the final seven races of 2024 and has crew chief Rodney Childers joining atop the pit box this year. McDowell, who earned five of his six 2024 Busch Light Pole Awards on superspeedways last year, joins this year with crew chief Travis Peterson to replace Zane Smith and Co. in the No. 71. Each driver has their own individual strengths, which Hocevar says he believes will only better them all.
“I think we’re gonna be able to make each other faster,” Hocevar said. “When I don’t know (how to be better), they’ll know. And when they don’t know, I’ll know. And I think it’s that way in crew chiefs, right? I think Rodney’s strong suit is the short tracks, and Travis’ strong suits (are) the road courses and superspeedways, and our strong suit’s the mile-and-a-halves and really fast tracks, right? So when you look even at our crew-chief lineup, and then you throw Matt McCall and Ryan Sparks in there, you have all your bases covered.”
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Haley, 25, has spent this offseason learning the microscopic detail that Childers and his crew put into each step of preparation. What he hasn’t quite figured out is Hocevar.
“I don’t know if I’ve learned anything about Carson,” Haley told NASCAR.com with a laugh on Feb. 4. “He’s kind of his own animal, and I let him do his own thing and let him find his own way. Obviously, he’s super quick and has a lot of speed, and, you know, McDowell is experienced and been around it forever. I kind of fall in the middle.
“We honestly haven’t even really developed a team dynamic at the race track. Obviously, we’ve been in several meetings at the shop, but Bowman Gray was pretty rushed, and we didn’t have a debrief because we went straight into qualifying. So, we had our first debrief today. It went well, and we’ll build off of that.”
At age 40, McDowell is easily the elder statesman of the program. With that comes built-in trust in his feedback. But he also offers a fresh perspective to a still-burgeoning group of racers. In joining Spire, McDowell pointed to his trust in the ownership group’s outlook through co-owner Jeff Dickerson and team president Bill Anthony.
“I think we all know how to make race cars go fast, and I feel like we’ve brought people to make race cars go fast,” McDowell said Jan. 29. “But it’s having a clear vision, and it’s having good leadership and being able to execute that. And so I feel that’s probably the biggest strength that I’ve seen here, is that Jeff and Bill and everybody committed to the growth of this race team, and not just short term, but long term. They’re doing all the things that also represent them, right?
“It’s one thing to talk about it and say, ‘Oh, we’re gonna be really invested in this and this and this. But they have been, and they’re doing it.”
Together, they’ll go into battle Sunday with hopes one of the three walks away with a Daytona 500 victory.
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