Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series return to Rockingham Speedway this week, while the Cup Series enjoys an off weekend. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more.

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

Race day: Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET on The CW. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Five sets

Entry list
Qualifying order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Race day: Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET on FS1. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Five sets

Entry list
Qualifying order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

Chandler Smith and his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford were disqualified following Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Rockingham Speedway.

Officials ruled Smith’s truck failed to meet post-race rear body inspection height requirements. As a result, Smith is credited with a last-place finish of 36th despite taking the checkered flag in fourth.

MORE: Race results | At-track photos: Rockingham

Smith entered Friday’s contest as the series’ points leader. After replacing a broken shock after qualifying, per FOX Sports, his No. 38 truck took the green flag from the rear of the field for unapproved adjustments.

By the end of Stage 2, Smith worked his way up to 16th place before charging into the top five late in the race.

Instead of the 33 points he would have received for finishing fourth, Smith leaves Rockingham with one earned point. Race winner Corey Heim and Kaden Honeycutt now share the lead in the Truck Series points standings. However, due to his part-time status, Heim is ineligible for championship contention.

The Truck Series returns to action Friday, April 10 at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Mike Hembree

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. – On an afternoon that seemed to be all about Corey Heim, Kaden Honeycutt and Layne Riggs produced some late-race drama in Friday’s Black’s Tire 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Rockingham Speedway.

Heim won the first two stages and led 178 of the 200 laps. He had almost no challengers most of the day and looked to be building a victory margin of several seconds.

Instead, Heim’s Tricon Garage truck lost some of its edge in the closing miles because of steering issues, and Honeycutt and Riggs were there to try and turn the tables. Heim still won, but Honeycutt, also in a Tricon truck, was a heartbeat behind in second by 0.090 seconds. Riggs surged to get a close third, only 0.461 seconds behind the winner.

RELATED: Unofficial results | At-track photos: Rockingham

For Honeycutt, the seasonal climb continues. He has three consecutive top fives – fifth at St. Petersburg, fourth at Darlington and second on Friday.

“I caught him (Heim),” Honeycutt said. “I don’t really know what I should have done differently to win the race. I feel like it’s so narrow down there. I couldn’t have run into my teammate. It’s unfortunate that we were down there together. But it’s awesome that we keep on climbing.”

Honeycutt said late-race changes to his truck gave him a shot at catching Heim.

“At the end of it, we made a really good adjustment, and that made it a lot better, a lot more drivable for me,” he said. “I think that’s ultimately how I was able to run him down in the long run. So we just need to figure out how to be a little better at the end.”

Corey Heim and Kaden Honeycutt race at Rockingham in the Truck Series.
James Gilbert | Getty Images

Riggs, who has a win and a third in two of the past three races, said the tangle of lapped trucks near the finish made decisions difficult.

“You don’t know what they’re going to do,” Riggs said. “Here, you have to commit so early. You can’t switch lanes once you commit to whatever one you’re going to run. I was expecting them and wanted them to go to the bottom, so I was going to kind of run the top and try to keep the momentum, but hindsight is always 20-20.”

Riggs said the drivers he raced around most of the day had better restarts and ran well on short runs, but his truck ran smoother during longer stretches.

“Everybody else around me could really fire off well, but I’d be at the best at the end of the run, so I just need to figure out what we need to do to be better there,” he said. “Overall, though, I feel like we had a fifth- to seventh-place truck and we finished third with it. I’m smiling.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — Even as a part-time driver, Corey Heim proved he can still dominate — until the final four laps of Friday’s Black’s Tire 200 at Rockingham Speedway, that is.

Heim led a personal-best 178 laps in winning his second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race of the season and the 25th of his career — fifth-most all-time.

In the closing laps, however, he had to overcome skewed steering and chattering tires in his No. 1 Toyota to fend off a determined charge from Tricon Garage teammate Kaden Honeycutt’s No. 11 Tundra.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Rockingham

Heim won last year’s series title in the No. 11, but he’s not defending this season as he explores part-time opportunities in all three of NASCAR’s national series.

Nevertheless, Heim swept the first two stages of a race for the 13th time in his career. His two stage wins on Friday were his 44th and 45th.

Heim is the first driver this season to score maximum points in a race in any of the top three series, winning both stages and turning the fastest lap — 22.965 seconds on Lap 174.

What’s more, Heim won his second straight race in the Triple Truck Challenge — good for a $100,000 bonus — and will race for $500,000 next Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway. That bonus is available to a driver who can win all three races in “The Trip.”

“Yeah, it means a lot,” Heim said of the potential payday. “I don’t really think about it in the truck, but being able to reflect on it, it would be cool to be the first person to sweep all three if we are able to do it.

“There is a lot of motivation for these guys in the 1 camp with (sponsor) Celsius as our primary next week, so super excited about that.”

All statistics aside, Heim had to use his full arsenal of race craft over the final four laps to hold off Honeycutt, who was seeking his first victory. Experiencing a vibration similar to that of a tire losing air, Heim adroitly worked traffic as the race near its end.

Honeycutt got to Heim’s bumper with three laps left and actually nosed ahead to lead the white-flag lap, but Heim drove aggressively into Turn 1, using teammate Tanner Gray to block Honeycutt’s progress.

Exiting Turn 4 on the final circuit, Heim held a slight lead and arrived at the finish line 0.090 seconds ahead of the car he drove to last year’s championship.

“I felt like I didn’t push it any harder than any previous run or do any more damage to the right front, but it was like all of a sudden, with four to go, my truck started just … I had to turn more right down the straightaway to keep it straight,” Heim said.

“My wheel was clocked at like 20 degrees to the right, and it was chattering really bad in the corners, and I was like, ‘Oh, boy, here we go, we’re going to lose this one in the worst way possible.’

“But it hung in there, and I just had to use a couple of lapped trucks to hold him off. Respect Kaden for racing me clean. I did what I had to do there at the end, but first win for (sponsor) Robinhood. First win in my J’s (Jordan Brand) — my race shoes.”

Honeycutt was gracious after coming so close.

“I tried to shove Tanner (Gray) as far as I can and hoped that he would have gone to the bottom or something like that, but I don’t really know what I could have done differently other than run me and him down in the marbles and all that,” Honeycutt sad.

“I didn’t want to do that, but I wanted to make sure that me or Corey won the race, and I obviously wanted to win it, but it was good that our Tricon organization could do that. Our team has been really, really good this year — across all teams. I think this shows that. Corey’s done great with the 5 and the 1.

“Fast race trucks every week, and I think our time will come.”

Front Row Motorsports driver Layne Riggs finished third. Stewart Friesen was fourth, followed by Grant Enfinger, Tyler Ankrum (last year’s Rockingham winner), Corey LaJoie, Ty Majeski, pole winner Jake Garcia and Cole Butcher.

Note: Following post-race inspection in the Craftsman Truck Series garage, the No. 38 Ford was disqualified for failing to meet post-race rear body inspection height requirements. The No. 1 Toyota passed post-race technical inspection, confirming Heim as the Rockingham winner.

Contributing: Staff report

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

Herb Nab’s name may not have been on the car door, but his fingerprints were all over Victory Lane. A meticulous innovator and quiet perfectionist, Nab built the cars that carried legends like Fred Lorenzen, Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough to wins — and into NASCAR history.

Raised in North Carolina amid the postwar short-track boom, Nab’s mechanical skill quickly drew the attention of top teams. By the 1960s, he was one of the sport’s most trusted crew chiefs. With Fred Lorenzen at Holman-Moody, he helped turn “Fearless Freddy” into a national star, capturing dominant wins at the Daytona 500, World 600 and other major events.

Nab reached the sport’s highest peak as the back-to-back Cup Series champion crew chief for Cale Yarborough in 1976-77, a run defined by precision, preparation, and a talent for turning fast cars into champions.

Over his career, he earned 92 wins as a crew chief (third-most all-time), including two Daytona 500s, four Southern 500s, and three Coca-Cola 600s.

Herb Nab bio

Born: April 1, 1927 Died: Oct. 29, 1988
Hometown: Fruita, Colorado

Championships (2)
Cup – 1976-77

Cup Series Crew Chief Stats
Competed: 1962-88
Starts: N/A
Wins: 92
Poles: N/A
Years on Ballot: 1

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

Growing up in Dawsonville, Georgia, Ernie Elliott built his reputation not behind the wheel, but under the hood, where precision, creativity, and mechanical instinct defined his contribution to NASCAR competition. Working alongside his family’s racing efforts, Elliott emerged as one of the sport’s premier engine builders.

For 279 Cup Series races, Elliott served as crew chief for his younger brother, NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, guiding him to 33 wins and 39 poles, including two Daytona 500s, two Southern 500s, the inaugural Winston Million in 1985 and the 1988 championship.

As an engine builder, his cars amassed 40 Cup Series victories, 148 top five finishes and 291 top 10s, earning him recognition as Engine Builder of the Year in 1985 and Engine Builder of the Decade for the 1980s.

Elliott’s work in the garage and on the pit box set a standard for performance and strategy, producing championship-level cars and leaving a lasting mark that endures.

Ernie Elliott bio

Born: July 25, 1947
Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia

Championships (1)
Cup – 1988

Cup Series Crew Chief Stats

Competed: 1980-99
Starts: 279
Wins: 33
Poles: 39
Years on Ballot: 1

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

A New England native, Ray Fox saw his first automobile race at the 2-mile board track at Rockingham Park near Salem, New Hampshire. Following service in the U.S. Army in World War II, Fox moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, to work as a mechanic.

Fox built the engine in the Buick driven by Fireball Roberts that led the 1955 Daytona Road & Beach Course wire-to-wire. Roberts, however, was disqualified after it was determined the car’s mechanic, Red Vogt, had modified the pushrods. In 1956, Fox went to work for Carl Kiekhaefer whose Chrysler 300 cars won 22 of the season’s first 26 races and was named Mechanic of the Year.

In 1960, Fox built the Chevrolet in which Junior Johnson won the Daytona 500. David Pearson won three times that year driving Fox-built Pontiacs.

In 1962, Fox became a car owner. He won nine times with Johnson and twice — including the 1964 Southern 500 — with NASCAR Hall of Famer Buck Baker. Over the years, five NASCAR Hall of Famers took the wheel for Fox, including Cale Yarborough and Fred Lorenzen.

Fox retired in the early 1970s but in 1990 accepted the role of NASCAR’s engine inspector, a position he held until his second retirement at the age of 80 in 1996.

Ray Fox bio

Born: May 28, 1916 Died: June 15, 2014
Hometown: Daytona Beach, Florida

Cup Series Owner Stats
Competed: 1962-74
Starts: 200 Wins: 14 Poles: 16
Years on Ballot: 9

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

Kevin Harvick’s rise to NASCAR stardom came under extraordinary circumstances in 2001, when he was called upon to replace Dale Earnhardt following his tragic passing. Just three races into his rookie season, Harvick delivered an emotional victory at EchoPark Speedway and went on to earn the 2001 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year honors, signaling the arrival of a new force in the sport.

By the mid-2000s, Harvick had carved out a reputation for delivering under pressure across NASCAR’s toughest tracks. Known as “The Closer,” he proved capable of winning anywhere, including his 2007 Daytona 500 triumph.

In 2014, Harvick mastered NASCAR’s brand-new elimination-style playoff, answering every must-win moment to claim the Cup Series championship and cement his place among the sport’s elite.

Over 826 starts, Harvick amassed 60 victories, ranking 11th all-time among Cup Series winners. After retiring from full-time competition, he transitioned to broadcasting, joining FOX Sports as a NASCAR analyst for Cup Series races.

Harvick was named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers.

Kevin Harvick bio

Born: Dec. 8, 1975
Hometown: Bakersfield, California

Championships (1)
Cup – 2014

Cup Series Stats
Competed: 2001-23
Starts: 826
Wins: 60
Poles: 31
Years on Ballot: 1

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

Rooted in the soil of his family’s farm near Caruthers, California, Ray Elder began his career by building and racing stock cars with his brother Richard under the banner of the “Racing Farmers.” Success on California short tracks earned him a full-time ride in the NASCAR Winston West Series — precursor to today’s ARCA Menards Series West — taking the family-run team from local circuits to regional competition.

Elder became the standout driver in the series during the late 1960s and 1970s, capturing six championships and 47 victories, the second-most in series history, while showcasing the talent and competitiveness of West Coast stock car racing. He also set the West Series record for top 10 finishes in a single season with 27 and ranks second in career poles.

In the Cup Series, Elder scored two memorable victories at Riverside International Raceway, proving his success could translate to the national stage.

Beyond the track, Elder’s achievements helped put West Coast stock car racing on the national map and inspired a generation of drivers from the region to pursue NASCAR competition.

Ray Elder bio

Born: Aug. 19, 1942
Died: Nov. 24, 2011
Hometown: Caruthers, California

Championships (6)

ARCA West – 1969-72, ’74, ’75

ARCA West Series Stats

Competed: 1966-83
Starts: 240
Wins: 47
Poles: 44
Years on Ballot: 1

Posted on by Reid Spencer

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — Qualifying late in Friday’s time trials at Rockingham Speedway, Corey Day stormed to the pole position, navigating the 0.94-mile track in 22.717 seconds (148.963 mph).

After claiming the first pole of his career in the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Day will lead the field to green in Saturday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 250 Presented by Black’s Tire (2:30 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Rockingham

In the qualifying race for the season’s first Dash 4 Cash Award, Day will start beside defending O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Jesse Love, who held the provisional pole at 148.545 mph (22.781 seconds), until Day bettered his time as the next-to-last qualifier.

Love took the checkered flag in last year’s Rockingham race but was disqualified when his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet failed post-race inspection because of a rear suspension infraction. Sammy Smith, the runner-up on track, was declared the winner.

After the pole-winning lap, Day thought he might have gained on the rest of the field through the first two corners.

“If I had to guess, I thought I rolled through (Turns) 1 and 2 really, really good,” said Day, who has finished ninth or better in the last six races this season and is seventh in the series standings.

“Obviously, I still have to look at it — I could be wrong on that — but yeah, my car just felt super solid rolling the center of the corner… I was definitely confident with it there. We’ve had organizational tests here the last couple years. That definitely helps, getting laps around this place.”

Parker Retzlaff qualified third at 148.278 mph, followed by series leader and 2024 champion Justin Allgaier, who won the previous two O’Reilly Series races, at Darlington and Martinsville.

Carson Kvapil qualified fifth, joining Allgaier as a JR Motorsports driver in the top five on the grid. JRM has won the last five O’Reilly Series races. A sixth victory would tie Joe Gibbs Racing (2008) for the longest consecutive streak in series history.

At least one JR Motorsports driver has finished in the top 10 for 64 consecutive races, tied for the second-longest streak all-time. Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing holds the record of 79 straight races with a driver in the top 10 (2008-2010).

Taylor Gray qualified sixth on Friday, with Sam Mayer, Brandon Jones, Sheldon Creed and rookie Brent Crews completing the top 10.

The four highest-finishing series regulars in Saturday’s race will qualify to run for a $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus in the April 11 Suburban Propane 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway, the first of four Dash 4 Cash events.

The highest finisher among the four eligible drivers will claim the bonus at Bristol.

Smith, the defending race winner, was 19th-fastest in the JR Motorsports No. 8 Chevrolet. Cleetus McFarland qualified 35th out of 37 cars for his O’Reilly Series debut in the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Sieg brothers top charts in Rockingham practice

Kyle Sieg set the pace in O’Reilly Auto Parts Series practice at Rockingham, topping older brother Ryan in a 1-2 family effort.

The younger Sieg posted a fast lap of 145.812 mph in the No. 28 RSS Racing Chevrolet, eclipsing his brother’s lap by just 0.004 seconds. Ryan Sieg clocked in at 145.787 mph in the RSS No. 39 Chevy.

MORE: Practice results | Weekend schedule

Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Hill was third-fastest, followed by Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed, and then Jesse Love in another Childress entry to round out the top five.

The session was briefly halted for a rain shower, but quickly resumed after track-drying efforts took hold. Practice for the Craftsman Truck Series’ event was also interrupted by rain earlier in the day.

Contributing: Staff reports