By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer
Spire Motorsports will welcome Australian James Davison for his NASCAR Cup Series debut at Talladega Superspeedway.
Davison will drive the No. 77 OilFire Rye Whiskey Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE in the GEICO 500. His Spire Motorsports entry is in cooperation with Byrd Racing and Haywood Motorsports.
“I am excited to make my NASCAR Cup Series and stock car oval debut at Talladega,” said Davison. “My goal will be to ride and survive, run all 500 miles and learn the fine details of restrictor-plate racing.”
Although Davison referenced restrictor-plate racing, the Cup Series package no longer features plates at Talladega. The Series will have tapered spacers that limit the engines to 510 horsepower. The practice that was scheduled for the GEICO 500 was scrapped, leaving Davison with no seat time prior to his Cup Series debut.
The Melbourne, Australia native has four starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. All were on road courses. Davison has one top-five and two top-10 finishes, both with Joe Gibbs Racing. His best NASCAR finish to date is a fourth-place finish at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2017.
Davison is more well-known for his exploits in the NTT IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, and sports car competition. In five Indianapolis 500 starts, he has a best finish of 12th in 2019, completing all 200 laps for Dale Coyne Racing with Byrd and Belardi Racing.
The 33-year-old finished runner-up in the 2009 Indy Lights standings. He has two victories, six podiums, and four pole positions in the IndyCar feeder series. Both victories came at Mid-Ohio. Two of Davison’s podiums came on ovals, one at Chicagoland Speedway in 2009 and the other at Kentucky Speedway in 2008.
In sports car competition, Davison has three podium finishes in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. He has two runner-up finishes in the GT Daytona class in 2015 at Sebring International Raceway and The Raceway at Belle Isle.
Spire Motorsports has 48 starts in the Cup Series after they debuted last year. The organization has just one victory. The team stayed out with Justin Haley under caution in a rain-shortened Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway last year. That was one of just seven laps that Spire has led. The other six came with Jamie McMurray in the 2019 Daytona 500. Davison will be the Spire’s 12th different driver.
The road racing specialist had intentions to compete in the 2020 Daytona 500. However, the opportunity never materialized.
The GEICO 500 is on Sunday, June 21 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.
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