NASCAR Cup Series: Spire Motorsports’ first lead-lap finish a shocking victory

By Asher Fair | Jul 8, 2019

DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA - JULY 07: Justin Haley, driver of the #77 Fraternal Order of Eagles Chevrolet, walks away from his car during a weather delay for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 07, 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) /

Spire Motorsports entered the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season’s 18th race, the Coke Zero Sugar 400, at Daytona International Speedway seeking their first ever lead-lap finish. They got it in the form of a victory.

The newest team in the NASCAR Cup Series, Spire Motorsports, entered the series ahead of the 2019 season and made their series debut in the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway with Jamie McMurray as their driver.

Spire Motorsports fielded the #40 Chevrolet for McMurray in this race via a partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing, the team for which he drove in 12 of his 16 seasons as a full-time driver in the Cup Series, including the last nine going through 2018. McMurray ended up crashing late in the race and was forced to settle for a 22nd place finish.

Entering the 36-race 2019 season’s 18th overall race and second race at the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona International Speedway oval in Daytona Beach, Florida, Sunday afternoon’s Coke Zero Sugar 400, this crash-induced 22nd place finish by McMurray was still Spire Motorsports’ best ever finish.

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Not including races in which their lone car (now the #77 Chevrolet without the Chip Ganassi Racing partnership) wrecked, their best ever finish was Quin Houff’s 28th place finish in the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in late May.

Never in team history had the #77 Chevrolet finished on the lead lap. Justin Haley came closest, as he finished two laps off the lead lap in the race at Sonoma Raceway in late June, but as far as oval races go, it was Houff who came closest by finishing three laps off the lead lap in the race at Pocono Raceway in early June.

In the race at Dover International Speedway in early May, the #77 Chevrolet was literally black flagged for being “too slow” less than halfway through the race.

A 27th place finish in Sunday’s race would have been their best true “finish” in team history, and a 21st place finish would have been their best official classification.

They attained both — and it wasn’t just via a top 21 finish.

Or just their first finish one lap off the lead lap.

Or just their first finish on the lead lap.

Or just a top 20 finish.

Or just a top 15, a top 10 or a top five finish.

They did it with a win.

Haley, who competes full-time for Kaulig Racing in the Xfinity Series, drove the #77 Chevrolet in this race, which was scheduled to be a 160-lap race but ended up being shortened due to rain.

After the “Big One” collected over a dozen drivers and several other drivers came into the pits during the ensuing caution flag period, Haley was running in third place.

With impending inclement weather, his team opted to gamble and keep him out on the track in case the race was red flagged.

He then inherited the lead when race leader Kurt Busch of Chip Ganassi Racing and second place driver Landon Cassill of StarCom Racing came into the pits thinking that the race would go back green after previously trying to stretch it with the hope of the skies opening up and the race being called.

Haley’s team, with nothing to lose, kept him out on the track once more, at this point with him ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Jimmie Johnson, two drivers who came into the pits right after the massive wreck.

Haley led lap 127, marking the first lap led of his Cup Series career, before the race was red flagged due to lightning instead of restarted like it was slated to be.

After several hours of waiting, lap 128 never happened and Haley was declared the race winner.

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Joe Gibbs Racing, Team Penske and Hendrick Motorsports combined to win the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season’s first 17 races.

The fourth team to add their name to the wins list?

Not Stewart-Haas Racing.

Not Chip Ganassi Racing.

In fact, not even any of the mediocre/below average teams that you just might expect to have a slight change to pull off an upset victory in a superspeedway race.

Instead, it was Spire Motorsports, the team that entered the season’s 18th race with an average finish of 32.53, no top 21 finishes, no top 27 actual finishes, no finishes less than two laps down, very few finishes of 10 or fewer laps down and absolutely no consideration as being anything more than a team with a backmarker car that simply gets in the way of the “relevant” cars.

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