Spire Motorsports impresses in Cup Series practice, qualifying at Phoenix

Spire Motorsports is still a relatively young NASCAR Cup Series organization, but you wouldn't know it from the speed they had on Saturday. 

During Saturday's practice and qualifying sessions at Phoenix Raceway, all three Spire Motorsports entries showed pace. Carson Hocevar and Michael McDowell were the two fastest cars in Cup Series practice, while all three Spire cars managed to qualify in the top-eight. Saturday was the first time Spire has ever had multiple cars qualify inside the top-eight.

Hocevar, McDowell and Justin Haley will start third, seventh and eighth in Sunday's Shriners Children's 500, respectively. 

"It was similar to COTA, I didn't think I did a good job," Hocevar told Fox Sports after his qualifying run. "Spire, I think we had all three cars in the top-eight, which is really strong. It's super important for us, at the beginning of the year, to stack stage points and have a really good run."

Saturday marks consecutive top-five qualifying efforts for Hocevar, who qualified fourth at COTA. After a runner-up finish at Atlanta, he's seeking his first Cup Series win at Atlanta. 

Time will tell if Spire's Saturday speed translates to Sunday, but their performance in practice and qualifying was impressive nonetheless.