NASCAR Cup Series drivers react to Rockingham weekend

LINCOLN, Ala- With the highly anticipated return of Rockingham to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and Xfinity Series over the Cup Series Easter break, Cup drivers returned to the track with plenty of thoughts. 

Many enjoyed ‘The Rock’s’ return to the sport, but many were hesitant to give an endorsement for the Cup Series to follow suit. One of those being Christopher Bell, one of the sport’s best short track drivers currently. 

“It was awesome,” Bell said. “That was an amazing show. The truck race was great, the Xfinity race was great. Originally, I watched the start of the truck race, I was like ‘Cup needs to go here, this is gonna be an awesome place’, then I started thinking about it and I’m like, ‘they packed it out for Trucks, then obviously Xfinity was packed as well, maybe it’s just a good fit’. Xfinity and Truck need their own standalone event.” 

Alex Bowman also really enjoyed seeing the newly renovated Rockingham make its return, but similarly to Bell, was quick to throw the yellow flag on the prospect of a Cup Series date being added in the short term future, albeit for a different reason than Bell. 

‘Super cool to see that place come back,” Bowman said. “Just to see them turn that facility around and everything was really neat” 

“I’m cautious on that one,” Bowman said. “Just because I appreciate what that race track is so much, and I think the current Cup car would be a little bit of a struggle there so hopefully we get our short track stuff better so we could go to a place like that and put on a really good show.” 

A pair of Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates also shared their thoughts on the Rockingham race, but they were less concerned about racing during their lone off-weekend of the Cup Series season. 

While Chase Elliott chose to skip out on the Truck and Xfinity action, William Byron spent his Easter break in Charleston at a friend’s wedding, then headed out to the beach down in Georgia, but did make time to throw on the Xfinity Series race and liked what he saw. 

“I thought it looked really exciting,” Byron said. “It looked like it was packed, so maybe that means we’ll be having a Cup race there one day.”