April 27, 2025
In one of the year's biggest surprises to date, champion crew chief Rodney Childers announced last Wednesday that he had resigned as Justin Haley's crew chief. Perhaps this served as a distraction since Haley ended up qualifying 37th, slowest of all the full-time chartered teams. However, the crew chief doesn't really matter in forecasting races at Talladega and Haley likely has a lot of value since he is a good drafter in general and has earned two top tens in his last three Talladega starts, including a seventh last fall in his second start after returning to Spire Motorsports last year. It's obviously a crapshoot picking which drivers from the back will get good finishes at Talladega, but Haley is a good drafter and he's definitely capable of it in theory. The issue is whether Spire will have more speed than they did last year when they looked slow on this track type. Perhaps Carson Hocevar's second at Atlanta suggests they've turned a corner.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
April 13, 2025
Justin Haley qualified 10th at Bristol alongside his teammate Carson Hocevar, marking his best starting position ever at the track. This shouldn't come as a huge surprise as his Spire Motorsports cars are probably the fastest he has ever had here and Hocevar and Haley's predecessor Corey LaJoie both qualified in the top ten at the Bristol Night Race as well. Haley has improved his position in all three previous Bristol races in which he did not crash, but it's hard to conceive of him not sliding backward from 10th as he very rarely seems to have top ten speed anywhere, even though he did get a top ten at Homestead. It could help that Haley has crew chief Rodney Childers now who won two Bristol races with Kevin Harvick and Childers did lead 25 laps with Josh Berry last year, but it's hard not to see Haley sliding back to mid-pack as usual.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
April 6, 2025
Don't overlook Justin Haley at Darlington Raceway this weekend. The Spire Motorsports driver has a very strong record at the track, with three straight top-10 finishes in the spring events at "The Lady in Black." That includes a ninth-place effort last season when Haley was driving the No. 51 Ford for Rick Ware Racing. This time around, he gets a step up in equipment with his No. 7 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports. Looking at the practice and qualifying this weekend, Haley posted the fifth-fastest single lap time during practice on Saturday and then ended up 21st-fastest in qualifying. That's also where he started at Homestead a couple of weeks ago before ultimately finishing in 10th-place when it was all said and done. Homestead compares nicely to Darlington, and teams are using the same tire combination this weekend as they did a couple of weeks ago. At $6,200 on DraftKings, Justin Haley is a strong DFS option for his price, especially with such a great track history.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: ifantasyrace
March 30, 2025
Spire Motorsports driver Justin Haley will start 30th for this week's race at Martinsville Speedway. Haley was the lowest qualifying driver of the three entries for Spire in this week's race. In eight races at Martinsville, Haley has never placed better than 27th and only gained positive place differential in three different Cup events. Through six races in the 2025 season, Haley has four top-20 finishes and has nabbed positive PD four times. In practice, Haley ranked 33rd in overall lap averages and 36th in 10 consecutive lap averages, while his hood came up, which limited his practice time. Despite a cheap salary below $6,000 on DraftKings and a deep starting position, Martinsville is one of Haley's worst tracks in the Cup Series. Fade the No. 7 Chevrolet driver due to his poor history and slow practice speeds this week.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
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