As Michael McDowell makes the jump from Front Row Motorsports to Spire Motorsports for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series campaign, he’ll be bringing a familiar face along for the ride.
McDowell’s current shot-caller, Travis Peterson, has signed a multi-year agreement with Spire Motorsports, which will see the 33-year-old serve as crew chief of the No. 71 Chevrolet Camaro for 2025 and beyond, joining the Avondale, Arizona-native.
With the acquisition of Peterson, Spire Motorsports has solidified its crew chief lineup for the 2025 season, which includes a pair of veteran NASCAR Cup Series crew chiefs in Rodney Childers and Luke Lambert.
“It’s exciting to have Travis Peterson join Spire Motorsports,” said Spire Motorsports president Doug Duchardt. “The first time Travis and I worked together was when Greg Ives and Travis came to Hendrick Motorsports to be the crew chief and the engineer for the No. 88 car with Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. I got to spend time with Travis there as a young engineer and it’s exciting to see how he’s grown into a leader and a crew chief. He’s going to add tremendous depth to our crew chief lineup and be a great compliment to Luke (Lambert) and Rodney (Childers). I’m really excited to see what those three can do together.”
McDowell and Peterson have been paired together for the last two seasons, which has resulted in a victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Road Course, as well as four top-five and 14 top-10 finishes, and three poles.
“There are times when you meet people and you are immediately able to naturally communicate on a real level,” said Peterson of his relationship with McDowell. “I feel like we were that way from the start. We didn’t have to work at it. Our personalities, the way we openly communicate, and our honest nature helped us click from the start. We have no problem talking about hard stuff or easy stuff. We can be happy together when we win and be sad together when we lose. There is no red tape. We just work. It’s hard to recreate that. Staying together is a huge part in coming to Spire Motorsports for both of us. It’s hard to put a value on a driver/crew chief pairing, but there’s an intangible there. We just know it has been working, and if we can keep it going, we’re only going to get better over time. That’s what we’re chasing. We want to continue to grow and get better together.”
Born in Wisconsin, Peterson moved to Charlotte when his father accepted a position at Joe Gibbs Racing. Eventually, Travis would work as a race engineer intern for the organization in the K&N Pro Series while working towards a mechanical engineering degree.
After graduating in Fall 2012, Peterson joined JR Motorsports, where he was a part of Chase Elliott’s three-win 2014 season that resulted in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship. After two successful years at JRM, Peterson jumped to Hendrick Motorsports in 2015.
In 2018, Peterson made his NASCAR Cup Series debut as a crew chief with Matt Kenseth at Homestead-Miami Speedway with RFK Racing. Four years later, he would serve as interim crew chief for Chris Buescher, scoring a top-10 in four starts.
The following season, Peterson was tapped by Front Row Motorsports to serve as crew chief of the No. 34 Ford Mustang, and the chemistry between McDowell and Peterson was born.
“It is a very exciting opportunity,” said Peterson. “Michael (McDowell) and I had the opportunity to meet with Doug (Duchardt) and (Jeff) Dickerson and they really sold us on the vision of where Spire is going and how we could be big role players in building the organization. I think having that skin in the game was important to both of us. The opportunity in front of us has all the potential to be very rewarding. That was a huge part of it. I love the energy right now and the overall culture around Spire Motorsports. They’re investing in people and team ownership is highly engaged. The mindset is ‘We’re going to do what it takes to win and this is what we want to build. Here’s the vision, where we’re going, what we’re going to do to get there, and we want you to be part of it.’ That was the biggest selling point.”
McDowell and Peterson will get to work following the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Phoenix Raceway, as the team prepares to chase another victory for Spire Motorsports at NASCAR’s top level.
