What’s Happening?

It has been twenty years since the NASCAR Xfinity Series last raced at Rockingham Speedway. But this weekend was the triumphant return on this very special Truck/Xfinity standalone Easter weekend. There isn’t a track on the NASCAR circuit like the Rock and it proved to be an interesting challenge for some of these young drivers with its tight corners and narrow racing surface coming out of turn 2. Some drivers took to the legendary track naturally. Others, meanwhile, had days that they’d rather forget.

This was the final Dash 4 Cash race of the year, so with all of that in mind, who cashed in big and who left Rockingham battered and broken? Let’s break it down. Here are the 3 key takeaways from today’s Xfinity Series race at the Rock.

Prefatory Matters

• Rookie Connor Zilisch continued to show speed as he put his number 88 WeatherTech Chevy on the pole for today’s race. Zilisch has been fast all year but ever since his win at COTA, it seems as though he’s been struggling putting a full race together. The same was true today. After starting on point, Zilisch fell to the bottom half of the top 10, where he ran most of Stage 1 and the first half of Stage 2. However, on Lap 47, Zilisch got into the wall and plummeted through the field and was eventually forced to make a pit stop.
• This was the last Dash 4 Cash race of 2025. The eligible drivers were Carson Kvapil, Brandon Jones, Sammy Smith, and Justin Allgaier. These four drivers ran up front all race and were neck-and-neck with each other at times. In the end, it was driver of the number 8 car for JR Motorsports who hoisted the check. It was his first $100,000 prize in the Dash 4 Cash.
• Rockingham was the sight of Kasey Kahne’s first runner-up finish. He had also won a truck race there back during their first return in 2012. And now, after a 7-year NASCAR hiatus, Kahne returned. There were a lot of eyes watching that number 33 HendrickCars.com Chevy for Richard Childress Racing and he showed flashes of speed. He qualified 4th and was running in the top 10 when he was caught up in an incident not of his own doing. Hopefully, we’ll see him back behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car very soon.

Jesse Love Conqures the Rock!

Today was, really, the Jesse Love show. A week after his respectable Cup Series debut, Jesse Love spanked the field in dominant fashion. The only driver who had anything for him was Carson Kvapil, who faded late and was caught up in a late-race incident. Otherwise, he was uncontested, laying the smackdown on the Xfinity Series guys. This was Love’s second win of the season!

UPDATE:

Following the race, the number 2 failed post-race inspection. With that, Jesse Love has been stripped of the win and is now credited with a 38th-place finish. With this disqualification, Sammy Smith is now credited as the winner at Rockingham. Read all about Love’s DQ in the post below:

Will We See Kasey Kahne Again?

There were a lot of headlines heading into today’s race: it was the final Dash for Cash race of the season; NASCAR was back at Rockingham Raceway for the first time in over a decade. But perhaps the biggest story was the triumphant return of one of NASCAR’s more popular drivers, Kasey Kahne. It had been nearly seven years since Kahne was last in a NASCAR stock car. He retired prematurely back in 2018 due to heat exhaustion and dehydration-related health issues.

But, healthy once again, Kasey Kahne returned for a one-off at the Rock, a track where his worst career finish is 2nd. He was driving the number 33 HendrickCars.com Chevy for Richard Childress Racing. During time trials, he showed flashes of what he had as he put that car on the outside of the second row. With a sporty hot rod, Kahne was looking to show the world that he still had it. Unfortunately, he was caught up in an incident as the first stage was drawing to a close. William Silwalich, in the JGR number 18, rammed into the back of the 53 car, driven by IndyCar veteran Kathrine Legge. This turned Legge, who has limited stock car experience, right down in front of Kahne. Contact was unavoidable.

As he came down for repairs, Kahne went a lap down. In the latter stages of the final stage, Kasey was able to regain his lost lap and start marching his way forward once again. Unfortunately, the damage was pretty much done by that point. The handling went away and the car just wasn’t as fast as it was at the drop of the green flag. He ended up finishing in 15th.

Though the race didn’t go exactly how he wanted it to go, many fans are already begging the question: Will Kasey Kahne come back for more? That remains to be seen. But it sure would be a cool thing to see!

Rockingham Needs to Be a Mainstay on the NASCAR Schedule But There May Be Some Reservations

In front of a sold-out crowd, Rockingham Speedway roared back to life this weekend after being dead and buried virtually for the last decade. The racing product was impressive and nostalgic for many, and online, a bandwagon is chugging along with fans piling on, clamoring for Rockingham to return to the NASCAR schedule permanently. So, the question is: should the Rock return to NASCAR for many years to come? May take? Sure! The racing itself was close-cornered and thrilling. The cars (and trucks) were on edge, out-of-control, and hard to drive at times. The vibe with the packed grandstands was awesome. That’s a far cry from the virtually empty stands at Bristol last week. And many drivers have also expressed interest in returning to the track in the near future and long-term.

So, while yes, my stance and the stance of many others is that NASCAR needs to race at the Rock at some capacity, are fans being a little overly eager to hop aboard the Rockingham shuttle? Maybe. We have no idea how the NextGen car will perform here. We also have no clue as to how long the track will be able to continue selling out with other markets (Bristol, Martinsville, Richmond, Bowman Gray, North Wilkesboro, Darlington and Charlotte) being in such a close vicinity. So, for the time being, let’s pump the brakes a little and take it one year at a time. We saw interest in North Wilkesboro wane in the last year or so. Hopefully, the same won’t be true for the Rock. Hopefully, Trucks and Xfinity will return to the track next year.

Fuel Mileage Was A Story of the Weekend

With stage racing and electronic fuel injectors, fuel mileage racing is almost considered something of an ancient relic in NASCAR. Sure, it still exists but it’s nowhere near as prominently pronounced. But it seems like we’re on a throwback kick as of late. A couple of weeks ago, we had our official NASCAR Throwback weekend at Darlington. Last week, the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway was presented as a “throwback” race since the retirement of BMS’s 3-year dirt race experiment. Now, with the NASCAR Cup Series being off for Easter weekend, the NASCAR Xfinity Series took center stage with a return to Rockingham Speedway! And it was a fuel mileage race (sort of).

As the race wore on, a handful of drivers tried to stretch their fuel mileage to the end of the race. The two most notable of these drivers were Ryan Seig, who was briefly in the lead before being passed by the dominant car of the day, Jesse Love, and Christian Eckes in the Kaulig number 16. Unfortunately, the strategy didn’t work out. Still, it added some tension, excitement, and out-of-the-box strategy into the mix, which was great for fans.

The fuel-mileage strategy came to a definitive end during a late restart where the number 16 didn’t get up to speed. This stacked up the field, leading to a massive crash as the field took the green. The wreck took out heavy hitters like Carson Kvapil and Ryan Seig. Check out the carnage below.

Upon the restart, fuel once again played a role, triggering yet another caution and an overtime restart. Sammy Smith got a great jump on Love as the 2 sputtered. In turn 2, Love ran out of gas. Very quickly after that, Sam Mayer ran out while he was in the middle of three wide. This stacked up the field going down the backstretch, triggering yet another yellow flag.

Conclusion

That’s a wrap for NASCAR at Rockingham in 2025! What are you thinking, race fans? Wasn’t that a great race!? Do you think NASCAR will return here in 2026 and beyond? Should they? Would you like to see a Cup race here in the near future? Let us know what you’re thinking! And be sure to have a great Easter Sunday, if you celebrate that, or just a great Sunday if you don’t. We’ll be back on Monday, covering all the latest news and rumors in the NASCAR garage as we gear up for ‘Dega!