Ep. 61 - NASCAR Rockingham Weekend Recap

About the Podcast: The Throttle to the Floor Podcast is a motorsports podcast where me (William Earnest) and Evan Sager co-host and sit down with guests each week to talk about what is happening in the world of NASCAR, IndyCar, and NHRA plus we take frequent looks at other racing under the motorsports umbrella.

About the Episode: On this episode of the Throttle to the Floor Podcast, me and my guest Noah Altman recap ARCA East, NASCAR Trucks, and NASCAR O'Reilly's Series action from Rockingham Speedway.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hey y'all, welcome to today's episode of the Faro Ford Podcast. I'm your host, Will Ernest, here today with my guest, Noah Altman.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

What up?

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Um, before we get into the uh Rockingham race recap, I want to touch on one other thing real quick. Uh Chicagoland Speedway has confirmed that three Cup Series teams and three O'Reilly series teams will uh participate in a Goodyear tire test on April 21st, so uh two weeks exactly from the recording of this episode. Um as per usual with these tests, the three teams in each series, it'll be one uh per manufacturer. Uh the event will be free to all fans in attendance. Um the cup series drivers participating are Ryan Blaney for Ford, Danny Hamlin for Toyota, and Kyle Arson for Chevy. While in O'Reilly's you got Justin Olgayer for Chevy, Brandon Jones for Toyota, and Nick Sanchez for Ford. Well, if An Racing and Ford in general still even have a presence in the O'Reilly series at that point, but that's a that's a separate problem that we'll touch on later.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

But getting into uh Rockingham, I want to start with uh Arca East really fast. Uh Tristan McKee, he dominated um this race, uh, led this race wire to wire, went goes two for two in Arca East race victories to start the year after winning at Hickory Motors Philly last weekend. The one issue he faced all day um after starting on pole, um, and again leading every lap wire to wire was some lap traffic late in the race that allowed Pinnacle Racing Group teammate Carson Brown to get close and challenge McKee, but McKee got around the lap cars and held on for the win across seven starts on the ARCA platform between the main ARCA Miner Series starts and ARCA East. Um he's amassed three victories and six top fives, with the only exception being uh break issues last year that relegated him to 11th place finish at Madison International Speedway. So pretty a pretty hot start there. Yeah, definitely. Um the Spire Motorsports prospect. Also, Cladious McFarlane, aka Garrett Mitchell ran a clean, solid race, at least for ARCA. More on his O'Reilly's debut later. But yeah, clean solid race and secured his first career ARCA top five by finishing in fourth place. And Squirrel McNutt, aka George uh Sesciano, uh, apologies for mispronunciation, but he's cleared as his cameraman. He finished ninth in just his second arca start, so great runs uh for the both of them. But truck series, the big story in the truck series, Corey Haim dominated this race. He sweeps the stages and he was looking to cruise towards this victory until the last four laps of the race, Caden Honeycutt, um tricon teammate, uh made things interesting, trying to score his first career win um towards the end of the race. He was gaining on Corey Haim, not only through lap traffic, but also Corey Haim having fears of a tire going down. But despite Honeycutt briefly leading on the final lap, uh Haim held him off. Corey Haim wins at Rockingham, swept the stages, uh secured the fastest lap, leads 178 of the 200 laps. That's 89% of the race. The only thing he didn't do was win the pole. He started seventh.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

And I mean that's crazy to go from seventh to first and lead that much of the race. Yeah, for sure. Like that's just Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Uh it's the most laps Haim has led in a single race in his truck career. Uh Haim's second win of the year with those being back to back after his win at Darlington, his first win at Rockingham, 25th career truck series victory, which puts him alone at fifth all time on the truck series winless. Haim is now tied with Caden Honeycutt for the points lead. Despite only running three of the first five races in the truck series season, there's been a lot of debate on whether Cory Haim should be eligible to run um in the truck series in the in the chase and for the championship, even though uh rules state that you have to attempt every race in order to do so. But just they're trying to think, oh, can we make an exception for Corey Haim because he's running so good. But yeah, I mean, I'm a guy that's just rules are rules. I mean, and as much as I am a big believer in Corey Haim and how talented he is, and it's a travesty that he's not running full time in any of NASCAR's top three series this year, but um I'm even more annoyed when NASCAR changes rules mid-season and isn't consistent with anything. Yeah. You know, whether it's rules on the cars or rules during the races or rules during, you know, that can affect the championship. So I'm I I'm glad that NASCAR can stick with their rules. Yeah for sure. But it's a cool story with Corey Haim. He's he's chasing wins um just to further prove himself, he's probably gonna he's 2311's development driver, he's probably gonna take over the 35 car for Riley Herbst next year, but we'll see. And being that Heim, he's he's won an extra $100,000 thanks to winning the first two races of the Triple Truck Challenge, uh Darlington and Rockingham. But he'll run at Bristol this upcoming weekend in the one truck. He's trying to do something that nobody's ever done. Sweep all three races of the Triple Truck Challenge, which would earn Corey Haim an extra half a million dollar payday. So a lot of money on the line.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

And I mean, if there's someone out there to do it, I think he is more than capable of being how he's running.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Oh, yeah, for sure. If anybody's out there, if anybody can do it, it's Corey Haim for sure. Yeah. Um he's got some interesting competition as it was revealed that in the in the five truck for Tricon, you got Cup Series driver Chase Briscoe. So that's gonna be interesting. Bristol in general is gonna be a great one to watch.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

So yeah, can can Heim sweep all three races of the Triple Truck Challenge? We'll we'll see. Um, in addition with this win uh at Rockingham, Tricon Garage and Cory Haim uh secured Toyota's 250th victory in the NASCAR truck series. A lot of truck series wins for Toyota. I mean, that's how they got their start in NASCAR back in the early 2000s, so uh great for them. Uh Caden Honeycutt finished in second, Lane Riggs third, Stuart Friesen fourth, and Grant Anfinger in fifth. Chandler Smith, let's talk about him for a second. Chandler Smith, he initially finished fourth in this race, and it would it was a great drive initially, as he started on the back after breaking a shock during his qualifying run. We wondered last week uh on the previous show why he qualified 33rd. Um that's why was he broke his shock during qualifying, dropped to the rear to fix that, because that was considered an unapproved adjustment, obviously, but then he drove all the way through the field to finish fourth, except he failed post-race tech inspection due to failing uh high requirements in the rear uh of his truck. So not only was Chandler Smith credited with a last place finish in 36, but our standings was very shaken up quite a bit as well. Uh Stacy now leads Bernardo by just four points. Count 'em. Four. Four. That's not that's not that much. Evan, uh, as you'll see in a minute, has closed all the way up to uh only 40 points back. You'll understand why in a second. Uh Noah's 92 back. I'm I'm still 133 back, and um Haley's still 147 back, but we all gained, um, being that of course uh Chandler Smith and Stacy, that that's who she picked, uh, finished in the back. But I picked uh Tyler Ankrum, who was running like pretty much mid-pack all day, running like 18th to 20th, and then uh had a good strategy call taking two tires and ended up finishing uh originally seventh, but then moved up to sixth due to the uh Chandler Smith disqualification. Evan with Caden Honeycutt, where one you know you wondered why he closed all the way to 40 points back, that's why. Finished second, led a lap, which yeah, one lap led doesn't seem all that much, but one lap lead is still a lap led that's five bonus points, at least in our points. So uh big for big for Evan there. Um Haley with Ben Rhodes, uh just a quiet day in 18th. There was a lot of cars that finished off the lead lap in this race, only nine trucks finished on the lead lap. So crazy. I mean, the last race in just any of NASCAR's top three series that I can think of that had like a bunch of cars off the lead lap was 2024 uh Spring Bristol, where five cars finished on the lead lap, which that was the first time you had only five cars finish on the lead lap in a cup race since like Dover of I believe 2004, I believe. So yeah. You don't really see that many or that few of cars or trucks or just anybody finish on the lead lap. So rare currents there. Stacy picked Chandler Smith, as we mentioned, finished, I guess, or I guess finished fourth, was credited with a last place finish after the DQ. So tough deal there, and it shrivels her points lead all the way down to just four points over Bernardo who picked Christian Eckis, finished thirteenth, just to kind of a quiet day. Same with you, Noah picked Justin Haley, finished twelfth.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

I was hoping for a better result. Um, I mean, just it's better than getting disqualified. I mean, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

So, I mean, and you get you gain you gained some points due to that, so um, yeah. But getting into O'Reilly's, and I wanna I want to touch on Ford real quick. Since uh AM racing withdrew from Rockingham due to a lack of funding, Ford now just has one car left in the O'Reilly series right now. It's the five car for head injure racing, but after Bristol, they might sit out for a few weeks as well, which if if that is true, uh that would leave Ford completely out of the O'Reilly series altogether, which is a very not not a good thing. But it's more of an issue, in my opinion, on the O'Reilly series than Ford. I mean, even top teams they struggle to find enough funding uh for their highly talented prospects. So more often nowadays you'll just see cup drivers drop down to the O'Reilly series and win some races and bring their own funding to make sponsors happy. You think of SVG dropping down into the nine-car Virginia Motorsports to win at Coda or um Larson in the 88 uh Virginia Motorsports winning at Las Vegas, and he's also running in the 88 again this weekend at Bristol, so you know. Um, but back to Rockingham. Initially, it looked like it was the Corey Day show as Day secured his uh first career O'Reilly's poll in qualifying. He swept both stages, went on to lead 118 of the 250 left, but he only finished 10th in this race, but still Corey Day. He's kept his momentum up and also cleaned up his act, particularly after the race at Coda in particular. Um, but Corey Day now has seven top 10 finishes in a row dating back to Atlanta in February out of just eight races this year, and through his first 19 O'Reilly series starts, he has nine top tens, so great start there. But his one start at Bristol last fall was only a 17th place finish, so he still has plenty of work to do. But at the same time, he just finished uh second at Martinsville uh a little over a week ago. Granted, Martinsville and Bristol about their only similarity is that they're a half-mile short track, and that's about it. Martinsville is a flat paperclip, and Bristol's a high banked track, so but I mean Corey Day has speed, I'm sure he'll figure it out. Um, but he got trapped deep in the field, and uh it was William Swalic who took control on the lap 172 restart. He pulled away to lead the final 79 laps to score his maiden victory. William Suwalic gets his first career O'Reilly series victory and his 42nd career start. Um, this win is Jogis Racing's first win of the 2026 season in the O'Reilly series. Sawalic becomes the first driver from the state of Minnesota to win in any of NASCAR's top three series. JGR gets a 1-2 finish with teammate Brandon Jones finishing second, Justin Algar finished third, Roger Carruth fourth, and Cars Quappel fifth. So a trio of junior motorsports cars rounding up the top five. And uh Cletus McFarland, we said we'd mention him, uh his O'Reilly series debut, here we are. Um he finished fourth in the arca race earlier in the day, but his O'Reilly's race was more eventful. Multiple close calls did spin out a couple times, but he kept the car in one piece. He brought it home in 32nd, which keeping the car in one piece was the goal, but he'll be back in the arca car at Kansas in Talladega later this month. However, um NASCAR did not approve Cletus to run in the O'Reilly series at Talladega, so he's gonna have to run some more ARCA and truck races before getting on the big tracks in the O'Reilly's car, which by the way, he is fully approved to run uh everywhere in arca and trucks, so important distinction there. And he can run short tracks in O'Reilly's, just not the big tracks quite yet. Um but uh our standings after Rockingham. Uh I lead Stacy by 29 points, Bernardo by 78, Evan by 83, Haley by 85, and Noah by 113. Um I picked Sammy Smith, disappointing qualifying run. Um only qualified 19th and only finished 12th. He did get a few stage points. That's that's about it.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

So I mean better than nothing.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Yeah, it wasn't the worst day in the world, but uh could have could have had a little better. Uh Evan picked Corey Day, finished 10th as we mentioned, but led 118 laps from the pole. That was the most laps led, so 10 bonus points, at least under our points. Haley with Austin Hill, quiet day and 11. Something about Austin Hill and quiet days. I mean, he hasn't been running bad lately, it's just he hasn't been up front and he hasn't been causing anything chaos. I mean, basically the one bad blip on his radar lately was just that 35th at Darlington after he got caught up in multiple incidents, but it's been weird. Um Stacy with Jesse Love finished only finished 27th, led um 15 laps, but just got caught up and ended up two laps down. Tough weekend for Stacy, 27th above in O'Reilly's, and had a fourth place finish with Chandler Smith and Trucks, and then got disqualified. So tough weekend for her. Um Bernardo with Sam Mayer had more power issues. Something about something about Sam Mayer, man. It's like Sheldon Creed has been up front um a bunch, and just Sam Mayer, it's like he's been up front too, and he's been fast. It's just something about his engine just isn't up to snuff. But finishes last, um, credited with the DNF, so not great there. And Noah with Brandon Jones, you're you're surprised he finished second.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

I mean, yeah, uh, but I'm happy with it, and we if we could have just pushed a little more, we could have gotten there. But yeah, I mean, I'm still happy with the second game.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

If you're gonna end up second, it's good to end up second towards your teammate. Yeah for sure. So, but we've we've we've we've made it through the cup series off week, finally. Um, and after the lower series had their turn at Rockingham, it's time to get back to business. Huge preview show on Friday, as we'll be previewing uh Cup O'Reilly's and Truck Series action. They all head to Bristol Motors Speedway in Tennessee this weekend, plus NHRA returns with the Lucas Well Winter Nationals from In N Out Burger, Pomona Drag Strip in Pomona, California this weekend in the continuation of NHRA's season-long 75th anniversary celebration, and among those festivities, another big milestone, Funny Car's 1000th race all time. So as if as if Funny Car didn't have enough motivation to go after one of those 75th anniversary diamond wallies, you got the thousandth funny car race on top of that, which comes with its own special trophy. So they'll be even more hungry to score the victory this weekend. And if that's not enough for you, we're also doing a special preview of the Tootsie's Music City Showdown Car Store event at the Nashville Fairground Speedway. I will be in attendance that weekend, um, this Saturday night. So I'm looking forward to that, and also to this loaded preview episode. But that's all we got for uh today's episode of the Throttlefloor Podcast. Make sure you tune in and listen and uh watch and download on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, check out the chill photography and throttle for podcasts, Instagrams, and TikToks. And uh that's all we got for uh today's episode, and we'll see you all on Friday.