Spire Motorsports’ decision to hand the keys to the No. 7 Chevrolet to Daniel Suárez for the 2026 Cup season arrived on the heels of the team announcing Justin Haley’s departure in early October. While Haley found a new home back at Kaulig Racing, this time as a full-time Truck Series driver in their brand-new Ram Trucks program, Spire charted a different course.
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They turned to the 2016 Xfinity Series champion, a driver whose résumé and temperament offered exactly the kind of stability and competitive edge the organization wanted as it entered its next phase. Co-owner Jeff Dickerson clarified why Suárez checked every box.
Pressed on what made Suárez the right fit to elevate the No. 7 team’s ceiling in 2026, Dickerson pointed to experience and composure more than anything else. “Having a veteran voice that’s got some roots in that garage. Obviously our stats prove that we’ve had a really good year, so it’s like we’re just at a different place in our journey, right?” he said.
In his words, Spire isn’t trying to “fix a problem” anymore. The team has the pace. What it needs now is execution, which has repeatedly been the missing link. Dickerson believes Suárez sees that clearly and recognizes where he can make a tangible difference. To him, Suárez represents a steady hand, someone who brings seasoned judgment when it matters most.
Dickerson acknowledged that such a pairing was hardly predictable six months ago. Neither side would have penciled in this outcome early in the year. But racing has its own way of shuffling the deck, and the Spire co-owner sees genuine strength in how this alignment came together.
He believes both the team and Suárez possess a potential that wasn’t fully reflected in their NASCAR 2025 campaigns. This, he argued, is their chance to show the garage that they’re capable of more than their current stat sheets indicate.
When asked specifically what gave him confidence that Suárez could deliver the kind of execution Spire has lacked, Dickerson emphasized how consistently the driver squeezes the most out of the equipment.
He highlighted how rarely Suárez makes significant errors and how much the team has learned simply from observing him, listening to his in-race communication on the radio, watching his decision-making, and noting how he manages the flow of a race weekend. Those habits, he said, made him sure that Suárez would blend seamlessly into their program.
Dickerson said he has no intention of molding Suárez into anything other than who he already is. The goal isn’t reinvention. Suárez knows the Cup Series inside out. He’s won races at every rung of the ladder and owns a championship.
The plan is straightforward: give him the infrastructure, give him the tools, and let him operate on instinct. Dickerson believes that when the team builds around him rather than over him, the results will fall into place.
