ROCKINGHAM — It’s been 16 years since Justin Allgaier rounded the oval at Rockingham Speedway.
Allgaier, winner of the 2024 Xfinity championship, was one of three drivers — along with Sheldon Creed and Brandon Jones — at the Rock Wednesday for a private tire test by Goodyear.
The test was in preparation for the return of NASCAR to the track April 18-19, 2025 with scheduled races in the Xfinity and Craftsman Truck series, as well as the ARCA Menards Series East — the first major racing event in more than a decade.
Click here to read the initial NASCAR announcement.
Click here to read the ARCA announcement.
This will be the first Xfinity race at Rockingham since 2004. The series started running at the track in 1982 and held 42 races before the speedway was taken off the NASCAR schedule.
The truck series ran at the Rock in 2012 and 2013, when the track was owned by Andy Hillenburg, but NASCAR — citing poor attendance — declined to return.
Hillenburg’s tenure also saw four races from 2008-2010 in the ARCA Menards Series.
In the 2008 ARCA race, Allgaier placed 27th, with 2024 Cup Series champ Joey Logano taking the checkered flag. Despite his run at the Rock, Allgaier won the ARCA championship that year.
“I really thought that the last time I raced here in ARCA was going to be it,” Allgaier admitted. “I’ve always loved the historic racetracks of our sport. I grew up as a fan of this sport for years.
“This racetrack has always been iconic and I’ve always been kinda surprised that there was a lot of money invested in it and I thought we were coming back here… a lot earlier than we have been,” Allgaier said. “I was glad to see this place get put back on the map and back on the schedule.”
Creed won the ARCA Series a decade later and the truck series in 2020.
He was still a teenager when the truck series ran at the Rock.
“What a cool place,” he said. “I feel like I was driving in a scene of ‘Days of Thunder’ this morning when I drove in.”
Creed said the track was “really fast.”
With the speedway being taken off of the schedule, Creed said he didn’t think he’d ever get a chance to drive on the historic track.
“Honestly, I thought it probably had been torn down,” Creed said. “And then I seen something about it getting repaved a couple of years ago and thought ‘Maybe there’s a chance.’”
Creed described the track as “very technical,” adding that his favorite tracks were the older ones like Darlington and Homestead, “old wore-out places.”
In addition to the Xfinity Series, Jones has also competed in the Craftsman Truck Series, ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East. Jones drove in the truck series in 2013, but didn’t run at Rockingham. However, he said he ran a late model stock at the Rock in 2013.
Jones said he wasn’t surprised that the racing series are back at Rockingham.
“It’s a super cool racetrack,” Jones said. “Kind of a little hidden gem out here in the middle of nowhere, but it is a really cool facility, so I am glad that we are back.
“I think it’s going to make for a really, really cool event,” Jones continued.
Allgaier and Jones said the track used to be more rough and bumpy and felt more narrow when they drove on it in the past, compared to Wednesday’s test.
The main oval was repaved in late 2022
With the abrasiveness of the old track, one of the biggest challenges before was tire fall-off.
“Back then, you were four or five seconds over the course of a run you would fall off,” Allgaier said. “By the end of a run you were literally screaming for tires.”
Tickets for the two-day event went on sale Nov. 1.
“Our job now,” Allgaier said, “is to go out and make a good race out of it.”
The RO will have more on the tire test at a later time.
