Canadian racer D.J. Kennington will be the fifth driver for new team Spire Motorsports when the green flag waves for the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday. The Martinsville race will be Kennington's first NASCAR Cup Series race of the 2019 season.
“We’re proud to have Go-Parts join the Spire Motorsports family and greatly appreciate their support,” Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson said. “D.J. Kennington is a journeyman racer with some experience at Martinsville so we know he’ll do a good job for Spire Motorsports and Go-Parts this weekend.”
Jamie McMurray, Quin Houff, Garrett Smithley and Reed Sorenson have driven for the race team in the first five races of the season,w ith Smithley being the only driver already contesting multiple races with the team. McMurray drove a No. 40 entry in the season-opening Daytona 500, the team's first race and, presumably, McMurray's last. Spire Motorsports has used the No. 77 since then.
McMurray's 22nd-place finish at Daytona was the team's best finish, to date.
Kennington, a two-time champion of the NASCAR PInty's Series, has made 15-career starts in the Cup Series, including 10 last season. He posted a career-best finish of 13th last July at Daytona. Kennington also has made 51-career starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and contested 11 races in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series.
Spire Racing purchased a charter for NASCAR Cup Series competition from Furniture Row Racing after that team shut down at the end of the 2018 season. The team has not made specific driver announcements for races beyond Martinsville but has announced that Houff will drive the No. 77 in approximately half of the races this season.
