Michael Diaz’s unorthodox entry fee earns praise from racers at Southern National

LUCAMA, NC – While the star of Saturday night’s I-95 Showdown was Doug Barnes, Jr., Southern National Motorsports Park track owner Michael Diaz was the star of the night for the racers.

In August, Diaz implemented a $450 entry fee for the September 6 race which included four tires, 10 gallons of fuel, and the driver’s pit pass.  The caveat was that only the top-five drivers received a payout, with the winner taking home $3,000.  While positions sixth on back received no payout, it was still a win compared to spending over $1,000 to race.

The move attracted a larger than average field for Southern National, which struggled to get Late Model Stock Cars earlier this year, ultimately taking them off the schedule for the Spring championship season.

“I think I’m going to continue doing this,” Diaz told Short Track Scene after the race.  “If I can make it less expensive for the racer to get to the racetrack and them understand, it’s really the same, if not better, right?  Luckily, I’ve got some partners that are helping me do it and that’s really makes it worthwhile.  I think everybody likes the program.”

In recent years, Diaz has become known for taking unconventional approaches and challenging norms in Late Model Stock Car racing.  It comes at a time where many drivers have called for status-quo to be challenged.

The program was received well by competitors.

“It’s definitely a really cool idea he’s got going on there,” four-time Southern National Motorsports Park track champion Deac McCaskill said earlier in the afternoon.  “For $450, you have a chance to win $3,000.  Not a lot of tracks can do that, so kudos to Mike for going out and trying stuff different.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it don’t, but, I think it’s a pretty neat thing he’s got going on.”

“I just love this place and racing with the Diaz family,” Barnes said after winning Saturday’s 125-lap race on Friday night.  “Any time they put on a crazy deal like this, I’m obviously going to come out and show love.”

“It obviously helps everyone,” defending Wake County Speedway track champion Clay Jones said.  “Obviously, it helped with the car count.  You’ve got a pretty decent car count.  It’s kind of, there’s a section of guys that run this stuff that it really benefits and helps a lot, and then there’s another section of guys that it doesn’t matter what it costs to race.  I think it’s good, man.  It’s good to see more cars come.”

“It makes it cheap,” Michael Fose said.  “For $450, you can’t go anywhere else and run that cheap.  That definitely helps out a lot.  It’s basically like paying five grand to win when it only costs you that much to run, so I’m happy to see them do that and hopefully more cars will come and they continue to do that.”

“That’s what brought us here today,” two-time reigning Coastal Plains Raceway track champion Paul Williamson stated.  “We’ve been running Wake County and that’s about the cheapest track to run.  They came out with this and I told dad, I said this is honestly a good deal, and I said lets go try it out.”

“Congratulations to Mike and Mason, the whole Diaz family,” McCaskill reiterated after the race.  “They got a really cool thing going down here.  Good car and good car turnout.  It kind of reminded me of old times down here.”

Diaz, who was nursing a neck injury sustained two weeks prior, also praised his staff after the race for the efforts to get the entire race completed in spite of five different stoppages due to rain.

Southern National Motorsports Park will return to action on Saturday, October 4 with the second race in the Road to the Thanksgiving Classic.