Kurt Busch’s journey to NASCAR stardom began in 2000 with a Craftsman Truck Series rookie season that foreshadowed greatness. With four wins and a championship runner-up finish, Busch signaled to fans and competitors alike that he would soon be a force at the top level of the sport.
By 2002, Busch was already making waves in the Cup Series. His first win came at the famed Bristol Motor Speedway, he finished third in points, and from there, his career soared to new heights.
Busch’s big breakthrough came in 2004, when he captured the Cup Series Championship, becoming the first driver to win the title under NASCAR’s playoff system — a feat that proved both his excellence and adaptability.
Busch earned 34 Cup Series wins in 776 starts, including a victory in the 2017 Daytona 500. A consistent contender in the NASCAR Playoffs, finishing in the top 10 standings 10 times, Busch’s fiery competitiveness kept him at the forefront of the sport for more than 20 years.
Busch was named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers.
Kurt Busch bio
Born: Aug. 4, 1978 Hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada
Championships (1)
Cup — 2004
Cup Series Stats Competed: 2000-22 Starts: 776 Wins: 34 Poles: 28 Years on Ballot: 1
Randy LaJoie is a man with a multifaceted legacy — the racer, the two-time champion, the seat builder and the father.
LaJoie made his mark in what is now the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where his crowning achievements came in 1996 and 1997 when he won back-to-back championships, establishing himself as one of the series’ top competitors.
Beyond his championships, LaJoie’s consistency was a defining trait of his career. He finished in the top 10 in points in five consecutive seasons (1996-2000), and amassed 15 victories and 118 top-10 finishes across 350 starts.
In addition to his success on the track, LaJoie’s advocacy for racing seat safety is immeasurable — he started a racing seat company that placed a strong emphasis on educating both novice and experienced drivers across the country about the importance of safety in motorsports.
LaJoie, whose son Corey continues to race on the NASCAR national series level, was named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers.
Randy LaJoie bio
Born: Aug. 28, 1961 Hometown: Norwalk, Connecticut
Championships (3)
Xfinity — 1996-97
North Series — 1985
Xfinity Series Stats Competed: 1986-2006 Starts: 350 Wins: 15 Poles: 9 Years on Ballot: 1
JR Motorsports driver Sammy Smith was declared the winner of Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Rockingham Speedway after Jesse Love’s No. 2 Chevrolet was disqualified in post-race inspection.
Full results are listed below — the No. 19 of Justin Bonsignore also was disqualified.
Starting in 2009, the Dash 4 Cash has been a midseason program sponsored by Xfinity that rewards drivers financially for performing well during a select stretch of four races in each Xfinity Series season. The qualifier race to determine the field for the first Dash 4 Cash race was held at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (March 15). The official four-race slate began at Homestead-Miami Speedway (March 22), marking the program’s return to the Florida track for the first time since 2020. The second race occurred at Martinsville Speedway (March 29), its fifth consecutive year as a Dash 4 Cash facility.
After a one-week break at Darlington Raceway (April 5), the Dash 4 Cash program returned to action at Bristol Motor Speedway (April 12), the first time the program has occurred at the track since 2019, and concluded at Rockingham Speedway (April 19), the first time the program has frequented the 1-mile North Carolina venue.
How does Dash 4 Cash work?
Before the four-race stretch began, a qualifying race determined the participants in the first official Dash 4 Cash race. The four highest-finishing series regulars in the Xfinity race at Las Vegas qualified for the first Dash 4 Cash race at Homestead-Miami. The highest finisher of that quartet at Homestead-Miami collected the $100,000 prize and automatically qualified for the next Dash 4 Cash race. The next three highest-finishing Xfinity Series regulars in the race at Homestead-Miami also qualified to participate in the next Dash 4 Cash race at Martinsville. These rules repeated for subsequent Dash 4 Cash races.
In order to qualify for the program, drivers must be declared to collect Xfinity Series points.
Recap: An intense late-race battle with Aric Almirola ended with the 2024 Xfinity Series champion in Allgaier prevailing in the desert, seizing his first win of 2025 and clinching his position in the first Dash 4 Cash bout of the season. Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love and Austin Hill, in addition to Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer, also qualified; Almirola was not eligible.
***
At Homestead-Miami Speedway (March 22)
Dash 4 Cash drivers: Justin Allgaier, Jesse Love, Austin Hill, Sam Mayer.
Recap: While it looked like Kyle Larson would set sail away with the win, a late-race spin from Taylor Gray set up an overtime restart. Hill and Allgaier got past Larson quickly on the restart and battled for not only the race win but also the $100,000 bonus. Allgaier slipped past Hill and held him at bay the final lap to pocket the win and check. The quartet of Allgaier, Mayer, Hill and Sheldon Creed qualified to compete for the $100,000 prize at Martinsville Speedway.
***
At Martinsville Speedway (March 29)
Dash 4 Cash drivers: Justin Allgaier, Sam Mayer, Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed.
Recap: A race full of attrition saw bent fenders and flared tempers when the checkered flag waved as Hill snuck by Taylor Gray, Sammy Smith and Allgaier in the final corner to score his second win of 2025 and the $100,000 bonus. Hill earned the chance to make his third appearance in the 2025 Dash 4 Cash program, as did Allgaier. Creed would make his second, and Brennan Poole’s fourth-place finish netted him his first go at the Dash 4 Cash prize at Bristol Motor Speedway.
***
At Bristol Motor Speedway (April 12)
Dash 4 Cash drivers: Austin Hill, Sheldon Creed, Justin Allgaier, Brennan Poole.
Recap: Cup Series regular Kyle Larson showed off his Bristol brilliance by leading 277 out of 300 laps, slaying the competition at the “Last Great Colosseum.” Allgaier was the highest-finishing driver eligible for the $100,000 bonus after Creed and Poole had a major collision late in Stage 1 and Hill went a lap down. Carson Kvapil slipped by Allgaier in the final laps while Sammy Smith and Brandon Jones rounded out the top five to battle it out for the Dash 4 Cash prize at Rockingham Speedway.
Recap: Sammy Smith took the victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ return to Rockingham Speedway in a race that came down to fuel mileage. Smith ultimately crossed the line in the runner-up position behind Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love. Following post-race inspection, Love’s entry was disqualified, promoting Smith’s No. 8 team to the victory. Smith also took home the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash prize at the end of the evening after late-race cautions took out the other competitors.
ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — Sammy Smith and the No. 8 JR Motorsports team walked away from Rockingham Speedway $100,000 richer Saturday evening.
The third-year racer was declared the winner of the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ return to “The Rock” after Jesse Love’s No. 2 Chevrolet was disqualified in post-race inspection, with Smith netting the final bonus prize of the 2025 campaign with his best result of the season.
Restarting in NASCAR Overtime, Smith held the top spot alongside Joe Gibbs Racing’s Taylor Gray — a recent rival from an aggressive run-in at Martinsville Speedway on March 29. With Smith on the inside and Gray to his right, Smith got the better jump on the restart and cleared Gray for the lead entering Turn 1.
But on corner entry, Love charged to Smith’s bumper and moved him up the track, allowing Love to surge for the lead and apparent win before post-race inspection determined problems with Love’s rear suspension.
“That was good, hard racing,” Smith said. “I was happy with our car all day. We did a really good job. Just hard racing there at the end, and we were stumbling on fuel. It was just an overall good day.”
Smith may have jumped away with the lead on the overtime restart, but it wasn’t for Gray’s lack of effort. Gray tried to match Love’s timing on the re-fire, but a shove from Parker Retzlaff approaching the restart zone impacted Gray’s ability to hit the throttle, dropping his No. 54 Toyota to a fifth-place finish.
“I still haven’t seen a replay, but just from in the car, the 4 jacked me up in the restart box, and as soon as he popped me, Sammy launched,” Gray told NASCAR.com. “I went to go launch with him, and obviously my back tires are jacked up off the ground, so I’m spinning the rear tires and trying to get hooked back up. And then once I get hooked back up, I didn’t get the restart I would like to.”
James Gilbert | Getty Images
Three weeks ago at Martinsville, Smith charged through Gray in the closing two corners, crashing Gray and costing either driver the victory and resulting in a 50-point penalty and a $25,000 fine to Smith. Any lingering emotions from that night didn’t carry into Saturday’s fight for the Rockingham win.
“He raced me very clean all day,” Smith said. “We raced hard and I’m happy with how we made it at the end.”
Smith finds himself on a hot streak heading into next Saturday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), with finishes of ninth (Darlington), fourth (Bristol) and now a win in consecutive weeks.
Gray, on the other hand, has struggled to find results in that same span, finishing 29th at Martinsville, 33rd at Darlington and 19th at Bristol.
“I’ll be honest, we’ve struggled since Martinsville, so I haven’t really been around (Smith),” Gray said. “I mean, they’ve been running good, and we haven’t been running very good — or at least had good finishes. So we haven’t been around each other that much besides today, and today was kind of the first time we were back around each other. I thought the racing was fine between me and him.
“I had it set in my mind: I knew I could beat him on a restart. I’ve done it plenty of times, and I just know I’m better at restarts than he is, and I was going to sort of manipulate him on my restart, manipulate his air getting into (Turn) 1. I promise I’m not cocky; I was just, I was in my mindset, right? I was confident in the restart, and then once the 4 popped me, it kind of took me out of contention of being able to do that. So it’s unfortunate, but I mean, they’re fast. Honestly, probably a little better than us today.”
ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — Long after the checkered flag waved in the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ long-awaited return to Rockingham Speedway, Sammy Smith’s fortunes improved dramatically.
Smith was awarded the victory in the North Carolina Education Lottery 250 after the No. 2 Chevrolet of ostensible race winner Jesse Love was deemed to have violated Rule 14.14.2.I-5.h that covers trailing arm spacers and pinion angle shims.
“All mating surfaces of those parts need to be in complete contact with each other, and unfortunately they violated that rule and were disqualified,” series director Eric Peterson said.
On Monday, Richard Childress Racing posted on social media that it would appeal NASCAR’s ruling to disqualify the No. 2 Chevrolet.
The disqualification of Love’s car gave Smith his first victory of the season and the third of his career; he also earned a $100,000 bonus as the winner of the final Xfinity Dash 4 Cash race of the season. Love was relegated to a 37th-place finish.
“It’s a tough way to win that, but I feel like we’ll take ‘em any way we can get ’em,” Smith said after learning of Love’s disqualification. “We waited here to see what happens, but overall, it was a good day, and I’m very happy with the progress we’ve made recently.
“I’m kind of speechless, to be honest with you.”
After Love climbed from his car at the finish line, the No. 2 Camaro rolled away from him down the banking and into the infield grass. Perhaps that was an omen of problems to come.
Love had just done a celebratory burnout after a magnificent restart in overtime propelled him to the apparent victory. He finished 0.691 seconds ahead of Smith, but the margin was negated by the infraction, and the win went to the driver of the No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.
In a race that featured 14 cautions for 83 laps — with nine yellows occurring in the final stage — Parker Retzlaff ran second, a career best; Harrison Burton was third, giving AM Racing its best-ever Xfinity Series finish; and Brennan Poole came home fourth, scoring his second top five in the last four races.
Sunoco rookie Taylor Gray completed the top five. Austin Hill, Josh Williams, Jeb Burton, Daniel Dye and Jeremy Clements finished sixth through 10th, respectively.
Ryan Sieg led a race-high 77 laps battling Love for the lead in the final stage, but he was collected in a massive Lap 241 crash when Christian Eckes ran short of fuel on a restart and backed up the field behind him.
That wreck ruined the Dash 4 Cash hopes of the three other contenders for the bonus, Justin Allgaier, Carson Kvapil and Brandon Jones.
Nick Sanchez was out front for 52 circuits, including the first 44 of the race, but he, too, fell victim to the Lap 241 crash, which forced the first of two red-flag periods.
Carson Kvapil led 47 laps in the second stage as he and Love fought for the lead. Sanchez won Stage 1, and Dean Thompson scored the first-ever stage win for Sam Hunt Racing in Stage 2.
Fans who came to Rockingham anticipating a show weren’t disappointed. A workable second groove opened above the bottom lane, and drivers were even able to roll three-wide through the corners on occasion, though some of the attempts to do so produced regrettable outcomes.
Katherine Legge’s sixth Xfinity Series start — and her first since 2023 at Road America — came to an early end on Lap 52, when hard contact from William Sawalich turned her No. 53 Chevrolet sideways in Turn 1.
Unable to avoid Legge’s spinning car, Kasey Kahne, making his first start in the series since 2017, sustained damage to the right front of his No. 33 Chevrolet, with the blow sending Legge’s Camaro up the track into the outside wall, eliminating her from the race.
Legge had failed to qualify during time trials earlier in the day, but she arranged to take over J.J. Yeley’s ride and started from the rear because of the driver change. She had already been lapped by then-leader Jesse Love when the accident occurred.
Kahne had to pit for repairs to the nose of his car and lost a lap in the process, but he recovered to finish 14th.
The No. 19 Toyota of Justin Bonsignore also was disqualified for lug nuts not installed in a safe and secure manner. Bonsignore had finished 36th of 38 drivers before the disqualification.
The Xfinity Series returns to action next Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway for the Ag-Pro 300 (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
See where your favorite NASCAR Xfinity Series driver will pit for the North Carolina Education Lottery 250 presented by Black’s Tire at Rockingham Speedway on Saturday (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
See where your favorite NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver will pit for the Black’s Tire 200 at Rockingham Speedway on Friday (5 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series both race at Rockingham Speedway this week. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more.
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Race day: Saturday at 4 p.m. ET on The CW. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information is available.
Tires: Seven sets
Note: Driver audio won’t be available on Scanner this weekend.
It’s been a long seven weeks, but Josh Williams is finally feeling better.
Williams, driver of the No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, has been battling the lingering effects of pneumonia since March 1 at Circuit of The Americas. The past month and a half hasn’t been easy — and he’s still getting winded just moving boxes around the house. But at long last, Williams is getting back to normal ahead of Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Rockingham Speedway (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“I’ve never felt anything like this before, ever,” Williams told NASCAR.com.
The illness started in early March, just before the Xfinity Series’ first road-course race of the year at COTA. Williams woke up “freezing cold” without a voice and knew it wasn’t good, but he assumed it was some sort of flu he got while traveling.
What began was one of the worst bouts of sickness he’s ever faced. He trudged through the Austin road course for a 15th-place finish — “wasn’t terrible for me on a road course” — but returned one week later to Phoenix Raceway still feeling dismal.
“I went to the care center at Phoenix because I was having trouble breathing and stuff,” Williams said. “I had, like, crackling fluid in my lungs, so I was in there for a pretty good while. I didn’t feel bad — I mean, I felt bad, but I didn’t feel terrible. So I got an IV at Phoenix … and they were like, ‘Well, there’s really nothing we can do for you.'”
Williams went on to finish 12th that weekend for his best finish of 2025, but Las Vegas proved to be a different story. The Florida native soldiered through the first 45-lap stage of the March 15 event but needed to exit the car as soon as it came to an end.
“Dude, I literally felt like somebody was holding me underwater,” Williams said. “That was the longest 45 laps of my life.”
As Ty Dillon stepped in as his substitute, Williams climbed from the car, removed his helmet and took a seat atop the pit box to watch as Stage 2 got underway — simply trying to catch his breath. And after his experience at the infield care center one week prior, he didn’t see much use in heading back to the Vegas care center.
“I knew they couldn’t do anything for me because it was just like a breathing thing,” Williams said. “It’s not like I had carbon monoxide (poisoning). It’s not like I was overheated and dehydrated. It was just a struggle to breathe in the car under lateral loads in the corners and things like that because it was compressing my chest, my body in the corners, and we already talked about at the infield care center weeks before that, there’s really nothing we can do. You just kind of got to wait it out.
“So the best thing for me was just fresh air, right? So that’s why I sat on the pit box and just took a minute to sit there and breathe and get everything back.”
Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR Digital Media
While miserable, Vegas proved to be the lowest point for Williams competitively. Dillon was on standby for Williams again at Homestead-Miami Speedway the following week, but Williams mustered through the entire race and scored a 19th-place finish.
The race track wasn’t the only place Williams was suffering the effects of his illness, though. Since 2015, Williams has visited over 200 children’s hospitals on the “Josh Williams Hospital Tour,” wearing his firesuit to brighten the days of children and their families during difficult times, an endeavor for which Williams was recognized in 2022 as a finalist for the Comcast Community Champion of the Year Award. Because Williams has been sick, multiple visits were canceled over the past seven weeks.
“It’s been terrible,” Williams said. “I mean, some of our greatest visits that we do (are out there), one of them being Vegas. And Phoenix, having guests out to the race track and going to tour some of these places — we haven’t been able to go. It just sucks, because that’s what I’m used to. That’s what we do, and that’s what I enjoy doing.”
Williams is ready to put it all behind him now. His voice is still on its way back, he said, but the hospital tours are set to resume in two weeks when the circuit heads to Texas Motor Speedway. As he returns to feeling better, he’s ready for improved results, too, because “it kind of hurt our season too,” he said.
The 31-year-old has finished inside the top 20 in all but two races this year — 29th at Vegas when Dillon stepped in on short notice, and 36th at Darlington with a DNF after his car overheated. Those results are OK, Williams said, but the goal is much more than that.
“I mean, we need to make the playoffs for sure. I think that’s achievable,” Williams said through a lingering cough. “We’re running out of time, but I think that’s achievable. You know, some of the tracks where I thought that we would really strive, like Bristol and Martinsville, we weren’t as good as I thought we were going to be. But we’ve got some good tracks coming up that I enjoy up until the playoffs. So I think that that’s really our main goal is just to get the 11 into the playoffs, and then if we can achieve that goal, then we’ll worry about staying in the playoffs.”
This season marks Williams’ second with Kaulig Racing but eighth running the majority of the races of the Xfinity schedule. His average finish of 19.7 in 2025 is already two spots better than he finished in 2024 (21.7) and his average start has improved from 23.5 to 19.6.
“I think it’s been OK,” Williams assessed of his 14 months so far with Kaulig. “It’s just one of those deals, like we do have some good runs, and then sometimes we have things happen out of our control, but I think we’re moving still in the right direction. I just don’t know if we’ve moved fast enough.”
Crew chief Eddie Pardue is back on the pit box for Williams this year after replacing Kevin Walter just past the midpoint of the 2024 campaign. Williams said he believes they’re “on the right track” but ultimately needed to set up Williams’ cars more optimally for his driving preferences.
“I’ve always drove off of the right-rear (tire), so everything for me is on-the-throttle kind of driving,” Williams said. “So I’ve struggled with the cars being a little bit tight for me, just because the style of driving that I have. …
“We’re gaining on it. I just wish we’d gain on it a little faster.”
Track: Rockingham Speedway Location: Rockingham, NC Track length: 0.94 miles When: Saturday, 4 p.m. ET Where to tune in: The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Race purse: $1,651,939 Race distance: 250 laps | 235 miles Stages: 60 | 120 | 250 Defending winner:Jamie McMurray, February 2004
Xfinity Series ready to rock with return to Rockingham
For the first time since 2004, the NASCAR Xfinity Series is racing at Rockingham Speedway. The 0.94-mile high-banked tri-oval is back, allowing North Carolina’s Richmond County to host NASCAR national series racing once again for the first time since the Craftsman Truck Series returned for two years in 2012-13.
At long last, Jamie McMurray’s streak of four straight Xfinity wins at “The Rock” will fall. The question is: Who will be the first new Xfinity winner at Rockingham since Jason Keller in 2002?
Sheldon Creed — still in search of his first Xfinity win — posted the best 10-lap average in Friday’s 50-minute practice session, picking up where he and his Haas Factory Team left off after a mid-winter NASCAR test. But his overwhelming takeaway wasn’t just his lap times — it was how much speed the track’s new coat of pavement allows drivers to carry through the corner.
“It’s just super fast,” Creed told NASCAR.com. “Like, we’re wide open at the quarter mark in (Turn) 3. It’s so fast. And we’re wide open at like the center in (Turns) 1 and 2 — in race trim. It’s just really fast.”
Defending series champion Justin Allgaier raced at Rockingham back in 2008 in ARCA Menards Series competition. With that experience came preconceived notions that may not be serving well, despite scoring the sixth-quickest single lap in practice.
“I think in my mind, I expected (the track) to do something,” Allgaier told NASCAR.com. “And I think that’s a tough spot to be in because a lot of these younger drivers that are coming in, they don’t have a perception of what to expect, and I think that they’re willing to do things that, while I’m not saying I’m not willing to do them, my thought doesn’t even go there because I’m so used to how I think it should go.”
Matt DiBenedetto is one of those drivers who doesn’t have much Rockingham experience, but he did test a Cup Series car for 600 miles at “The Rock” a number of years ago. Walking into the track again Friday, only one came to DiBendetto’s mind:
“Legendary,” DiBenedetto told NASCAR.com. “That’s the word. I think it’s cool, just because I grew up watching it as a kid on TV, and watching ‘The Rock’ and thought just how cool. I mean, this place is historic, legendary — kind of like going back to North Wilkesboro. It’s got some of that same cool factor to it. …
“I’ve just always, as a fan, thought this place was cool for the history of it, and to be actually coming here, seeing an event here, seeing it sold out, and all the excitement and enthusiasm, all the people wanting passes — friends and everybody wanting to come to this one — it’s just a good thing. It just shows how excited everybody is, especially locally too.”
From atop the pit box …
What do crew chiefs and pit crews have in focus to win Saturday’s race?
Though Rockingham is traditionally known for its high tire wear and abrasive surface, a 2022 repave smoothened the track significantly.
“The Rock” still has its quirks — a relatively long backstretch, steeply banked turns and a late apex in the tri-oval before diving into Turn 1 — but a lack of significant tire wear could play a role in how crew chiefs strategize for Saturday’s 250-lap feature.
“If the fall-off model is low and we’re not seeing it, you’re going to see guys flipping stages and trying to hold that track position for the race win,” Jim Pohlman, crew chief of Justin Allgaier’s No. 7 Chevrolet, told NASCAR.com. “And if you get off cycle to take some tires or stay out, you might get your points, but man, it’s going to be hard to get back through there. So unfortunately, we’re probably going to see a split field when it comes to some of that, guys fighting for points right now.
“That becomes a qualm for all the crew chiefs as to what strategy (they choose) and how they want to play and where how your season’s been so far. So yeah, I think track position — getting it and maintaining — it’s gonna be a big priority.”
Chevrolets will be at the front of the field. Chevrolet teams have combined to lead 1,313 of 1,666 laps in the Xfinity Series this season. That should favor teams like JR Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing on Saturday afternoon.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
NICK SANCHEZ. Of the 27 drivers and teams who posted a 10-lap average in Friday afternoon’s practice, Sanchez was fourth-quickest on average. The Big Machine Racing rookie has posted top 10s every other week in 2025. Good news for the Florida native: The numbers say he’s due for his fifth top 10 of the year in race No. 10.
Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• Welcome back, Kasey: Kahne, one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers, returns for Xfinity race| Read more
• Rocking out: Best photos from a doubleheader weekend at Rockingham | View gallery
• NASCAR Classics: Rewind with full-race Rockingham replays from the archives | Watch races
• Paint Scheme Preview: All the schemes on track for “The Rock’s” return | View gallery
