Four-time Southern National Motorsports Park track champion Deac McCaskill qualified on the pole for Sunday’s 200 lap Late Model Stock Car race, which is the headline race of the Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National.
McCaskill, 39, from Raleigh, North Carolina, set the fast lap during qualifying on Saturday with a 15.492 second lap, beating out Nick Smith and defending Thanksgiving Classic winner Lee Pulliam on the pole. McCaskill, who won the CARS Tour championship this season, is looking for his first Thanksgiving Classic win since 2006.
“We had a really good car in the CARS event,” McCaskill said. “I don’t know what happened. Car kind of went away from me there at the end. We worked it some. My NASCAR package is different from my CARS package. We did a lot of testing on Thursday. We’ll see what we’ve got.”
McCaskill knows Sunday’s race will be a challenge with a stacked field of competitors, including Lee Pulliam, Tommy Lemons, Jr., Josh Berry and Matt McCall, among others.
“Lee’s going to be strong,” McCaskill remarked. “Tommy, Matt McCall, Nick’s second. That’s a good field of cars. Get a break at halfway and get two new tires. I don’t think you have to save a whole lot.”
Dominion Raceway champion Nick Smith qualified in second.
“There are a lot of good cars here for tomorrow’s race,” Smith said. “We put up a good number in qualifying but that’s just qualifying. We’ve got to be there at the end. I think we’ve got a good car. We’ve been getting it better and better all day. It is definitely better than when we unloaded so we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Lee Pulliam qualified in third while Tommy Lemons, Jr. and Jonathan Findley rounded out the top-five.
Christian Eckes, who won the Myrtle Beach 400 in a Late Model Stock Car last weekend, qualified on the pole for the Super Late Model event over Austin Theriault, Tate Fogleman, Tyler Church and Clay Jones.
Sunday’s races will begin at noon.
