Spire Motorsports almost had a moment, twice, at Sunday’s Daytona 500 – with Michael McDowell leading at the final restart, before fading, and then Carson Hocevar took the lead as the field made its way to the start/finish line for the final lap, before washing out on an attempted block.
Hocevar finished 18th; McDowell, 22nd.
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The NASCAR Cup Series is headed to Atlanta for the Autotrader 400 (3 p.m. ET, Fox)
Hocevar finished second at the Ambetter Health 400, the February race in Atlanta on the 2025 schedule.
“You just have to make moves. All offense, no defense,” said Hocevar, who isn’t looking back in the rear-view, at last weekend’s near-miss.
“Well, we ran second in the Duel on Thursday, and were right where we needed to be on Sunday. We were leading coming to the white, but obviously, things just didn’t work out. I’m not too disappointed knowing we were where we needed to be, and there isn’t really anything I could have done to prevent the outcome. If anything, I am more confident for Atlanta this weekend,” said Hocevar, who, at 23, is already in his fourth season in the Cup Series.
McDowell, 41, is the grizzled veteran at Spire – 2026 is his 19th year in the Cup Series.
His spring 2025 race at Atlanta was set back early by issues with power steering that sent the car to the garage and put him six laps back when he got back on the track.
McDowell worked his way back to the lead lap and finished 13th.
“We obviously had some troubles there on the No. 71 last year and rallied back to the lead lap, but 77 had a great run there at the end of the race; Carson was one of the fastest cars. So, we have a good notebook and good momentum coming off Daytona with having cars that had lots of speed and handled well, now going to another drafting semi-speedway track to hopefully redeem ourselves from Daytona,” McDowell said.
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Chris Graham
