Spire Rides Momentum into Uncertain Watkins Glen Weekend

Although Hocevar, who races with abandon and often creates excitement win or lose, has carried the biggest bucket of publicity for Spire, Suarez, dumped by Trackhouse Racing last season, has shown improvement and is building a season which should carry him into the playoffs. His sixth-place run Sunday at Texas was his best since Atlanta in February, and he has scored three top-10 runs.

All three Spire drivers (including Michael McDowell) could expect good runs Sunday at the Glen, although setups and race strategy at the legendary New York road course are likely to be significantly different from past runs there.

Carson Hocevar.James Gilbert - Getty Images

This is the earliest in the year Watkins Glen has hosted a Cup race, and temperatures are likely to be considerably cooler than during previous runs, generally in August. Additionally, the precipitation forecast throws in another unknown of sorts and potentially opens the door for drivers who excel in wet-weather competition. Also, NASCAR has added 10 laps to the race, making it 100 laps long and putting new strain on pit-stop calculators.

The biggest challenge to Spire success Sunday should come from Shane van Gisbergen, who has redefined what road-course greatness means in NASCAR’s top series. He has won five of the past six road-course events, finishing second in the single one he failed to win.

The boost in Spire’s general performance this year is shadowed by the ongoing dispute in federal court over the departure of Chris Gabehart from Joe Gibbs Racing and his subsequent arrival at Spire as chief motorsports officer. Accusations and amendments continue to fly around in a case that seems to grow more acidic each week, with JGR claiming Gabehart acted illegally in transferring team information from one shop to another.

The details of the dispute remain matters of different interpretations, but there is little question that Spire is riding on a higher road.