EXCLUSIVE: Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead, Guardians of the Galaxy) is the latest to be cast in AMC\u2019s NASCAR drama series Thunder Road, from John Fusco. Rooker joins the previously announced lead, Dennis Quaid, and Chase Stokes.<\/p>\n
In a recurring role, Rooker will play Lucas, the patriarch of the Farley family. Lucas is a tough-minded old buzzard. A lifetime of racing accidents and misadventure may have damaged his body, but it\u2019s left him with the iron will of a man half his age.<\/p>\n
More from Deadline<\/p>\n
Rooker is no stranger to the race track. He played Rowdy Burns in the film Days of Thunder, the rival and friend of Cole Trickle, played by Tom Cruise.<\/p>\n
RELATED: 2026 TV Series Renewals Photo Gallery<\/a><\/p>\n Thunder Road\u00a0follows the multi-generational saga of the fictional Whitlock family, whose legacy in stock car racing is as deep as the family\u2019s ties to the Southern hill country roots that shaped them.<\/p>\n Quaid stars as racing legend Duane Whitlock, aka The Wrecking Ball, a towering figure who built a racing empire from a legacy of moonshine runs and dirt tracks and refuses to let it die. With ruthless competitors who will stop at nothing to dethrone and destroy them, the Whitlocks are a blue-collar dynasty at the edge of extinction \u2013 and the old king is fighting to hold onto the crown. <\/p>\n As we announced this morning<\/a>, Stokes is set for the role of Ronnie Whitlock, who leads with an outlaw smile and a devil-may-care attitude, a fire burning within him. A rebel with a lead foot, he was a promising pro racer before his troublemaking got him bounced from the game and relegated to his cousin Trey\u2019s pit crew.<\/p>\n RELATED: 2026 TV Cancellations Photo Gallery: Series Ending This Year & Beyond<\/a><\/p>\n Shooting on Thunder Road will begin this summer, targeting a 2027 launch on AMC and AMC+.<\/p>\n Deadline broke the news that the series was in the works back in November<\/a>, as well as the addition of Quaid in the driver\u2019s seat, in April. The network officially ordered the series in late April<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fusco is set to executive produce alongside showrunner Taylor Elmore, Cliff Roberts with Syndicate Entertainment, Mark L. Smith, and NASCAR Studio\u2019s Tim Clark and John Dahl. Gladys Cheng serves as producer. The show is produced in association with NASCAR.<\/p>\n Rooker is repped by Gersh and Link Entertainment.<\/p>\n RELATED: 2026 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Streaming & Cable<\/a><\/p>\n Best of Deadline<\/p>\n Sign up for Deadline’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead, Guardians of the Galaxy) is the latest to be cast in AMC\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[66846,49,48,270044,40776,47439,122947,270043,634,270045,82,10223,33304,122948],"class_list":["post-756752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-amc","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chase-stokes","tag-dennis-quaid","tag-guardians-of-the-galaxy","tag-john-fusco","tag-michael-rooker","tag-nascar","tag-rowdy-burns","tag-sports","tag-stock-car-racing","tag-the-walking-dead","tag-thunder-road"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}