TRACK – Rockingham Speedway (1.017-mile oval)
NXS RACE – North Carolina Education Lottery 250 presented by Black’s Tire (250 laps / 235 miles)
TUNE IN – The CW, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90 at 4:00 p.m. (ET)
- Coming off a runner-up finish at Bristol Motor Speedway, Carson Kvapil heads to Rockingham for NASCAR’s return to the 1.017-mile speedway oval for the first time since 2004.
- With his second-place finish last weekend, Kvapil qualified for the final round of the Dash 4 Cash bonus. He will battle for the $100,000 prize for the first time in his career.
- According to NASCAR Loop Data Statistics, Kvapil is currently seventh in average running position for the season.
- After earning points in every stage last weekend, the 21-year-old Mooresville native jumped two positions in the standings and is just three points outside of fifth.
- Justin Allgaier heads to “The Rock” this weekend as the point leader in the NXS, 83 points above the field.
- Allgaier has previously competed at Rockingham, racing in the 2008 ARCA Menards Series event at the 1-mile oval.
- In Allgaier’s NXS career on tracks between 1-2 miles in length, the veteran driver has scored 15 wins, 86 top fives and 158 top 10s in 250 starts.
- In the most recent NXS event on a 1-mile oval at Phoenix Raceway in March, Allgaier earned a fifth-place finish after leading for a race-high 130 laps.
- Sammy Smith heads to Rockingham to compete for the first time at the North Carolina speedway, where he will pull a doubleheader, racing in both the NXS and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
- Smith’s fourth-place finish at Bristol last weekend qualified him for the Dash 4 Cash at Rockingham, where he will compete against two of his JRM teammates for the $100,000 cash bonus courtesy of Xfinity.
- On tracks measuring 1-2 miles in length, Smith has 37 starts with one win, six top-fives and 19 top-10s.
- Smith’s one win came at the 1-mile oval in the desert of Phoenix in the spring of 2023.
- Connor Zilisch will make his first Rockingham start in the NXS on Saturday afternoon. Zilisch participated in a January test session at the 1.017-mile track, sharing time in a car with 2024 series champion Justin Allgaier.
- Zilisch scored points in both stages last weekend at Bristol on the way to a 12th-place finish. He enters Rockingham fifth in the NXS driver standings,135 points behind leader Allgaier. Zilisch has gained 27 positions in the standings over the past seven races.
- Zilisch has made two previous NXS starts on 1-mile tracks, both coming at Phoenix with JRM.
- Zilisch has one win in the ARCA Menards Series on a 1-mile track, taking the victory at Dover Motor Speedway in 2024.
Carson Kvapil: “Rockingham is tough, but I am looking forward to the opportunity to get out there and run laps this weekend. We had speed at the test, so I know this No. 1 team is going to unload a fast Chevrolet on Friday. We have had really great momentum these past two weeks, so hopefully at the end we can not only contend for the win, but also the $100,000. It would mean a lot to finally get that finish we’ve been chasing for Johnny Morris and everyone at Bass Pro Shops and Clarience Technologies and this entire No. 1 team.”
Justin Allgaier: “It’s really cool to be heading back to Rockingham with our BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet. No one really knows what to expect this weekend, but I feel like the test we had here back in January gave Jim (Pohlman, crew chief) and all the guys on this team a good playbook to start with. We’ve had a lot of momentum on our side here lately, and hopefully that will carry over and we will have another great run on Saturday.”
Sammy Smith: “I’m excited to go to Rockingham and try out a new track where it’s a level playing field. The weather was much different when we tested earlier this year than it will be this weekend. Some of what we learned during the test will translate but a lot of it will come from knowledge and experience from running similar 1-mile tracks. Racing the Truck Friday will help me get more comfortable with more laps and I’ll be able to take some of that into Saturday where we’ll race for $100,000 and a win for Pilot.”
Connor Zilisch: “I’m really excited to go to Rockingham for the first time this weekend because it’s such a unique racetrack and has so much history in NASCAR. It’s really cool to finally have it back on the schedule again. Rockingham is a fast track with a lot of grip in the fresh repave. A lot of people don’t know how well it’s going to race, but based off how we were at the test a few months ago, I think we are going to have a really solid WeatherTech Chevrolet. The JR Motorsports cars have been really fast lately. We’ve all shown a lot of speed, and we just need a finish to go our way.”
JRM Team Updates
- JR Motorsports at Rockingham Speedway: This weekend marks the first time that JR Motorsports will be competing at Rockingham Speedway as an organization in the NXS.
- NXS Autograph Session: JRM drivers Carson Kvapil, Justin Allgaier, Sammy Smith and Connor Zilisch will be signing autographs at the NXS Autograph Session in the Fan Midway on Saturday, April 19 from 10:00 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. ET.