In past years, Easter Weekend was a near-complete racing blackout. That’s not the case in 2025.
While the NASCAR Cup Series is off, a number of major series will be in action. Formula 1 will be in Saudi Arabia, while the FIA World Endurance Championship will be at Imola. The need for NASCAR action will be quenched by action at Rockingham Speedway.
NASCAR Rockingham TV Schedule
- Truck Series Practice: 12:30 p.m. ET Friday on FS2
- Truck Series Qualifying: 1:30 p.m. ET Friday on FS2
- Xfinity Series Practice: 3:05 p.m. ET Friday on The CW App
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Black’s Tire 200: 5 p.m. ET Friday on FS1
- Xfinity Series Qualifying: Noon ET Saturday on The CW App
- NASCAR Xfinity Series North Carolina Education Lottery 250: 4 p.m. ET Saturday on The CW
While the Cup teams are enjoying their only weekend off this season, the Xfinity and Truck teams will be in Rockingham, a relatively short haul from their home bases. For Truck teams, it will be their first visit since 2012. Xfinity teams will race there for the first time since 2004.
For Xfinity teams, there will be a 50-minute practice session Friday starting at 3:05 p.m. ET since so few of the drivers and teams have competed at Rockingham in the past. The session will be streamed live on The CW App and on The CW’s website. Some CW affiliates may choose to air the session live. In that case, please check your local listings.
Qualifying is scheduled for noon ET Saturday afternoon. That session will be live on The CW App and the website.
Coverage of the North Carolina Education Lottery 250 will start with NASCAR Countdown Live at 3 p.m. ET on The CW. Race coverage will begin at 4 p.m. ET with the green flag falling around 4:10 p.m. ET.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will serve as primary support. Teams are loading into the garage Thursday, but all on-track activity will happen Friday.
Practice is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET Friday and will air live on FOX Sports 2. Unlike the Xfinity Series, no extra precautions are being taken. Qualifying will follow shortly afterwards.
Coverage of the Black’s Tire 200 will begin at 5 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. There is no prescribed pre-race show, but the green flag will fly around 5:20 p.m. ET.
On the undercard of the NASCAR action will be ARCA Menards Series East. They are scheduled to practice Friday morning at 9:45 a.m. ET. A second practice is scheduled for 10 a.m. ET, immediately followed by qualifying. None of these sessions will be televised.
Coverage of the Rockingham ARCA 125 is scheduled to begin at 12:45 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon. The race was originally going to be exclusive to FLORacing, but NASCAR and ARCA jointly announced Thursday morning that the event will be simulcast on Tubi via the NASCAR Channel.
Something that has not been publicized is the fact that the track has been re-measured. When the Cup Series raced at Rockingham, the track length was listed as 1.017 miles. It appears that NASCAR is using a track length of .94 miles for this weekend.
What’s The Weather Looking Like?
For this weekend, the weather will not be a problem. Just make sure to bring sunscreen.
Friday’s forecast is for sunny skies and a high of 84°. Saturday will be warmer with partly cloudy skies with a high of 88°.
TV Ratings Update — Bristol
TV-wise, Bristol wasn’t the greatest weekend. Sunday’s Food City 500 earned a 1.1 rating with 2.054 million viewers, which is down 46.1% from last year’s race, which earned a 2.1 rating with 3.809 million.
The reasoning for this drop is multi-fold. First off, last year’s race was four weeks earlier as the fifth race of the year. Secondly, the race was up against the final round of The Masters on CBS, which drew over 12 million viewers. By the time the race ended, nearly 19 million viewers had their eyes on Augusta, Ga. as Rory McIlroy (finally) won the green jacket.
Saturday’s SciAps 300 for the NASCAR Xfinity Series earned a .6 rating with a million viewers. This race has no direct comparison to last year since the series hasn’t raced at Bristol in the spring since 2020. That race earned a .36 rating with 561,000 viewers on FS1. It is the highest-rated Bristol Spring race since 2017, when the race earned a .73 rating with 1.08 million viewers.
Friday night’s Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol struggled in the ratings. The race had a .26 rating with 498,000 viewers. While that is up slightly from Martinsville, it is down 44.7% in ratings and 38.4% in viewership from last year.
The primary explanation for the decrease is the fact that last year’s race was run on a Saturday night as opposed to Friday night. With no Xfinity race, it was the primary support event at Bristol.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.