Rockingham Speedway hasn’t hosted a NASCAR race since 2013, but the historic North Carolina track could soon find itself alive again with the roar of engines.
According to spotter Freddie Kraft, the one-mile venue could return to the NASCAR calendar in 2025, hosting races for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series, as well as the ARCA Menards Series.
“There was other schedule news I heard this week that’s pretty much confirmed,” Kraft said on Monday’s episode of “Door Bumper Clear.” “Rockingham is back. Not for the Cup cars. ARCA, Xfinity, Trucks (on) Easter weekend. Friday-Saturday show, no Sunday.”
If Rockingham were to return to the NASCAR schedule in 2025, it would be the first time the track would hold a national series race since the 2013 North Carolina Education Lottery 200, which was the last of two Truck Series races held at the facility in an attempt to rejuvenate interest in the track. When the Truck Series didn’t return in 2014, however, those plans were mostly scrapped.
With the return of the North Wilkesboro Speedway in 2023, however, a return to Rockingham in some capacity seemed inevitable, and with the news that the track will likely host national series events while the Cup Series is off for Easter in 2025, the track — and most importantly, the fans — will have a chance to show why it deserves to once more become a mainstay of NASCAR.
If the Xfinity and Truck Series were to run on Easter weekend as Kraft mentioned, it would provide fans with 38 consecutive weeks of NASCAR racing while still honoring the tradition of Cup teams having the weekend off, as has been the case for much of the sport’s history.
Rockingham hasn’t hosted a Cup Series race since 2004, but as the unlikely return of North Wilkesboro in 2023 proved, nothing is impossible with enough effort. If Rockingham does host NASCAR races in 2025, it’ll have a third chance to win its way into the hearts of fans for good, and potentially start moving forward with a Cup Series date as a realistic goal.
