Hocevar Pit Crew Moves to Bowman for Bristol in Effort to Keep Playoff Hopes Alive

Alex Bowman locked in ahead of playoff opener at Darlington Raceway. Photo Credit: Fisher Giannotti, Motorsports Today, August 31st, 2025

KELSEY CHRISTMAN - STAFF WRITER

After receiving the third best rating for pit stops during last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race in St. Louis, several members of Carson Hocevar’s pit crew have just gotten an upgrade ahead of the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Hendrick Motorsports will re-deploy Daniel Bach, Rod Cox, Jarius Morehead, and Cody French from the 77 Spire Motorsports operation to Alex Bowman and their own 48 team, as he battles through a must win-scenario to advance to the Round of 12 for the NASCAR Cup Championship.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a pit crew swap between the two organizations in 2025. Earlier this year, we saw a similar exchange of moving members of the 7 team of Justin Haley to improve the pit crew of Chase Elliott’s 9 team. Hocevar’s over-the-wall contingent will look to thrust Bowman back into championship contention. The Ally Chevrolet team had slow stops at both Darlington and World Wide Technology Raceway, with Bowman also suffering a speeding penalty late in the latter that led to his precarious points position.

As we dissect this redistribution of pit crew members, it is important to review the terms of the technical alliance between Spire Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports. Hendrick offers their pit crew members and engine program to Spire for their use. Within this agreement, there is also plenty of data sharing and technical support amongst these seven chartered Chevy teams.

Spire also offers seat time to Hendrick’s development drivers with their programs in both the Craftsman Truck Series and the ARCA Menards Series. Corey Day is the featured driver for this seat, currently running a partial schedule among both series with a HendrickCars.com sponsorship guaranteed in the partnership. It is also not uncommon to see social media posts of Spire drivers on the Hendrick campus for meetings or pit stop practices.

What are your thoughts on this movement between crews? Was this a reasonable change or does it overstep the partnership? Would it be different if Hocevar was in the playoffs as well? Do we think partnerships should continue amongst teams or should every team be responsible for their own parts and crews?