It was very quickly made official.
Within an hour of announcing that he was leaving Front Row Motorsports at the end of the season, Michael McDowell and Spire Motorsports immediately announced that they would compete together in the No. 71 Chevrolet next season.
“This is a new chapter for my family and me, and we’re incredibly thankful for the opportunity that’s in front of us,” said McDowell in a press release. “It’s going to take some hard work, but I feel like everything is in place for us to be successful as a race team — to win races and contend for championships. People are the greatest asset to any organization, and with Spire’s vision, ambition, knowledge, and dedication, we will achieve great things. Failure is not an option, and that’s the mindset that it will take to achieve our goals.”
He will be teamed with veteran Corey LaJoie and Carson Hocevar.
“Michael McDowell is a proven winner and brings a NASCAR Playoff pedigree,” said Spire Motorsports president Doug Duchardt. “Michael has always been committed to elevate his teams. His experience and enthusiasm are a perfect fit for Spire Motorsports, and we are sure he will be a great teammate to both Corey LaJoie and Carson Hocevar. We’re thrilled to keep up the positive momentum by adding someone as accomplished as Michael to our driver lineup. ”
Spire has spent a lot of money in recent years in both acquiring charters, the former Kyle Busch Motorsports shop, and then some high profile executives and crew types.
In McDowell, they add a proven leader and a driver that has a long history of maximizing equipment and contending for wins. He has two Cup wins in the 2021 Daytona 500 and the Indy Road Course last summer.
On road courses especially with the NextGen car, McDowell has amongst the better chances to contend if a team nails the setup.
The No. 71 is currently driven by rookie driver Zane Smith, who is under contract to Trackhouse Racing and on loan to Spire.
“Our 2024 plan for the No. 71 team remains unchanged,” Duchardt addee. “Spire Motorsports fully supports Zane Smith and Stephan Doran. We remain committed to the success of our collaboration with Trackhouse. That team is just beginning to realize its potential. We’re looking forward to seeing how the Rookie of the Year battle plays out between Zane and Carson.”
In other words, Trackhouse needs a charter to run Smith or a new place to loan him out next season. That is to say nothing of what that organization intends to do with Shane Van Gisbergen after a full Xfinity Series season this year.
Van Gisbergen is himself on loan currently to Kaulig Racing for both his full-time Xfinity slate and part-time Cup races.
This again all points towards Stewart-Haas Racing, which has made charters and even potentially a shop in Kannapolis, North Carolina available.
While not confirmed, the consensus around the garage is that one charter has already been sold and a deal might even have been completed for the building.
The general consensus from those within SHR is that they don’t know if it will be a two car or zero car team in 2025.
Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 crew chief Rodney Childers was on a media call on Wednesday morning and said everyone is trying to avoid the distractions that come with each passing headline and internal conversations.
“I think no matter what, if there are rumors, there’s always gonna be a distraction,” Childers said. “Everybody on this 4 team came here to build something special. We came here to win races. We came here to win a championship, to sit on poles, to do a lot of cool things and we’ve all done that.
“That’s all we can hang our hats on at the moment is to go out there and be our best every week, to be somebody that the garage looks up to and thinks a lot of.
“I told my guys that if we continue to do that, that’s all that really matters to us. All of the stuff in the background is gonna happen whether we want it to or not, or it’s not gonna happen whether we want to or not, so, for me, it’s just trying to stay focused, trying to stay positive and keep moving forward.”
This comes a week after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. signed an extension with what is now JTG Daugherty Racing but it’s no great secret that the No. 47 team will look different next year as co-owners Tad Tad Geschickter’s marketing and activation company, Brand Activation Maximizer, has been doing contract work for Joe Gibbs Racing the past two years.
Stenhouse expressed confidence that the team has solid footing but conceded that things will look different next year.