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April 2, 2026
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
Justin Allgaier, JR Motorsports riding momentum to “The Rock”
Unfazed by the recent social media debate as to the Hall-of-Fame-worthiness of his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career, Justin Allgaier just keeps on winning.
On Saturday at Rockingham Speedway, the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet will try for his third straight checkered flag—and fourth this season—in the North Carolina Education Lottery 250 Presented by Black’s Tire (2:30 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
It’s no exaggeration to say Allgaier has dominated the series this year. He’s the only driver to have scored points in every stage of every race, and the 105 stage points he has accumulated are the most a driver has ever scored through the first seven races of a season.
Allgaier has won at least one race for 10 straight years, a series record. Last Saturday’s victory at Martinsville Speedway was the 31st of his career, tying him for sixth all-time with “Iron Man” Jack Ingram—a NASCAR Hall of Famer, by the way.
On the strength of his three wins, Allgaier tops the series standings by a gargantuan 92 points over second-place Jesse Love, the defending O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion.
The 39-year-old driver nicknamed “Little Gator” has enjoyed his fastest start to a season despite losing crew chief Jim Pohlman to Kyle Busch’s NASCAR Cup Series car at Richard Childress Racing. Pohlman led Allgaier to nine victories and the 2024 series championship in three years on the pit box.
New crew chief Andrew Overstreet deserves full credit for filling the void. The seamless nature of the transition has surprised team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“We changed a lot of folks, and all our teams got better,” Earnhardt said at Martinsville, after Allgaier won the fifth straight race for the JR Motorsports organization. “I wasn’t even sure that that was even possible and achievable…
“I believe in Overstreet, because I put him in that position, but, shoot, I don’t think anybody would have guessed they would have won these races and run as well as they are. I’m happy for Justin. He deserves it.
“When Jim was leaving, we were worried about Justin’s ability to be out there and us being able to give him the cars that we know he deserves.”
Check that box.
If Allgaier comes to “The Rock” on a wave of success, Love arrives seeking redemption. The driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing won last year’s Rockingham event, only to have his car disqualified for a rear suspension infraction—failure to maintain complete contact between all mating surfaces of the truck trailing arm and the U-bolt saddle.
JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith was the beneficiary of Love’s disqualification, picking up his third career victory in the series. Smith finished third last Saturday at Martinsville behind Allgaier and rookie Corey Day.
Ryan Sieg led a race-high 77 laps last year in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ return to Rockingham after a 21-year hiatus. Sieg finished 18th in the No. 39 Ford. This year, he is driving a Chevrolet.
The race is also noteworthy as the series debut of social media influencer Cleetus McFarland, who turned approximately 250 laps in a test at Rockingham and has spent considerable time in the simulator preparing for the event.
“What I’m looking forward to the most is getting past the first 10 laps, getting comfortable and leaning on support from the (Richard Childress Racing) guys,” McFarland said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of pressure coming into the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for the first time. I’ve been given so much data, so I’m excited to apply that, see where my improvements stand and how competitive I am.
“I had a lot of fun driving the car during the test, and I hope to make the Tommy’s Express Car Wash team happy by doing a good job, staying out of the way and enjoy racing.”
Kaden Honeycutt hopes to continue positive Truck Series trend line
Kaden Honeycutt couldn’t have chosen a more difficult act to follow.
The 22-year-old driver from Willow Park, Texas, has succeeded Corey Heim in the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota that carried Corey Heim to a NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series-record 12 victories last season, as well as the series championship.
Honeycutt is off to a good start, if not a spectacular one. He has scored three top 10s in four races, two top fives and earned his first career pole position at Darlington Raceway in the most recent Truck Series race.
Honeycutt led a race-high 59 laps before finishing fourth at the Lady in Black in a race that a part-time TRICON teammate stole in overtime with a strategic late pit stop for tires. That teammate? Corey Heim in the No. 5 Toyota.
Driving the No. 1 TRICON truck this week, Heim once again will be an obstacle standing in the way of Honeycutt’s first victory in Friday’s Black’s Tire 200 at Rockingham Speedway (4:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“I feel like we’ve been really good across the board this year,” Honeycutt said. “My performance hasn’t been really good and consistent every week. I feel like at Atlanta (21st-place finish), I really put us behind and made a really bad mistake there that was pretty uncharacteristic on my part—just doing too much trying to win the race too early…
“I feel like we were really on top of our game at Darlington. I thought we had a race-winning truck on the long haul, for sure. I just needed some stuff to go right at the end… I think we’ll have plenty of chances to win throughout the season.”
Two full-time NASCAR Cup Series drivers also are entered in Friday’s race. Ty Dillon will drive the No. 25 Ram for Kaulig Racing, and Carson Hocevar will moonlight in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Dillon last raced a truck at Rockingham in 2013, finishing 12th in a Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Hocevar is racing at “The Rock” for the first time.
“I’m just excited to go do it and run laps around there,” Hocevar said. “It’s a really cool track that I’ve always wanted to race at. It will be fun to have a whole weekend where I just get the opportunity to run the truck and don’t have to worry about juggling it with my responsibilities in the Cup Series.”
Sammy Smith, last year’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series winner at Rockingham, will do double duty this weekend, driving the No. 7 Spire Silverado on Friday.
Chandler Smith, who qualified second and finished 13th at Rockingham last year, leads the series standings by 33 points over Honeycutt. Layne Riggs, Smith’s teammate at Front Row Motorsports, is third, 41 points in arrears.
