In front of a packed grandstand in the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ return to Rockingham Speedway, Jesse Love reclaimed the lead late in an overtime restart. However, Love’s No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was disqualified due to a rear suspension issue in postrace inspection, giving the win to Sammy Smith.
The win is the third of Smith’s career and his first of the 2025 NXS season, helping secure a playoff spot for the No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.
NEWS: The No. 2 car has been disqualified following post-race inspection at Rockingham Speedway for issues pertaining to the rear suspension.@sammysmithSS has been declared the winner of today’s race. pic.twitter.com/JRv4FP4yLh
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) April 20, 2025
Parker Retzlaff came home second, while Harrison Burton and Brennan Poole climbed the leaderboard through the late chaos to score finishes of third and fourth, respectively.
Taylor Gray rounded out the top five ahead of Austin Hill in sixth, Josh Williams in seventh, Jeb Burton in eighth, Daniel Dye in ninth, and Jeremy Clements in 10th.
After starting on the front row by way of Connor Zilisch‘s relegation to the rear, Nick Sanchez took off to an early lead to open stage one. While Sanchez held strong out front, it became clear early on that Love had a very strong car as he began to work his way towards the front to challenge Sanchez.
With 15 laps remaining in the opening stage, Love finally made the pass on Sanchez as the two worked through slower traffic.
Lapped traffic played a key role in yet another prevalent early storyline. An accident with eight laps to go in the opening stage ruined Kasey Kahne‘s highly-anticipated return when William Sawalich collided with a slowing Katherine Legge right in front of Kahne.
In addition to souring Kahne’s return, the caution also presented the leaders with a choice between track position and stage points with so little time remaining in the stage. While Love and others opted to pit and start the second segment with better track position, Sanchez stayed out and collected the stage one win.
After winning the race off pit road before the end of stage one, Carson Kvapil restarted up front to begin stage two and quickly took charge of the race. Kvapil appeared strong on the short run, but Love once again emerged as a strong contender over longer runs and began to slowly reel in Kvapil.
In a glimpse of the type of action that this track was revived to produce, Kvapil and Love swapped the lead between themselves several times through lapped traffic towards the end of stage two. Then, a caution with only 12 laps remaining in the stage once again put the leaders in the dilemma of having to choose between stage points and track position for the following stage.
As the leaders hit pit road, many midpack teams stayed out to try to collect stage points. Dean Thompson held off Jeb Burton to score the stage two win.
As the third stage began, Love and Kvapil once again cycled back to the front and battled for the top spot. While neither could ever establish a commanding advantage, a caution with 93 laps to go brought all the leaders down pit road and once again presented the teams an opportunity to make a strategy play.
Positioned just outside their fuel window, several teams attempted to stretch out their final run to the checkered flag to spare themselves a pitstop over other teams. Xfinity Series veteran Ryan Sieg was among the drivers on this strategy was .
Searching for his first-career win, Sieg attempted an extradinary fuel economy run to the end. With more than 20 laps of caution over the closing stages of the race, it appeared as though Sieg’s gamble may pay off before Sieg’s car stumbled under caution inside 15 laps remaining.
When the field took the green, Sieg’s car finally ran out, triggering a multi-car pileup that eliminated drivers like Sanchez, Justin Allgaier, Christian Eckes, and more.
While Sieg’s dreams were shattered, several cars similarly low on fuel remained towards the front. This caused trouble on the ensuing restart, as Sam Mayer running out of fuel caused a major stackup eliminating Mayer, Matt DiBenedetto, and more drivers.
All this chaos set up an overtime restart with Smith and Gray on the front row. After their blowout at Martinsville, fireworks were expected from the top two. However, it was Love from third that moved Smith and scooted by to cross the finish line first, only to be disqualified in postrace inspection.
