LEBANON, Tenn: Will Rodgers climbed from his No. 26 GoodRX Toyota Supra Friday afternoon at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway following NASCAR Xfinity Series practice acknowledging that his opportunity with Sam Hunt Racing led to the best equipment he’s had so far in one of NASCAR’s top three national series.
A part-time deal as the driver of the No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota Supra certainly put pressure on the multi-time ARCA Menards Series East winner to make the most of his first Xfinity Series race since the season-finale at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway in November 2019.
However, by all accounts Rodgers delivered.
A solid practice result led to a noteworthy 14th place starting position for the Tennessee Lottery 250 and his fifth career NASCAR Xfinity Series start.
Throughout the race, Rodgers fought the handling of his No. 26 GoodRX Toyota Supra and with the adjustments from crew chief Andrew Abbott, the Maui, Hi native was able to claim 19th at the end of Stage 1.
Battling a tight car, Abbot made adjustments for Stage 2 which allowed his driver to climb the running order throughout the stage and took 14th at the end of stage reporting he wanted his Supra to be a little looser for the run to the finish.
Throughout Stage 3, Rodgers kept himself in the hunt for not only a top-15 finish – but even stalked the top-10 in the closing laps in the first NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the 1.333-mile facility since 2011.
With 20 laps to go, Rodgers has climbed to a race-high 11th, but a series of late-race cautions stacked the field once again.
Another caution threw the race into NASCAR overtime and despite a ferocious battle to keep his car near the top-10, he fell three positions to 14th for the green-white-checkered finish.
Over the final 2.666 miles of the race, Rodgers kept his competition at bay to finish 14th and his career-best Xfinity Series finish on an oval.
In 2019, he finished a career-best 12th at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Afterward, Rodgers said he pleased with the race.
“Overall a great first performance with Sam Hunt Racing,” spoke Rodgers. “I’m pretty happy with how qualifying went; that proved that this team has speed and even though I’ve been out of the seat for two years, I can still be fast.
“The race was up and down I’d say just having to re-learn how to race around other Xfinity cars; the air, grip level, tires fall off, etc. We continued to make gains with race craft and the cars handling and had a solid finish.”
For car owner Sam Hunt, the effort was extremely positive and lifted his family-owned team back inside the top-20 for the first time since April at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway where Colin Garrett wheeled a 15th place finish.
“Overall, I think Will and the team did a great job, especially considering he hasn’t run in the series since 2019,” offered Hunt. “He studied super hard, trained hard, and prepared the best he could for this weekend. We got better all race and just didn’t get quite enough on the late-race restarts, and it cost us a couple of spots.”
Hunt didn’t blame his driver for the loss of a few spots though, he knows experience is parallel in being able to execute restarts on a consistent basis.
“A lot of that comes down to experience,” added Hunt. “On the flip side, he did everything we asked and I’m looking forward to his next race. It was a good day for us and we as a team will continue our efforts to keep improving.”
Rodgers isn’t done at Sam Hunt Racing.
He will have at least one opportunity left with the Mooresville, N.C.-based team later this summer and Rodgers is banking that his experience on Saturday at Nashville will prove to be beneficial to contend for a top-10 finish.
Although Rodgers admits there is one tactic he will have to try different.
“The biggest takeaway is I need to be more aggressive — plain and simple,” insisted Rodgers. “It’s tough being away for so long and keeping up the intensity level. I’ll get better with that in our upcoming races.
“Overall, I’m very happy with how the weekend turned out, especially debuting our new campaign, Race To End Hep C, and of course brining a new sponsor into the sport, GoodRx.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
