LUCAMA, NC – Mason Diaz will be making his first start at Southern National Motorsports Park since 2024 in Saturday’s Folsom Fence Supply 125 which opens the season for the zMAX CARS Tour.

Diaz, who has won two track championships at Southern National, will be driving for Hedgecock Racing Enterprises.  He is in pursuit of what would be his second win in the CARS Late Model Stock Tour, his previous win coming at Hickory Motor Speedway in 2023.

After practice on Wednesday, Diaz felt confident as the car remained consistent throughout the weather changes that took place on Wednesday.

“The car’s pretty good today,” Diaz said.  “It got a lot better since the last time we came here a couple weeks ago.  Pretty happy with it so far.  I haven’t raced here in two years.  [Winning] is the plan.  Cameron and Jay [Hedgecock] and the whole crew over here are working hard back at the shop and here testing today.  Our plan is to bring the best we can on Saturday.”

Driving isn’t the only thing Diaz has been focused on at Southern National.

Prior to testing, he was blowing the track off and getting it ready for the competitors who came to test.  Then, at one point during the day, Hoosier came with a shipment of tires for the track, which Diaz unloaded.  He also took care of some of his other duties at the track.

For Diaz, it was just another day at the office.

“It really hasn’t been that bad,” Diaz stated.  “The guys showed up at 11am so, this morning, I went through and blew the racetrack off to beat the rain.  Just tried to get the place cleaned up.  All of our equipment, we haul back north for wintertime so we just got it back down here.  Then Freeman came with some, what, 500+ tires so we’re ready for Speed Week to get on with that.”

Once the CARS Tour race concludes, focus will then shift on continued preparations for Speed Week which will continue on Sunday afternoon with the Hometown Racing 145 presented by H&H Body Shop and David’s Auto & Diesel.  After a couple days off, things pick back up on Wednesday with the Jerry Moody Memorial presented by Big Kahuna Pools & Spas which kicks off four straight days of racing.

“Looks like the weather’s picking up,” Diaz commented.  “Lows in the 50s, highs in the 70s, so next week should be good.  We’ll start off Speed Week this weekend.  Chargers on Sunday should be a really good event.”

Diaz won track championships in Late Models at Southern National in 2017 and 2020.

For more information about Speed Week at Southern National, visit snmpark.com/speedweek.