{"id":134329,"date":"2025-08-10T12:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T12:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/134329\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T12:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T12:30:10","slug":"justin-haley-on-hot-seat-spire-motorsports-could-replace-him-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/134329\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Haley on Hot Seat, Spire Motorsports Could Replace Him This Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cup Series driver Justin Haley finds himself well outside the playoff picture heading into the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nascar\/nascar-today-tv-schedule-race-highlights-rankings\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">NASCAR race today<\/a> and his history on road courses suggests finishing outside the top 20 is very likely. That could pose a problem since the driver of the No. 7 car is reportedly on the hot seat and in jeopardy of being booted.<\/p>\n<p>Jordan Bianchi of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6527930\/2025\/08\/05\/nascar-free-agency-justin-haley-daniel-suarez-trackhouse-denny-hamlin\/?source=user_shared_article\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">The Athletic<\/a> reported that Haley\u2019s seat with Spire Motorsports might be \u201cscorching\u201d right now, with ownership not happy with the results its third driver has delivered this season. While a change isn\u2019t imminent, Spire could reportedly make an in-season change if Haley doesn\u2019t show \u201cconsiderable improvement\u201d soon.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThere is no hotter seat in the garage than Justin Haley\u2019s. How could it not be scorching, considering the performance disparity between him and his two Spire Motorsports teammates? Carson Hocevar and Michael McDowell each have been regularly competitive and close to winning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6527930\/2025\/08\/05\/nascar-free-agency-justin-haley-daniel-suarez-trackhouse-denny-hamlin\/?source=user_shared_article\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">The Athletic<\/a>\u2018s Jordan Bianchi on Spire Motorsports driver Justin Haley<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nascar\/nascar-rumors-daniel-suarez-justin-haley-replacement\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Potential Justin Haley Replacement Emerges for Spire Motorsports<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Justin Haley stats (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nascar.com\/drivers\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Cup Series<\/a>)<\/strong>: 378 points, 1 top 10, 0 top 5s, 0 poles, 1 DNF, 18 laps led, 22.208 average starting position, 21.304 average finishing position in 23 races<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However,\u00a0the decision\u00a0to replace Haley\u00a0isn\u2019t cut-and-dry. An\u00a0overwhelming\u00a0majority of the\u00a0top Cup Series\u00a0drivers are under\u00a0contract for\u00a0next season. The\u00a0pool of talent\u00a0in NASCAR free\u00a0agency this offseason\u00a0thinned out quickly, leaving Spire with\u00a0limited options\u00a0who would be\u00a0viewed as a true\u00a0upgrade.<\/p>\n<p>The team\u00a0also knows that\u00a0it hasn\u2019t necessarily\u00a0put Haley in\u00a0the best position\u00a0for success. In\u00a0April, just nine\u00a0races into the\u00a0year, Spire\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6302285\/2025\/04\/23\/spire-motorsports-rodney-childers-crew-chief-nascar\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">parted ways\u00a0with<\/a>\u00a0Haley\u2019s crew\u00a0chief Rodney\u00a0Childers. In\u00a0addition, Haley\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nascar.com\/news-media\/2025\/04\/26\/cup-series-2025-spire-motorsports-talladega-justin-haley-crew-chief\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">lost four members\u00a0of his pit crew<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Kyle Larson\u2019s No. 5 car when it\u00a0needed to make\u00a0changes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nascar\/nascar-standings\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">NASCAR Standings, see where Justin Haley sits on Cup Series points leaderboard<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Haley, in his age-26 season, certainly hasn\u2019t performed up to expectations since joining Spire in the No. 7 car. Over the last two seasons, he has just four top-10 finishes, and he ranks 29th in average finishing position over the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.driveraverages.com\/nascar\/recent-year.php\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">last 36 races<\/a>\u00a0among full-time drivers. His teammates, Michael McDowell and Carson Hocevar, have also easily outperformed him.<\/p>\n<p>While Spire\u2019s frustrations with its lack of success from its third full-time car are understandable, it doesn\u2019t have many other options. Even if a target emerges, the team would also have to deal with its reputation for being a bit impatient with its drivers, even those whose supporting cast gets overhauled abruptly.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, all that matters to Spire is the results. For Haley, he just has to hope that he can return to the recent form he delivered in July that led to three top-20 finishes, including 12th in the Brickyard 400.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sportsnaut-tracks.png\"  class=\"avatar avatar-70 photo\" height=\"70\" width=\"70\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\tNFL,  MLB  &amp;  college  football  writer  for  Sportsnaut.  Graduated  from  San  Diego  State  University  with  BA  in  Journalism,  2019.  &#8230; More about <a class=\"more-bio\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/author\/wisconsinboymakesgoodincali\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Matt Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cup Series driver Justin Haley finds himself well outside the playoff picture heading into the NASCAR race today&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":134330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[81220,1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-134329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-justin-haley","9":"tag-nascar","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115004481622307687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}