The wait is over: Rockingham Speedway’s $9 million transformation is complete and the track is back on the NASCAR calendar for the first time since 2013.
Rockingham made a brief comeback with a handful of ARCA Menards Series and Craftsman Truck Series races held in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but racing at the track was otherwise dormant in the decades following the final Cup Series and Xfinity Series doubleheader in Feb. 2004.
In an era of relative stability for the Cup Series schedule, Rockingham was the only track removed from the Cup schedule between 1997 and 2019. To go from two dates in 2003 to zero by 2005 was a whiplash, especially for a track that had been a regular stop on the schedule for nearly 40 years.
In 2004, Cup was right in the middle of a seismic shift where the young “super rookies” were getting ready to dominate the sport for years to come. The removal of Rockingham meant that these drivers only had a few years, if that, to find victory lane at “The Rock” before the opportunity was gone for good.
Of course, that winning opportunity was about to be gone for everyone — but no one was hurt more than the young drivers who were beginning to find their way around the Rock.
Two-time winner Dale Jarrett led more laps at Rockingham than at any other track in his illustrious Cup career, but he was nearing his twilight years by the time it was off the schedule. Jeff Gordon won at Rockingham three times, but he had more than a decade to race there and rack up wins.
The young drivers, on the other hand, were about to lose a track they could’ve dominated for years. Kasey Kahne, who finished second by mere inches in his lone Cup start there in 2004, was one of them. Jimmie Johnson, who finished runner-up in the Nov. 2003 race, was another.
But even those two didn’t hold a candle to these three: the three biggest losers from Rockingham’s exit.
Kurt Busch
Kurt Busch went straight from the Truck Series to Cup, and in doing so didn’t have any prior Rockingham experience before reaching the top level.
It took him some time to get the hang of the track, but once he did, he was tough to beat.
Unfortunately for Busch, he never recorded a win in his seven starts at The Rock despite leading 300 laps. He led 105 laps and finished third in the fall of 2002, but his best chance at a Rockingham win came in Feb. 2003, where he dominated the final run of the race and was on the cusp of taking the checkered flag. But Jarrett began reeling him as the laps ticked down to zero and he caught Busch for the lead with 10 to go. The two drivers swapped the point back and forth before Jarrett ultimately made the pass for the win with four to go.
Busch’s runner-up proved to be his best Rockingham result. He finished 17th and eighth in his last two starts at the track. But had it remained on the schedule, he looked poised to win a race — if not multiple races — at “The Rock” for the rest of his career.
Matt Kenseth
Unlike Busch, Matt Kenseth did manage to score a Cup win at Rockingham. Two of them, in fact.
His first win came in Feb. 2002, as he led 152 of the 393 laps for his second career Cup win. His second — and most famous — Rockingham triumph came in Feb. 2004 as the reigning Cup champion, when he dominated the day by leading 259 laps.
However, the win didn’t come easy. Kahne was right there and ready to pounce, and he pulled alongside the No. 17 car with a full head of steam as they raced to the line. Kenseth squeaked out the victory, winning by just a tenth of a second in the final Cup race held at the track … for now.
Kenseth’s first top 10 at The Rock came in the fall of 2001.
He absolutely dominated the track from 2002-onward, with the two wins and an average finish of 3.4 in his last five starts.
He would’ve been the driver to beat for the foreseeable future, but even with all his success, there’s arguably one driver that missed out on Rockingham’s exit more than Kenseth, and he drove the trailing third car in the 2004 photo finish.
Jamie McMurray
Jamie McMurray carved out a solid career.
He won seven Cup races, including a Daytona 500 and a Brickyard 400, plus the 2014 All-Star Race by the time he retired from full-time driving after 2018.
But if Rockingham remained on the schedule, he might be remembered in an entirely different light.
He didn’t win a Cup race at The Rock, but he dominated in the Xfinity Series with four consecutive wins at the track. He’s still the defending four-time winner, and if he wasn’t working for the CW, he could’ve thrown his hat in the ring for five in a row on Saturday (April 19).
Even his limited time in a Cup car there, McMurray exuded brilliance. He scored a top five at the track in his 2003 rookie season, and it was his fourth and final start in the aforementioned 2004 race where he nearly stole the show. He started second, led 76 laps and was one of the biggest challengers to Kenseth’s dominance before coming home third, right behind Kenseth and Kahne.
After winning in his second career Cup start at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2002, McMurray had to wait another 166 races before taking his second checkered flag in 2007.
But if Rockingham remained on the schedule, would the wait have been as long as it was? Could McMurray have been on his way to multiple Cup victories at the track, just as he had done in Xfinity?
It’s a what-if that he, Kenseth, Busch, Kahne and plenty of others have surely pondered since Rockingham said its most recent goodbye.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf