LUCAMA, NC :: Caleb Holman knows his way around Southern National Motorsports Park. The Abingdon, Virginia native scored the victory in the season opening event for the CARS X-1R Pro Cup Series Saturday night. The win gave Holman his second victory at the Eastern North Carolina track in two years having won the same event a season ago.
“We had a great car all day and it showed. I knew the #56 (Gus Dean) was pretty good because he ran me down in the first portion of the race, but he had a little bit more trouble getting through traffic after the halfway redraw. That allowed up to pull away at the end for the win,” explained Holman in Edelbrock Victory Lane. “A big thank you to all these Henderson Motorsports guys for their hard work today. This win gives us a great start to the season and you never know where it can go from here. I’m still going to run some NASCAR truck series races this year including next weekend at Martinsville, but this Pro Cup Series will be our main focus this season.”
Holman was followed by a pair of youngsters in Gus Dean and Reid Wilson to round out the podium. Dean, who once again came up just short of scoring his first series win, rallied late with his #56 machine that was good on the long runs but it just was not enough leaving the South Carolina driver disappointed at Southern National once again. Reid Wilson, on the other hand, was thrilled with his first career podium finish. Wilson, led by crew chief “Pops” Herman, made the correct adjustments to the #66 Bojangles/Cheerwine Chevrolet at the halfway break which resulted in the good finish.
“Pops made some good changes at the break and we had an awesome car in the second half. This is great start to the season for my Reid Wilson Racing team. I have to thank my sponsors Bojangles and Cheerwine for their support this year. Hopefully this is the first of many good finishes for those guys this year,” said an excited Wilson at night’s end.
Next up for the CARS X-1R Pro Cup Series is the Catawba Valley 250 at Hickory Motor Speedway in Hickory, North Carolina on Saturday, April 5th. In addition to the Pro Cup Series and the Allison Legacy Series, a $500 to win Street Stock feature event will be on tap.
