Manufacturers and Team News
By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net– Also- Reid Spencer- NASCAR Wire Service
The Cup series is off this week but XFinity and Craftsman Trucks are racing at the Rock. The NASCAR Xfinity and CRAFTSMAN Truck Series are ready to roll at “The Rock.”
In the final event of an Easter tripleheader weekend that also includes the ARCA Menards Series East, Xfinity Series drivers will compete at Rockingham Speedway for the first time since 2004 with the running of Saturday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 250 (4 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The Rock is not the same track on which driver-turned-television analyst Jamie McMurray won the last four Xfinity Series events held at the Richmond County speedway. Repaved in late 2022 and remeasured at 0.94 miles, the iconic track is unfamiliar territory to all but one driver in Saturday’s field, as far as actual racing is concerned.
Only Kasey Kahne has competitive Xfinity Series experience at the track, with his last series appearance coming in the final race there in 2004. On Saturday, Kahne will make his first Xfinity start at any track since 2017 in the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
Kahne, a sprint car driver and team owner, quickly acclimated to the stock car in his return to pavement during an organizational test in January.
“It had been six and a half years,” said Kahne, who won a Truck Series race at Rockingham in 2012. “It was really nice to be back in a car. I didn’t know exactly how it would feel and if I would have to refigure out how to drive in a way.
“But truthfully, once I got to Turn 3 coming to the start of practice and the car loaded into the corner, I instantly felt right at home and felt like I had been doing it for a while. From there on, it was a solid practice for the next four or five hours.”
Ford Motor Performance
| FORD FIRST AT ROCKINGHAM Thanks to Mark Martin, Ford has won more NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Rockingham Speedway than any other manufacturer. The NASCAR Hall of Famer is the all-time series leader with 11 victories at the track, including three season sweeps (1993, ‘96, ‘97). Ford has 14 wins overall, which is five more than Chevrolet and seven more than Pontiac. Chad Little, Jeff Burton and Jason Keller are the other Ford drivers to win a series race at Rockingham. |
 SMITH GOING FOR TWO IN A ROWFord got its first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory last weekend when Chandler Smith passed Corey Heim with 14 laps to go and won at Bristol Motor Speedway. Smith, who survived two late-race restarts to win his first race with Ford, gave Front Row Motorsports its 11th all-time series win. Smith is the only driver to finish in the top 10 of all six races and goes into Saturday’s scheduled race second in the point standings. |
Toyota Gazoo Racing news- NASCAR National Series – NXS/NCTS
Jones on hot streak entering Rockingham …
Brandon Jones and his No. 20 Toyota GR Supra Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) team have been on a strong run of late, finishing inside the top-10 in five of the last six Xfinity Series races. Jones is coming off a fifth-place result at Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend, which followed his victory at Darlington Raceway to open the month of April. Jones, already locked into the 2025 Xfinity Series Playoffs, currently sits seventh in the series points standings.
Sam Hunt Racing coming off highly successful weekend … Last weekend’s Xfinity Series at Bristol was one to remember for Sam Hunt Racing (SHR), as both of its GR Supras finished inside the top-10 for the third time in team history with Corey Heim in eighth and Dean Thompson in 10th. Thompson has earned top-10s in one-third of the races so far this season in his No. 26 GR Supra, marking a successful start in his Xfinity Series rookie campaign.
Heim looks to continue strong run to begin Trucks season … Along with the top-10 finish for SHR last weekend in the Xfinity Series at Bristol, Heim also scored a third-place result in the Truck Series race with TRICON Garage – his fourth top-five and fifth top-10 in the six races so far this season, to go along with his two wins at Daytona International Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Toyota Development Driver is currently the Truck Series points leader, ahead by 18 points entering this weekend.
AM Racing with Harrison Burton
Harrison Burton NASCAR Xfinity Series Career Stats: Entering Rockingham, Burton has 84 career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts to his credit with four wins, 26 top-five and 52 top-10 finishes, and a championship best result of eighth, twice in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Burton’s four wins in the NASCAR Xfinity Series occurred during the 2020 season. Burton, the son of former NASCAR driver and current television analyst Jeff Burton, captured the checkered flag at Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway, Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, respectively. Burton maintains a solid Xfinity Series average finishing position of 12.4 in four years of competition. In addition to the 84 Xfinity Series starts, he has achieved 109 NASCAR Cup Series starts, 40 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN® Truck Series starts and 52 career starts across the ARCA Menards Series platforms.
They Said It…
Nathan Byrd- looks to rock at Rockingham
Welcome Back: The 2025 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN® Truck Series season is in full swing, and Young’s Motorsports is proud to have rookie Nathan Byrd continuing to pilot the team’s flagship No. 02 Chevrolet Silverado RST in Friday night’s Black’s Tire 200 at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway.
● About Nathan: Byrd, 24, began racing go-karts in 2018, just after graduating High School, and he entered his first car race in February 2020. Since then, the Goodyear, Ariz. native has raced over 30 types of cars in 348 total races at 67 different race tracks, effectively becoming one of the most diverse and interesting race car drivers in the world.
Completing more than 300 races in the first four years of his career, Byrd is no stranger to piloting race cars. In 2024, the Indianapolis, Ind. resident turned his attention to NASCAR. He successfully made his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Portland International Raceway and delivered a respectable 21st-place finish for DGM Racing. In September, Byrd made his NASCAR CRAFTSMAN® Truck Series debut at Kansas Speedway, earning a respectable 19th-place finish after starting 32nd.
