Frat Boys to NASCAR Winner – The Unorthodox Story of Chevrolet’s Fastest Growing Underdogs

In the modern era of NASCAR, no manufacturer has dominated the Cup Series more than Chevy. The Bowtie soared through the 70s and 80s. And after a decade of close battles with Ford, Chevy pulled off the lead in the 2000s with 13 championships in a row. Whilst Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing are arguably the greatest contributors toward Chevy’s NASCAR dominance, a new team is quickly rising to join those ranks. With Michael McDowell now on-board, Spire Motorsports is eager to make good on their inaugural win in 2019. But how did the relatively young team reach such promising heights in the first place?

Jeff Dickerson reveals Luck’s major hand in the formation of Spire Motorsports

After the purchase of Live Fast Motorsports’ $40 million charter, it’s no secret that Jeff Dickerson and Co. are taking their ownership of Spire Motorsports very seriously. And as if that wasn’t enough, McDowell’s arrival is clear evidence of the team’s long-term aspirations. But for a team that was once on the brink of extinction, how did fortunes turn around to such an extent?

Speaking to Kelley Earnhardt Miller, Jeff Dickerson revealed that the team’s formation was in fact, ‘by accident’. According to the CEO of Spire Holdings, the opportunity to kick-start his NASCAR dreams presented itself in solid advice from former Furniture Row Racing owner, Barney Visser. Dickerson’s firm, Spire Holdings, had brought in major investments for the entrepreneur’s team, which prompted the business mogul to push Dickerson toward owing his own team.

Dickerson shared, “We were doing the sponsor deals, like you know, for everything that was on the #77 (Furniture Row Racing) team, we had brought. And so he (Visser) had said, ‘Hey, why don’t you guys look at doing this?’ With some encouragement from a NASCAR team-owner, Jeff Dickerson now had one issue to address: Funding. Fortunately for the Spire boss, his office workspace neighbors were just the people for the job.

He added. “Our office was on top of the Aquesta Bank Building. I think they always came up just because we were kind of like a frat house, not a law firm kind of way. And like they’d come up and just be like, ‘What are you guys so quiet about? What’s going on?” According to Dickerson, the frat-like nature of Spire Holdings’ office culture made for a great ice-breaker with the bank employees.

So when Visser presented the opportunity to Dickerson, the young CEO looked to his neighbors for help. He shared, “It was a general manager guy, and we were like, well we got this opportunity, how do we kind of pull it together, like we don’t have the money for this. They were like, ‘Give us a minute’, and like in 15 minutes, like no jokes, and this is why we are the luckiest people, we had the President of the bank, VP of the bank, loan, credit guys everybody there. And that whole deal came together in like three days!”

Whilst Jeff Dickerson gave a lot of credit to luck for helping him secure funds for Spire Motorsports, it’s safe to say that he had created that reputation through his previous works with team owners like Visser. But now that Jeff Dickerson is in the team owner’s seat himself, there is one dilemma that plagues him like many others.

Do Spire Motorsports agree with the permanency of NASCAR charters?

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As things stand, Spire Motorsport has three charters across the Cup and Truck Series. With it’s latest investment in the Live Fast Motorsports charter, the team are hoping to make the most of the massive investment. But the uncertainty with charter negotiations are creating some concerns for Dickerson and Co. When asked by Kelley Earnhardt Miller about his views on the permanency of charters, Jeff Dickerson highlighted the benefits which it could bring to the table.

The team-owner shared on the ‘Dale Jr Download’ podcast, “I don’t think NASCAR wants to take them away, you know what I mean? I don’t think they’re going to take them away but it’s just like the the thing is like they should be permanent…(…) What permanent Charters would do for the owners is, I think, and we’ve done it without the permanent charters, it is just like, I think you would find more owners taking risks like us, on investing into their business.”

For Jeff Dickerson, permanent charters would mean team owners would not just get better sponsorship opportunities, but also have a more prospective driver lineup. Instead of a focus on short-term fan popularity and other factors, owners could bring in younger drivers to be trained for the long-term.

With the permanency of charters, if implemented, expected to bring a major shift in team owner’s commitments, do you think NASCAR will bite the bullet soon enough?