LUCAMA, NC – Southern National Motorsports Park crowned its Speed Week 2026 champions on Saturday.
Matt Cox, Rusty Daniels, Case James, Robert Arch, Andrew Watson, and Paxton Smith all clinched championships in their respective divisions. Cox, James, and Arch all won their championships in style, with a win in the Speed Week finale.
Cox won three of the five Late Model Stock Car races contested during the six day event. His wins came on the back half of Speed Week 2026 presented by Folsom Fence Company. Saturday’s victory came in a more procedural and orderly affair than Friday night.
Cox surrendered the lead in the opening laps to Michael Fose in the 100-lap headline race of The Sign Shop Championship Night. On the 43rd lap of the race, Cox was able to retake the lead and never looked back as he drove away with his third consecutive win.
“We fired off and we kind of wanted to ride,” Cox said. “He pushed us hard there at the beginning, was kind of wanting to run hard. We didn’t want to run that hard, so I stuck my hand out the window down the backstretch and let him go. We just fell in line, rode, and I could tell he was on the right rear pretty hard it looked like and was slipping kind of bad up off the corner, so we rode. We let the air pressures get up. We caught up to lapped traffic and I wanted to get in clean air before we got to them so we decided to pick it up and I got to him and take the race lead.”
Last year, Cox won the I-95 Showdown Championship, a title he is racing to defend in 2026.
“A lot of momentum for our team,” Cox said. “All in all, good four days for us and we’ll look forward to getting back here in about a month.”
Cox’s winnings for the week were over $15,000 for his three wins and the championship.
Bradley McCaskill picked up the win in the 50 lap KONI Charger final, but Rusty Daniels’ worst recorded finish in over a year, a third place finish, was enough to clinch the division championship, adding to his recent list of accolades which also include the championship at Carteret County Speedway in 2025 and the Six Pack Charger Series championship, which was a series held between Carteret and Southern National in 2025.
Case James came away with the victory in the 25 lap Legends feature after the top-three drivers were all involved in a last lap incident in the 25 lap Legends feature. By rule, when the white flag waved, the next flag would end the race, resulting in the caution and checkered flag flying together.
That victory clinched the Speed Week Legends division championship for James at the same track his father, Colt James, won a Pro Late Model championship at in 2017.
“It feels so special just to rebound from yesterday,” James said. “I’m not real sure what happened in that incident but, it all feels really good to get it here where my dad won all those races and championship. It feels so great especially since my crew worked so hard.”
Kevin Harvick, Inc. spotter Robert Arch, who gained viral popularity on Friday after handing his race winning trophy to a kid in the stands, and Mini Stock great A.J. Sanders came into Saturday’s Mini Stock final in a dead heat, with both drivers recording a win and a runner-up finish prior to the championship round.
Arch had saved his best for last, driving away from Sanders and leading all 30 laps virtually uncontested.
“This car was on rails,” Arch said. “It got tore up pretty bad at Dillon, so, pretty much everything on it as far as the front suspension’s brand new and it was lights out fast. I felt like I had a car good enough to lap second place, but I guess he had a tire go down and he spun and we couldn’t quite get there. Really just gotta thank my sponsors and Michael Diaz for putting this show on.”
Much like on Friday, after his win, Arch ran to the grandstands to give his trophy away to a young fan. The custom-made championship trophy he won, that will be staying with him.
Bradley Morgan picked up his first Any Car win, preventing Andrew Watson from sweeping Speed Week, but Watson would claim the championship. Paxton Smith, who finished Speed Week with a perfect 4-0 record, clinched the Bandolero championship.
With Speed Week in the books, Southern National Motorsports Park will now turn its attention to the Spring Season, which picks back up on Sunday, March 22 and runs through Saturday, June 6. The Sign Shop 125 on March 22 features KONI Chargers, Legend Cars, Any Cars, and the Southern National Motorsports Park Vintage Series.
Southern National Motorsports Park owner Michael Diaz confirmed during the week that Speed Week would return for the fourth time in 2027 after another successful run.
