Pit Stop Radio News

Carson Hocevar – Driver, No.77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• Carson Hocevar will make his first NCS appearance at Sonoma Raceway in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 driving the No. 77 Delaware Life Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Spire Motorsports.
• Hocevar started 20th and earned a career-best, eighth-place finish in last Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway. It was Hocevar’s second top-10 finish of the season.
• The Portage, Mich., native will return home this week for Zeigler Automotive Group’s Drive for Kalamazoo County (Mich.) Tornado Relief to support the community after a recent tornado impacted both his hometown and family’s business. All proceeds will go to the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, a local non-profit leading efforts to help community members with costs associated with tornado damages not covered by insurance.
• On Thursday, Hocevar will participate in a Zeigler Automotive Group celebration at the Autobahn in Joliet, Ill., to congratulate this year’s President’s Circle Winners in the Service Technician and Service Advisor categories.
• Sonoma Raceway is home to Hocevar’s first career NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series pole position. He qualified with a broken tibia after a last-lap incident the week before and sat on the pole for the 2022 Doordash 250. Hocevar was relieved on Lap 11 by Daniel Suarez, who ultimately finished sixth.
• Delaware Life Insurance Company (“Delaware Life”) has made its mission to deliver pure value to its network of financial professionals with a set of tools and products that help them empower their clients to plan for retirement with confidence. Delaware Life’s focus is delivering a seamless experience that gives clients exactly what they’re looking for: the comfort of understanding, the confidence of transparency, and streamlined products without needless features. Learn more at www.delawarelife.com
• The Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender is currently 21st in the division’s championship points. Over the course of the season’s first 15 races, Hocevar has notched two top-10 and four top-15 finishes. 

Carson Hocevar Quotes 
You won your first Truck Series pole at Sonoma Raceway. Looking ahead to this weekend, how do you feel about getting back behind the wheel for a full race, especially in the Cup car?
“Last time I was there, we qualified on the pole where a bunch of Cup guys were racing so it felt even better. I’m excited to go there and hopefully run well, especially for how well we did last week. It’s fun to come off a top-10. We’ve put in a lot of prep time, and I feel like we can run pretty well on road courses. I’m eager to get out to California and hopefully put together another good week, continue to just gain points, and continue to tick off good results.”

Your eighth-place finish last weekend is your career best in the Cup Series. How are you feeling and how do concentrate on maintaining that momentum?
“It’s cool. It feels really good to run well. It’s rewarding to know that the team built a race car that is capable of running in the topfive. It’s nice to have confidence in what we bring to the racetrack week in and week out. We know we can execute, run well and succeed which translates into good results at the end of the day. That’s big for us as we continue to figure out and build our notebook.I think we’ve learned some things this season and that will pay off in the long run.”

Zane Smith – Driver, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• Rookie driver Zane Smith visits Sonoma Raceway this weekend coming off an 19th-place finish at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis in a race that saw the No. 71 Chevrolet race at the front of the field for much of Sunday’s 300-lap event.
• Smith will make his second Cup Series start on the newly repaved 1.99-mile northern California road course Sunday, but first driving the No. 71 Wellcare Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports.
• Smith has reason for optimism this weekend. He started 13th and finished second in his most recent NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at Sonoma Raceway.
• The Huntington Beach, Calif., driver finished 19th in the most recent Cup Series road race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas on March 24.
• Smith will carry the No. 71 primary sponsor, Wellcare, on Sunday. Wellcare provides Medicare Advantage plans you can depend on and offers coverage that goes beyond Original Medicare with more of the benefits you really want. With Wellcare, you’ll have a team who listens and supports you each and every day. Visit WellcareNow.com to find out which Wellcare Medicare Advantage plan in your area is best for you.
  ‘Ohana Health Plan, a plan offered by Wellcare Health Insurance of Arizona, Inc. Y0020_WCM_133439E_C

Zane Smith Quotes
How are you feeling heading into Sonoma and how will you carry that top-20 momentum after a solid run last weekend?
“It felt so good to get a solid run underneath us last weekend in St. Louis. My team has been working hard every day to bring fast cars to the racetrack. This is the momentum we needed heading into the summer stretch and now we are looking to capitalize this weekend in Sonoma. Our last road-course race at COTA (Austin), we had a solid day as well, so we believe we can improve upon that. It’s all about getting better.”

Corey LaJoie – Driver, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

• Corey LaJoie heads to Sonoma Raceway behind the wheel of the No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. 
• Gainbridge Insurance Agency, LLC (“Gainbridge”), a Group 1001 company, is an insurtech which strives to offer products that are simple, intuitive, and backed by smart technology with no complexity or hidden fees. Gainbridge empowers consumers to take control of their financial future with solutions that are accessible to everyone no matter their budget or financial knowledge. Gainbridge’s digital-first distribution model underpins its mission to reach all communities, including those that have been historically underserved by the national financial system.
• Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 will mark LaJoie’s fifth NCS start at Sonoma Raceway and 252nd career NCS start.
• LaJoie has four previous NCS starts at the 12-turn Sonoma County (Calif.,) road course and turned in a venue-best 18th-place finish in June 2021.  
• LaJoie started 15th and finished 32nd in last weekend’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway. The Concord, N.C., native has led 38 laps in 2024 and is currently 32nd in the NCS championship point standings.
• Over 251 career NCS starts, LaJoie has earned four top-five and nine top-10 finishes and led 161 laps in NASCAR’s premier division.

Corey LaJoie Quotes
With a 36-race schedule and everything that goes along with that, sometimes teams just go through some slumps during the year. It’s the nature of the business. Sonoma is next and you’ve got a couple top-20s out there. That must create some optimism heading into this weekend. 
“We’ve had a couple rough weeks but road courses have a been a strength of our team over the last couple of years. I’m confident in our road-course plan and setup to turn it around in Sonoma. We’ll be ready to attack the new pavement this weekend and the different variables road races always present with our Gainbridge Chevrolet.”

Spire Motorsports PR