Spire Motorsports announced Tuesday morning that the team has hired Ty Dillon as the new driver of its No. 77 Chevrolet, among other personnel moves for the 2023 season. Dillon, a Cup veteran since 2017 and the younger brother of former Daytona 500 champion Austin Dillon, moves to Spire after spending the 2022 season at Petty GMS Racing.
Dillon will drive the No. 77 and work with crew chief Kevin Bellicourt, while the team's No. 7 Chevrolet will remain unaltered. Corey LaJoie will return as driver of the No. 7 next season, and Ryan Sparks will return as crew chief while also assuming the role of Spire's director of competition.
The addition of Dillon will give Spire two full-time drivers after the 2022 season saw the No. 77 be split by Josh Bilicki and Landon Cassill. As for Dillon, his hiring gives him a new home several months after it was announced he would be replaced by Noah Gragson at Petty GMS next season.
"I'm thankful for this opportunity, a new beginning with a very hungry team that is excited for the future," Dillon said in a press release. "Spire Motorsports has been growing year after year, when you look at the way that Corey and the No. 7 team has developed to be competitive. The organization is heading in the right direction and I'm excited to be a part of bringing the No. 77 up to where Corey has been running. Hopefully we raise the whole level of competition together.
"I'm excited to be a teammate. To me, as a team, high tides raise all ships and I want to be a part of all of us being successful. One person doesn't have to fail for the other to be successful, and I'm looking forward to us, as Spire Motorsports, growing and bringing the program to new heights."
While LaJoie's No. 7 has become Spire's flagship car and team, the No. 77 possesses the lone victory in team history, which came in 2019 when Justin Haley won a race at Daytona by staying out as the rest of the field pitted, successfully gambling that an impending storm would end the race prematurely. Daytona was also the site of the No. 77's best finish of the 2022 season, which came when Cassill finished fourth in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in August.
Dillon has raced full-time in Cup five out of the last six seasons, scoring two top fives and seven top 10 finishes in 199 career starts. His best career finish is a third at Talladega in the fall of 2020.
