TRACK – Darlington Raceway (1.366-mile oval)
NXS RACE – Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 (147 laps / 200.8 miles)
TUNE IN – CW, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90 at 3:30 p.m. (ET)
- Carson Kvapil will make his third start at “The Lady in Black” in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this weekend.
- In nine starts on tracks 1-2 miles in length, the 21-year-old Mooresville native has two top-fives and three top-10s.
- After Martinsville, Kvapil jumped four positions in the points standings where he now sits in ninth nine points out from eighth.
- Kvapil will pay homage to Jamie McMurray’s iconic 2010 Bass Pro Shops No. 1 Chevrolet that he ran in the NASCAR Cup Series and took to Victory Lane in the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 and in the fall race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
- Justin Allgaier is a three-time winner at “The Track Too Tough to Tame,” the most of any track the Illinois native has competed on in the NXS.
- All three of Allgaier’s wins have come in the spring event at Darlington, including in this race last season.
- Overall, in 19 career NXS starts at “The Lady in Black,” Allgaier has amassed eight top-fives and 15 top-10s to accompany the three victories.
- This weekend marks the third consecutive year that Allgaier’s No. 7 Chevrolet will be paying homage to the heritage of BRANDT Professional Agriculture. Over the previous two years behind the wheel of BRANDT Heritage Chevrolets, Allgaier has finished first (last year) and second, with the runner-up result coming in this event in 2023.
- Sammy Smith has four NXS starts at Darlington with one top-five and one top-10 finish.
- In 36 starts on tracks 1-2 miles in length in the NXS, Smith has accumulated one win, six top-fives and 18 top-10 finishes.
- According to NASCAR’s Loop Details Statistics, Smith has run 88.5 percent of the 1,219 laps thus far in 2025 in the top 15.
- Smith’s No. 8 TMC Chevrolet carries a throwback scheme to Tony Stewart’s 2003 3 Doors Down Chevrolet that was owned by JRM team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. In place of the band members’ photos will be four TMC employees who are being honored for their dedicated years of service at TMC Transportation.
- Ross Chastain makes his 11th career start at Darlington this weekend, his second NXS start of the season.
- Saturday afternoon’s race marks Chastain’s second of five races behind the wheel of the No. 9 Acceptance Insurance Chevrolet for JRM this year. Last month at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, Chastain qualified second and finished eighth in the No. 9 entry.
- In the NXS at Darlington, Chastain has one pole position, September 2018, and a best finish of second in September 2020.
- Chastain has one Truck Series win at Darlington. In May 2024, he led three laps and captured the win in thrilling fashion.
- Connor Zilisch will be making his first Darlington start in the NXS on Saturday afternoon at the historic South Carolina speedway. The driver of the No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet has six starts on intermediate tracks over the past two seasons. His best finish is fourth-place (at both Kansas Speedway and Phoenix Raceway in 2024) with three top-10 finishes in those races.
- Zilisch enters Darlington seventh in the NXS driver standings, 100 points behind leader and JRM teammate Justin Allgaier. He sits just 25 outside the top-five and has gained 25 positions in the driver standings over the past five races.
- The driver of the WeatherTech Chevrolet enters Darlington after a strong performance at Martinsville Speedway. Zilisch won the pole at Martinsville, his second pole of the 2025 season and third in 11 career NXS races, and led the most laps before a late-race incident brought an end to his solid day.
- The No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet will sport a throwback paint scheme this weekend to honor NASCAR Hall of Famer Buddy Baker. The paint scheme honors Baker’s 1987 Crisco livery in which he scored 10 top-10 finishes in 20 races, highlighted by a second-place finish in the 1987 July race at Daytona International Speedway.
Carson Kvapil: “Darlington is a challenging track, but this team has learned a lot since our last race there so I believe we can have a solid run there this weekend. I am really looking forward to running this throwback and I know Jamie McMurray had a lot of success with it so hopefully we can channel some of that on Saturday. I know this No. 1 team is going to give me a fast car, so our plan is to stay out of the mess and be there at the end to get a great finish for Bass Pro Shops. I can’t thank Johnny Morris and everyone at Bass Pro Shops and Clarience Technologies enough for their support because I wouldn’t be here without them.”
Justin Allgaier: “Darlington has been a really strong track for us and for JR Motorsports as a whole over the last number of years. I can’t wait to get there this weekend with this BRANDT Heritage Chevrolet and see what we can do. We have had great cars all season long and I know that Jim (Pohlman, crew chief) will give me another one on Saturday that will have us fighting for the win when it counts.”
Sammy Smith: “I am looking forward to Darlington this weekend to represent TMC with this fun throwback scheme to Tony Stewart and honoring a few of TMC’s great employees. This No. 8 JR Motorsports team has brought fast Chevrolets to the track this season so I’m excited to see what we can do.”
Ross Chastain: “I love anytime I can get behind the wheel of something. Last time at COTA, I didn’t do my job because I sped on pit road and that put us behind. I had such a great Acceptance Insurance Chevrolet at COTA and made it hard on myself and the team with that driver error. Darlington is one of my favorite tracks that we go to all year and I would love nothing more than to go to Victory Lane. I did it last year in the Truck Series and it would be awesome to do it in the Xfinity Series too.”
Connor Zilisch: “Darlington has been around forever and I’m excited to get my first race there. We have such a cool throwback paint scheme on our WeatherTech Chevrolet to honor Buddy Baker’s Crisco car. It means a lot to bring some history back to this race and run a throwback car to honor a guy like Buddy Baker, who has such a rich history in NASCAR. Darlington is tough but I’m excited to go there. I’ve run a few laps in the SIM, but it definitely is one of the tougher tracks we go to. JR Motorsports always has good cars at Darlington so we should have a good shot.”
JRM Team Updates
- JR Motorsports at Darlington Raceway: JR Motorsports has competed at Darlington Raceway a combined 77 times in the NXS since 2006. In those starts at the 1.366-mile oval, the organization has recorded seven wins, 24 top-fives and 47 top-10s. The average finish is 12.1.
- Souvenir Rig: JRM drivers Carson Kvapil, Justin Allgaier and Connor Zilisch will be signing autographs at the JR Motorsports / HMS-Byron/Bowman souvenir rig on Saturday, April 5 from 12:50 p.m. to 1:20 p.m. ET.