Some great racing happened this past weekend with Tyler Ankrum and Sammy Smith winning the Truck and Xfinity series races in NASCAR’s return to Rockingham, as well as Oscar Piastri winning his third Formula One Grand Prix this season in Saudi Arabia.
On Friday at Rockingham, the NASCAR Truck Series race took place at 5 p.m. EST with Jake Garcia on pole position and the rest of the top 10 consisted of Chandler Smith, Ben Rhodes, Connor Mosack, Layne Riggs, Bayley Currey, Kaden Honeycutt, Giovanni Ruggiero, Ty Majeski and Tanner Gray.
During the race there were 11 lead changes among Ankrum, Garcia, Daniel Hemric, Grant Enfinger, Honeycutt, Corey Heim, Ruggiero, Riggs and C. Smith. There were also 11 total cautions taking up 33 yellow flag laps out of 200 total laps.
Stage one was won by Riggs as he had a half a second lead on second place Garcia. The remaining points were won by Honeycutt, C. Smith, Heim, Ruggiero, Majeski, Tan. Gray, S. Smith and Luke Fenhaus. Stage two was won again by Riggs with Honeycutt 1.3 seconds behind. The remaining drivers in the top 10 were Garcia, C. Smith, Heim, Majeski, Enfinger, Ruggiero, Parker Kligerman and Tan. Gray.
In the final 30 laps, multiple race leaders had to surrender the lead to get more tires and fuel. Those drivers were Heim, who led a race high of 52 laps, and Ruggiero, who led one lap after Heim pitted.
On lap 195, third place driver Riggs had to pit for fuel, and on lap 198, C. Smith ran out of fuel but made it back to the pits. First place Ankrum was close to running out of fuel but managed to finish the race in first place. Following him in the top 10 were Garcia, Hemric, Rajah Caruth, Enfinger, Honeycutt, Jack Wood, Heim, Mosack and Ruggiero. Riggs ended up finishing in 11th after pitting for fuel and C. Smith ended up finishing 13th after running out of fuel.
The next NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Race is SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday, May 2 at 8 p.m. EST.
On Saturday there was the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Rockingham, where Connor Zilisch finished on pole position. Following him in the top 10 were Parker Retzlaff, Nick Sanchez, Kasey Kahne, William Sawalich, Brandon Jones, Jesse Love, Justin Allgaier, Christian Eckes and Austin Hill.
During the race there were 17 total lead changes among Sammy Smith, Dean Thompson, Br. Jones, Carson Kvapil, Ryan Sieg, Eckes, Sanchez and Love. There were also 14 cautions taking up 83 yellow flag laps out of 250 total laps.
Sanchez won stage one, and second place Retzlaff was two-tenths of a second behind. The remaining point getters in stage one was R. Sieg, Jeb Burton, Anthony Alfredo, Matt DiBenedetto, K. Sieg, Jeremy Clements, Kvapil and Daniel Dye. Stage two was won by Thompson who was followed by J. Burton, Clements, DiBenedetto, Alfredo, Br. Jones, Love, Kvapil, K. Sieg and Tay. Gray.
During the race there were two red flags, both in the final stage for total stoppage and clean up time. The first red flag came out on lap 242 after a pile up on the restart had many cars stranded. The second red flag came out on lap 250 after Zilisch, Mayer, Kvapil, Bilicki and DiBenedetto piled up on track and needed clean up.
After the second red flag the race went into overtime where three more laps were driven with Love finishing in first and S. Smith, Retzlaff, H. Burton, Brennan Poole, Tay. Gray, Hill, Josh Williams, J. Burton and Daniel Dye rounded out the top 10 finishers.
After the race, Love’s No. 2 car failed post-race inspection and violated rule 14.14.2I5.H which means that his Truck Trailer Arm and U Bolt Saddles were not in complete contact with each other.
Love ended up disqualified for the violation, giving S. Smith the race win. Retzlaff, H. Burton, Poole, Tay. Gray, Hill, Williams, J. Burton and Dye were all moved up one place and Clements was moved into the top 10. Love’s Richard Childress Racing team is planning on appealing the disqualification April 23, 2025.
The next NASCAR Xfinity Series Race is the Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega SuperSpeedway on Saturday, April 26 at 4pm EST.
Finally, there was Formula One where Max Verstappen started out on pole position and was followed by Oscar Piastri, George Russell, Charles Leclerc, Kimi Antonelli, Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris to make up the top 10.
At the start of the race, Piastri was fast off the line and took the lead from Verstappen who at the first corner, tried to maintain his lead over Piastri and overtook him off the racetrack. Verstappen was then given a five second penalty for overtaking off the track and he served it in his only pitstop.
Verstappen tried to appeal the penalty by saying Piastri forced him off track but looking from all camera angles and replay’s the stewards deemed that Verstappen was never going to make the corner, sustaining his penalty.
Also, on lap one just a few corners after the Verstappen and Piastri incident, Tsunoda and Gasly crashed into each other, taking them both out of the race,causing a safety car.
On lap 13, Norris and Hamilton were wheel to wheel racing, Hamilton’s DRS games in the final corner helped him stay ahead of Norris until lap 15 when Norris realized what Hamilton was doing and overtook him for good.
On lap 20, Piastri pitted from medium tires on to hard compound tires that lasted him the rest of the race while first place Verstappen pitted for the same tires the lap after and because of the five-second penalty, Verstappen got on lap one; he was not able to keep his lead over Piastri, falling just behind him.
Mercedes’ drivers Russell and Antonelli had severe tire degradation causing them to both lose a ton of time on the hard tires and Leclerc who was lightning quick on the day ended up finishing ahead of them.
Piastri took the checkered flag on lap 50 with no other important incidents in the race and became the first Australian championship leader since 2010 when his current mentor, Mark Webber, led the championship standings 15 years earlier.
Verstappen finished in second place and Leclerc finished in third. The remaining top 10 consisted of Norris, Russell, Antonelli, Hamilton, Sainz, Albon and Hadjar.
The next F1 race is the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, May 4 at 4 p.m. EST.
Overall, it was a great week for motorsports… Piastri notched his third win of the season and NASCAR had a success return to Rockingham Speedway. Tune in next week where I talk about the NASCAR Xfinity and Cup Series races from Talladega Superspeedway.