EXCLUSIVE: Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead, Guardians of the Galaxy) is the latest to be cast in AMC‘s NASCAR drama series Thunder Road, from John Fusco. Rooker joins the previously announced lead, Dennis Quaid, and Chase Stokes.

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’s left him with the iron will of a man half his age.

Thunder Road follows the multi-generational saga of the fictional Whitlock family, whose legacy in stock car racing is as deep as the family’s ties to the Southern hill country roots that shaped them.

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 – and the old king is fighting to hold onto the crown.  

As we announced this morning, 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’s pit crew.

Shooting on Thunder Road will begin this summer, targeting a 2027 launch on AMC and AMC+.

Deadline broke the news that the series was in the works back in November, as well as the addition of Quaid in the driver’s seat, in April. The network officially ordered the series in late April.

Fusco is set to executive produce alongside showrunner Taylor Elmore, Cliff Roberts with Syndicate Entertainment, Mark L. Smith, and NASCAR Studio’s Tim Clark and John Dahl. Gladys Cheng serves as producer. The show is produced in association with NASCAR.

Rooker is repped by Gersh and Link Entertainment.