The blessings do not stop when the gods are determined. Sammy Smith may have ticked off the entire NASCAR garage for his questionable actions in Martinsville, but he did something to please the racing gods. The No. 8 JR Motorsports driver did not have an inkling of the double-whammy he would score in Rockingham. Not only did he cash in a hefty prize, but he also managed to slip into Victory Lane.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series returned to Rockingham Speedway with a bang. The last time the series raced was in 2004 – Jamie McMurray won a relatively peaceful race with just 4 cautions. In 2025, however, we witnessed 14 cautions. The chaos extended beyond the race, bringing a smile to Sammy Smith and a heartbreak to Jesse Love.
Sammy Smith, dewy-eyed with a jackpot
Well, Dale Earnhardt Jr’s young star has put in a lot of effort to redeem himself. After setting off a multi-car melee in Martinsville, Sammy Smith landed a $25,000 penalty, a 50-point redux, and truckloads of criticism. But his attempt to reverse that disrepute has been no less remarkable. Since Martinsville, he had been riding on a wave of top tens that grew better with each weekend. After clinching 4th in Bristol, Smith prepared himself for Rockingham, enrolling for the Craftsman Truck Series event as well. During the final overtime restart in the Xfinity Series race with 10 laps to go, Smith had snatched the lead from race leader Jesse Love, only to give it back to him shortly. However, Lady Luck smiled upon Smith by the end.
In a post-race technical inspection, Jesse Love was deemed to have violated Rule 14.14.2.I-5.h. This covers trailing arm spacers and pinion angle shims, and the No. 2 Chevrolet’s rear suspension was the issue. “All mating surfaces of those parts need to be in complete contact with each other, and unfortunately they violated that rule and were disqualified,” said Xfinity series director Eric Peterson. Guess what that meant for Dale Jr’s disgraced driver? Yes, his runner-up finish got converted into the winner’s place!
“Gotta take ‘em how you can get ‘em” @sammysmithSS has been named the winner of today’s Xfinity Series race at Rockingham after the disqualification of Jesse Love for a rear suspension issue.
It is Smith’s first win of 2025. pic.twitter.com/Nes3ggaFiz
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) April 20, 2025
In an interview with Frontstretch, Sammy Smith revealed his happiness about deciding to linger at the Rockingham venue. “There’s obviously been some issues for about two hours now. Me and my crew chief just stayed around. I got nowhere else to be besides…tomorrow for Easter. So we decided to hang around for a little bit. So I’m glad I stayed.” Smith gave Love his due credit: “Honestly, I wasn’t too disappointed. It was a good day overall. The 2 car…they ultimately had the best car today. Those guys did a good job, I felt like we did a great job to put ourselves in position to finish in second.”
What is more, Smith also picked up the Dash 4 Cash prize of $100,000 that covers more than his penalty. So the jackpot left Sammy Smith beaming with joy and satisfaction. He heaped praises on his team: “It feels really cool. I’m looking forward to celebrating with our guys. We’re going to keep digging and bringing the speed to the next couple of races…We’ve been beating on our 8 recently and we’re very happy with the progress we’ve made in JRM, and very happy with everybody right now…It’s definitely nice with the issues I had a couple of weeks ago – it’s cool.”
Clearly, Sammy Smith is on cloud nine at present. Similar to Smith’s fortune, another driver made jaws drop with his fabulous finish.
Recovering from the toughest odds
Parker Retzlaff, driver of the No. 4 Chevy for Alpha Prime Racing, has been in the news for the wrong reasons. Last year, during the Coke Zero Sugar 400, he attracted controversy. He pushed Harrison Burton’s Ford instead of his OEM teammate, Kyle Busch’s Chevy. That controversy may have left a stain on Retzlaff’s resume, but the driver was determined to turn it around. Throughout the 2025 season, he had not clinched a single top-ten finish. Rockingham Speedway threw him a ridiculously tough challenge, yet Retzlaff chose to overcome it. The Wisconsin driver qualified on the front row and seemed on pace to have a good day. But with 103 laps to go, Retzlaff blew a left-front tire.
However, Parker Retzlaff rebounded with a razor-sharp strategy. Eventually, he found himself back towards the front of the field in the closing laps, along with his Alpha Prime teammate in Poole. Retzlaff scored a third-place finish, which has changed to runner-up after Jesse Love’s disqualification. He commented on his amazing race: “About all day…We finished second there in stage 1 after staying out, kind of buying out time. We knew bared ourselves a little bit in stage 2, but just kept fighting…In stage 2, the right front went down, just random, just lost air. I thought we’d be buried, but the car was good enough…We drove back 14th. I think we were the first people to pit, take gas, put tires on to go with the battle.”
Evidently, Sammy Smith was not the only one to have a fabulous day at ‘The Rock.’ As the Xfinity Series moves through the season, let us see how further Dale Jr’s star can prove his detractors wrong.
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