Corey Day has asserted himself as someone to keep an eye on for the win in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series NC Education Lottery 250 at Rockingham Speedway. On Friday afternoon, the Hendrick Motorsports developmental talent secured his first career pole position in his 19th career start.
The driver of the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet was able to nab the pole with a 22.717-second (148.963 mph) lap time around the 0.940-mile Rockingham Speedway. The lap time was enough for Day to take the pole position by a margin of 0.064 seconds over Jesse Love, the defending series champion.
Love, who is looking to secure his first win of the season, will embark upon that journey from the outside of the front row in Saturday’s race. Love will also have avenging last year’s disqualification in this event on his mind. Love was initially scored as the winner at Rockingham a season ago, but it was Sammy Smith, who took the win after Love was DQed in post-race inspection.
Parker Retzlaff, who shone brightly at this track last year, continued that performance with his new No. 99 Viking Motorsports team, as he’ll start from the third position on Saturday.
Justin Allgaier, the 2024 series champion, will look to extend his winning streak to three consecutive races, and he’ll do so from the fourth starting spot in Saturday’s NC Education Lottery 250 at Rockingham Speedway.
Carson Kvapil, who continues to fill his schedule in a multitude of cars, will start fifth on Saturday, driving the No. 1 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports.
Cleetus McFarland is making his series debut this weekend, driving the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. And while McFarland was able to have an incident-free Friday at Rockingham, he didn’t showcase a lot of speed. McFarland was only able to muster the 35th-fastest qualifying time on Friday.
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series NC Education Lottery 250 at Rockingham Speedway is scheduled for Saturday, April 4, and will be televised on The CW with coverage set to kick off at 2:30 PM ET.
