Crossing the Pee Dee River and into the Sandhills region, US 74 meets up with Future Interstates I-73/I-74, in Rockingham. After a future interchange near NC 38 that will end its overlap with Interstate 73, US 74/Future I-74 continues southeast, bypassing Laurinburg and Maxton. East of Maxton and through Lumberton, the highway is officially US 74/Interstate 74, before dropping back to Future I-74 west of Boardman; the concurrency with Future I-74 ends at Bolton, where a future interchange will split from US 74 to continue south towards South Carolina. This is one of only two instances (along with I-41 in Wisconsin) of similarly-numbered U.S. and Interstate routes being designated on the same road.