Spire Motorsports enters Sunday afternoon’s Iowa Corn 350 with plenty of work ahead after a difficult showing in practice and qualifying at Iowa Speedway. It certainly was no encore from the Brickyard for Spire.
The organization struggled to find consistent speed around Iowa’s 7/8-mile layout on Saturday, with none of its three cars qualifying inside the top 10.
Michael McDowell led the way for Spire, qualifying 11th in the No. 71 Chevrolet. While McDowell narrowly missed the top 10, his starting position gives him the best opportunity of the three Spire drivers to move toward the front early.
Carson Hocevar will have more ground to make up after qualifying 18th in the No. 77 Chevrolet. Hocevar has shown plenty of speed throughout the 2026 season, but Iowa has not produced the same results so far. Starting in the middle of the field puts an added emphasis on gaining track position early without getting caught up in trouble.
The toughest challenge belongs to Daniel Suárez.
Suárez qualified 33rd in the No. 7 Chevrolet, putting him near the back of the field for Sunday’s race. With almost the entire field ahead of him, Suárez and his team may need to lean heavily on adjustments and strategy to work their way forward.
Saturday’s results leave Spire without a clear front-running car heading into the race. McDowell has the best track position in 11th, but Hocevar and Suárez will both need significant gains if they want to become factors.
There will still be 350 laps to turn things around. Tire wear, changing track conditions, pit stops and cautions could all give Spire opportunities to gain ground throughout the afternoon.
But after struggling to make noise in practice and qualifying, Sunday will be about finding something extra.
McDowell and Spire are searching for speed to join the fight.
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