Dale Earnhardt Jr. celebrates Jesse Love Rockingham DQ, Sammy Smith win

Jesse Love took the checkered flag in Saturday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 250, the first Xfinity Series race at Rockingham Speedway since 2004. But Love was disqualified during post-race inspection after NASCAR found his No. 2 Chevrolet to have a rear suspension violation. Sammy Smith was declared the winner and obviously, that made Dale Earnhardt Jr. quite happy.

https://t.co/UC2690hjkP pic.twitter.com/zeOV4aTMTd

— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) April 20, 2025

Smith is a JR Motorsports driver. Earnhardt is a co-owner of the race team. They don’t ask you how, they ask you how many and Smith now has three career Xfinity wins at just 20 years of age. That was worth a celebratory beer smash for Earnhardt.

“I’ve appealed this and had it overturned but I’m still gonna throw on some Eminence Front and crush a beer for Sammy,” Earnhardt tweeted Saturday night.

Sammy Smith reacts to win after Jesse Love DQ

Love led 53 of 256 laps at Rockingham. He looked to have secured his third career victory in 43 Xfinity starts and second of the 2025 season. But NASCAR found something wrong during post-race inspection.

“At the end of the race, in post-race teardown, the 2 car of Jesse Love for RCR failed post-race inspection,” Eric Peterson, Xfinity Series director, told the media, Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “So, the rule that they violated was 14.14.2.I-5.H. So, that’s truck trailing arms, spacers, and pinion angle shims, says the area of that rule. And the way that that rule reads is that all mating surfaces between the truck trailing arms and the u-bolt saddle must be in contact with each other at all times. And unfortunately, that was not the case when we did the teardown on the 2 car and they were disqualified.”

It’s deflating for Love. At the same time, it’s big for Smith, who locked himself into the Xfinity playoffs. Hanging around for about two hours post-race isn’t normally what Sammy Smith would do after a runner-up finish. This, however, was different. When you’re at the track, word spreads quickly when there is a problem in inspection. Smith and his team figured it was worth sticking around for.

“Yeah, thanks, it’s cool, you know,” Smith said, via Pockrass. “It’s tough to kinda win them like that. Unfortunately, I’ve been on the other end of the stick of where Jesse’s at. Take them how you can get them, I guess.”

On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this report.