Sammy Smith snags Dash 4 Cash prize at Rockingham
ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — Sammy Smith and the No. 8 JR Motorsports team walked away from Rockingham Speedway $100,000 richer Saturday evening.
The third-year racer nabbed a second-place finish in the NASCAR Xfinity Series' return to 'The Rock' to net the final bonus prize of the 2025 campaign with his best result of the season.
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RELATED: Unofficial results | At-track photos: Rockingham
Restarting in NASCAR Overtime, Smith held the top spot alongside Joe Gibbs Racing's Taylor Gray — a recent rival from an aggressive run-in at Martinsville Speedway on March 29. With Smith on the inside and Gray to his right, Smith got the better jump on the restart and cleared Gray for the lead entering Turn 1.
But on corner entry, Jesse Love charged to Smith's bumper and moved him up the track, allowing Love to surge for the lead and eventual win in the North Carolina Education Lottery 250 presented by Black's Tire.
'That was good, hard racing,' Smith said. 'I was happy with our car all day. We did a really good job. Just hard racing there at the end, and we were stumbling on fuel. It was just an overall good day.'
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While Smith jumped away with the lead on the overtime restart, it wasn't for Gray's lack of effort. Gray tried to match Love's timing on the re-fire, but a shove from Parker Retzlaff approaching the restart zone impacted Gray's ability to hit the throttle, dropping his No. 54 Toyota to a sixth-place finish.
'I still haven't seen a replay, but just from in the car, the 4 jacked me up in the restart box, and as soon as he popped me, Sammy launched,' Gray told NASCAR.com. 'I went to go launch with him, and obviously my back tires are jacked up off the ground, so I'm spinning the rear tires and trying to get hooked back up. And then once I get hooked back up, I didn't get the restart I would like to.'
Sammy Smith races at Rockingham.
Three weeks ago at Martinsville, Smith charged through Gray in the closing two corners, crashing Gray and costing either driver the victory and resulting in a 50-point penalty and a $25,000 fine to Smith. Any lingering emotions from that night didn't carry into Saturday's fight for the Rockingham win.
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'He raced me very clean all day,' Smith said. 'We raced hard and I'm happy with how we made it at the end.'
Smith finds himself on a hot streak heading into next Saturday's race at Talladega Superspeedway (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), with finishes of ninth (Darlington), fourth (Bristol) and now second in consecutive weeks.
Gray, on the other hand, has struggled to find results in that same span, finishing 29th at Martinsville, 33rd at Darlington and 19th at Bristol.
'I'll be honest, we've struggled since Martinsville, so I haven't really been around (Smith),' Gray said. 'I mean, they've been running good, and we haven't been running very good — or at least had good finishes. So we haven't been around each other that much besides today, and today was kind of the first time we were back around each other. I thought the racing was fine between me and him.
'I had it set in my mind: I knew I could beat him on a restart. I've done it plenty of times, and I just know I'm better at restarts than he is, and I was going to sort of manipulate him on my restart, manipulate his air getting into (Turn) 1. I promise I'm not cocky; I was just, I was in my mindset, right? I was confident in the restart, and then once the 4 popped me, it kind of took me out of contention of being able to do that. So it's unfortunate, but I mean, they're fast. Honestly, probably a little better than us today.'
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