Jesse Love and Richard Childress Racing have been disqualified from Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series North Carolina Education Lottery 250 at Rockingham Speedway.
According to NASCAR, Love and the No. 2 Whelen Engineering Chevrolet violated Sections 14.14.2.I-5.H of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Rule Book, which says that all mating surfaces between the truck trailing arm and the U-bolt saddle must be in complete contact with each other.
Sammy Smith, driver of the No. 8 Pilot Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, has been named the official winner of the event at Rockingham. It’s the Johnston, Iowa-native’s third NASCAR Xfinity Series victory, and first of the season.
“It’s cool. It’s tough to win them like that, it’s unfortunate, I’ve been on the other side of the stick of where Jesse [Love] is at, but take them how you can get them, I guess,” said Smith. “There’s obviously been some issues for about two hours now, so me and my crew chief [Phillip Bell] stayed around. I have nowhere else to be except for church tomorrow for Easter, so I decided to just hang around for a little bit. Glad I stayed.”
Smith is now locked into the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, courtesy of his victory at Rockingham, making him the third driver from JR Motorsports to solidify their spots into the post-season.
Parker Retzlaff has been promoted to second place, with Harrison Burton, Brennan Poole, and Taylor Gray rounding out the top five. Austin Hill, Josh Williams, Jeb Burton, Daniel Dye, and Jeremy Clements rounded out the top-10.
