Spire Motorsports announced that Ross Bailes will pilot the team’s Longhorn for the conclusion of the FloRacing Night in America series finale at Senoia Raceway this weekend.
The team announced in a post to social media, “NASCAR may be done but we’re still racing. Ross Bailes will pilot the No. 77 Chili’s Grill & Bar Late Model at Senoia this weekend.”
Bailes added in his own post, “See you guys at Senoia this weekend with the Spire Motorsports crew”
He added, “Thanks to my support and crew for cheering us on this weekend! Elite Marine Team – Pursley Racing.”
Bailes is no stranger to Senoia Raceway. According to The Third Turn, he’s made six starts at the track since 2018 and had 2 Top 5s and 4 Top 10s. He had a fifth place finish in 2018 during a Southern All Stars race and then a second place finish in 2023 with the Schaeffer’s Oil Spring Nationals.
Bailes is the latest driver to pilot the car that was originally supposed to be run by Carson Hocevar for the entire FloRacing Night in America season.
Hocevar drove the car at the beginning of the season. He finished 11th in a B-Main at Spoon River in the beginning of May. He would duplicate that finish ahead of the Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora Speedway to start the month of June. He finished 15th at Lincoln Speedway in the middle of July, but then failed to make the race at Fairbury Speedway ahead of the Prairie Dirt Classic. He finished 9th in his B-Main.
Devin Moran would pilot the car during the Prairie Dirt Classic to a 12th place finish. Michael Leach then drove it at Mason City Motor Speedway to a 13th place finish. Justin Haley also drove the car albeit with Freeway Insurance as the sponsor during the World 100. He finished 12th in his B-Feature on Saturday night. Most recently Earl Pearson Jr. got behind the wheel at Volunteer Speedway. He finished 11th.
Bailes is coming off a heartbreak at Cherokee Speedway during the Blue Gray 100. On a restart with 7 laps to go in the 70-lap feature, Bailes began sparking and smoking coming out of turn 4 and all the way down the front stretch, through turns 1 and 2, and onto the back stretch. As they got to the back stretch, second running Jonathan Davenport got a run and got underneath Bailes, who appeared to slow. The caution was thrown and the race stayed under caution for a significant period of time. At one point during the caution period, series officials inspected the rear of Bailes’ car to determine what the cause of the sparks and smoke were, but were unable to pinpoint the problem.
Bailes would later accelerate from the middle of turns 1 and 2 down the back stretch and the problem would persist with sparks and smoke coming out of the rear of the car. In order to diagnose the problem, Bailes went to the infield pit area giving up his position on the track.
It was eventually reported on the FloRacing and Hunt the Front TV broadcast that Bailes had a spring steel rubbing against his wheel that was causing the sparks and smoke. Bailes would return to the race and salvage a 13th place finish.
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