Best of the Rest: Trucks and O’Reilly at The Rock

With the Easter weekend and a rare weekend off for the Cup Series, the Craftsman Truck and NOAP Series hit the re-born Rockingham. Off the NASCAR Touring schedules for well over a decade, the roar of engines was heard again at The Rock in 2025 with the trucks and NOAP teams returning.

Rockingham sits with a unique position of being larger then the typical short track, but still has the action. Perhaps in the future, the Cup Series will return as well. Rockingham has a rich history on the Cup side of things, with Cup races being held yearly from 1965 to the last Cup race in 2004.

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BLACK’S TIRE 200

Race Winner: Corey Heim

#11 Kaden Honeycutt

The 2026 season brought Kaden Honeycutt what he had been working so long for. Signed to drive the #11 TRICON Garage Toyota replacing 2025 champ Corey Heim, it is arguably the best equipment of Honeycutt’s career. Honeycutt has since proved he was the right choice for the seat, nearly winning an exciting Rockingham event. 

Qualifying the famous #11 Safelite Toyota 3rd, Honeycutt stayed with the leaders throughout the event, and had to settle for a 2nd place finish. Taking the lead late on lap 199, Honeycutt looked to almost be a lock for his first win, before Heim stole the win on a last lap pass.

Honeycutt’s time is coming, Rockingham marked the second race in a row Honeycutt lost the lead with a last lap pass. 

#13 Cole Butcher

While 2026 rookie contender Butcher did finish a lap down to race winner Heim, the ThorSport Racing driver had a quietly solid run in Rockingham. Starting his #13 Ford 4th, Butcher ran a smart race and beat out his fellow rookie competitors for 10th, his first career Truck Series top ten. 

Butcher started racing trucks full-time in 2026, and while the learning curve has been somewhat steep, Rockingham was the rookie contender’s best finish this season, beating out a pair of 14th-place finishes.

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NORTH CAROLINA EDUCATION LOTTERY 200

#18 William Sawalich

Where else would you rather score your first O’Reilly Series win then at a historic track brought back from the dead? That is exactly what William Sawalich accomplished last Saturday. Sawalich, who enters his second full-time season in Joe Gibbs Racing’s #18 Toyota scored his first career NOAP Series win. Qualifying his Toyota Supra in 14th, Sawalich raced his way to the front, and led the final 79 laps en route to his first career win.

Sawalich wrapped up his rookie NOAP Series season in 2025 finishing 18th in the standings. 2026 may very well wind up being his breakout season with a win already in the books. Rockingham was the JGR driver’s best finish since a second place run at Gateway in 2025.

#45 Lavar Scott

The biggest challenge for any young driver in an abrupt promotion to a higher series, but it does happen as drivers and teams make moves. Scott, who spent the last several seasons in the ARCA Menards Series contending for a championship suddenly finds himself racing with Alpha Prime Racing in the O’Reilly Series in 2026.

The Rock provided Scott with one of the best runs of his young career, bringing home a solid 15th-place run, after qualifying his Chevrolet 20th.

Scott has a bright future ahead of him, but needs time to adjust to such a more competitive series. Scott ran two races at the end of 2025 to prepare for this season, but still only has 10 career NOAP starts thus far. The 15th at Rockingham beats Scott’s previous best of 16th in Daytona.