Justin Haley has made two starts in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet following a midseason trade with Rick Ware Racing. He now takes on an important test at NASCAR's home track.
The Charlotte Roval is next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. It's a track where the former driver of the No. 7, Corey LaJoie, posted a 12th-place finish in 2022. It's a track where Haley posted a top-five finish in the same race.
Now Haley can use the Roval as an opportunity to put together a strong run for Spire Motorsports, a team that has become more competitive on road courses.
"We feel good heading into the Roval," Haley said in a release. "I get excited because I love road courses and it is a lot of fun to race at them. The Spire cars had a lot of speed at Watkins Glen with all three cars finishing in the top 10, so I'm curious to see where we end up this weekend.
"I feel like the road course stuff is really good and the team is confident about it. I have a road course background myself and have ran well at the Roval throughout my career. We will see how the new configuration mixes things up."
The Watkins Glen race featured Spire rookie Carson Hocevar finishing third behind Chris Buescher and Shane van Gisbergen. Zane Smith crossed the line fifth in another Spire entry. LaJoie finished eighth in what was his best career Cup finish on a road course.
The top-10 finishes are not the only indications that Spire has made gains on road courses. LaJoie also qualified fifth at Circuit of the Americas in the car that Haley took over after Bristol.
Haley, an Indiana native, has achieved the majority of his road course success in the Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series due to the level of equipment he controlled.
He won at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in 2018 while driving for GMS Racing, a championship-winning organization. Haley posted four top-five finishes and 10 top-10s in 16 road course starts in the Xfinity Series while driving for Kaulig Racing.
The Cup Series results have been harder to achieve for Haley. He started his Cup career with Spire Motorsports back in the early days of the team. The level of the equipment was far from what it is today. Although Haley still finished eighth at Indianapolis Motor Speedway's road course in 2021.
Haley then spent two full seasons with Kaulig Racing as the team continued to grow. He finished fifth at the Roval and second on the streets of Chicago while then-teammate AJ Allmendinger locked up a win at the Roval.
"I grew up Trans Am racing," Haley said about his road course growth. "I was kind of the first to do the NASCAR-Trans Am crossover, and now it is a huge stepping stone for guys like Connor Mosack and Connor Zilisch. I did a bunch of sports car racing when I was younger."
This growth has helped Haley put himself into contention in road course races and now he will take on another after joining Spire Motorsports, a team that continues to push toward being competitive on all styles of tracks.