"Opened in 1993, left for dead by 2009, and bought at auction for $650,000 two years later — Southern National Motorsports Park is the four-tenths-mile Lucama, North Carolina paperclip that opened the 2026 zMAX CARS Tour season, and the place Caden Kvapil started a championship run from 29th."
Location: Lucama, NC (Wilson County) Track Type: Paved oval (paperclip) Length: 0.400 miles Surface: Asphalt Banking: Turns 17° / Straightaways 7° Width: 70 ft Capacity: 4,500 Opened: 1993 (as Southern National Speedway) Owner / Operator: Michael Diaz (since 2012)
Overview
Southern National Motorsports Park is a four-tenths-mile asphalt oval in Lucama, North Carolina, set in the farm country of Wilson County about 45 minutes east of Raleigh and a few miles south of Kenly. Its 17-degree corners are steep for a track this size, and at 70 feet wide it gives drivers room to run side by side — a layout that rewards a committed high line and lets cars work through the field rather than single-filing around. It opened the 2026 zMAX CARS Tour Presented by SoundGear season on February 28.
The track has worn three names and survived a near-death in its three decades, but it has remained one of the Carolinas' steady Late Model Stock proving grounds — and a regular CARS Tour stop dating back to the series' earliest seasons.
History
The track opened in 1993 as Southern National Speedway and was renamed Southern National Raceway Park in 2006. By 2009 it had gone nearly dark, hosting just a single race that year, and in October 2011 the facility was sold at auction. Michael Diaz bought it for $650,000 and reopened it in 2012 under its current name, Southern National Motorsports Park, with a full weekly schedule. Diaz has owned and operated the track ever since. In 2023 the facility marked its 30th anniversary.
Its signature event is the Thanksgiving Classic, a Late Model Stock fixture that in 2022 paid $50,000 to win — billed at the time as the richest Late Model Stock race in history. In 2025 the track stepped away from sanctioning bodies to run as an outlaw venue, partnering with Florence Motor Speedway on the cross-state "I-95 Showdown" points series. For 2026 it returned to the CARS Tour calendar as the season opener.
Southern National's CARS Tour roots run deep. Across the series' Late Model Stock and Pro/Super Late Model divisions, winners here have included Todd Gilliland, Deac McCaskill, Josh Berry, and Taylor Gray, with Christopher Bell, Bubba Pollard, and Raphaël Lessard among the headline names to score in the heavier divisions.
The 2026 Season Opener (Feb 28)
The CARS Tour opened its 2026 campaign at Southern National with a doubleheader. In the Folsom Fence Supply 125 (Late Model Stock), Caden Kvapil drove the JR Motorsports No. 88 from the 29th starting position — he took a provisional to make the field — to victory, his third consecutive Late Model Stock win counting the close of 2025. Lee Pulliam finished second in his first CARS Tour Late Model Stock start since 2020, and Doug Barnes Jr. ran third.
In the KevinSaysYes.com 100 (Pro Late Model), Mason Walters scored his maiden CARS Tour victory in just his fourth series start, driving the Setzer Racing & Development No. 6 — the same chassis Ben Maier drove to the 2025 Pro Late Model title — and making the race-winning pass on Keelan Harvick with four laps to go.