Great answer by bsharpe269.
Another way to think of graduate school is that these professors are (in a way) hiring you as a researcher for their lab.
So of course, any prior research and publication experience and the letter of recommendation that supports that work is going to be a large part of your application. So far you're on track! I would definitely continue research when you're at school, but it wouldn't hurt to gain an industrial experience (summer internship) if you think you would benefit by it.