One of the most successful drivers in the history of Southern National has been Deac McCaskill.
A four-time track champion, McCaskill put together a vintage performance in a brand new black and white livery for the 2023 season. After conserving his tires, McCaskill took the lead from Ryan Millington on a late restart and never looked back to claim his 10th career CARS LMSC Tour victory.
“This is awesome,” McCaskill said. “I’m 45 years old, so being able to run with these kids is really special. There are a lot of great teams up and down pit road, but we have great help on our side. It was one of those days where everything worked out good for us.”
McCaskill is no stranger to efficient runs at Southern National in the CARS Tour.
During the inaugural LMSC Tour race at the facility in 2015, McCaskill dominated the entire evening before he was passed for the win by Todd Gilliland with three laps remaining. McCaskill brushed off that frustration a couple of months later by leading every single lap at Southern National for his first win in the series.
Only one more of McCaskill’s LMSC Tour victories had occurred at Southern National prior to his triumph in Saturday’s Puryear Tank Lines 125, but the seasoned veteran was determined to show a stacked field of 32 cars that he could still hang with the best at the .400-mile oval in Lucama, North Carolina.
McCaskill is optimistic his win at Southern National will give him some momentum as he pursues a second LMSC Tour title but expects the next event at Florence Motor Speedway to be more of a challenge given his relative inexperience at the facility.
“Florence is not one of my best tracks,” McCaskill said. “I’m going to have a lot of pressure on me after winning [at Southern National], but hopefully we can pull another win off or at least have a good run. We’re a lot better than I was when we went down there a couple of years ago, so I’m excited to see what we got.”
Meanwhile, defending series champion Carson Kvapil opened his follow-up campaign with a second-place finish from the pole.
“I’m happy with how we ran,” Kvapil said. “I honestly thought we were a little better than Deac [McCaskill] at the end, but couldn’t get around [Ryan Millington] fast enough and couldn’t work lapped traffic like he could. We were just looking to have a good run and kick off the season with some confidence, which we did.”
Kvapil intentionally let both Millington and McCaskill pass him in the opening stages of the race to specifically save tires and get himself in an ideal situation on restarts.
Without the assistance of a second groove up top, Kvapil did everything possible to keep his car glued to the bottom to maintain solid track position. He managed to climb back into the second position but ultimately ran out of laps to challenge McCaskill for the win.
Although he would have preferred a victory, Kvapil emphasized the importance of a strong points day in a field that consists of nearly 20 full-time entries. He added every single mistake is going to prove costly, but trusts himself and JR Motorsports to put together plenty of full weekends just like they did in 2022.
“It’s going to be about having days like this,” Kvapil said. “I got an extra point for winning the pole and leading a lap. You can’t have any races where you wreck out, so you’ve got to have consistent good finishes. If you can do that, it’ll show at the end of the year.”
CARS Tour Puryear Tank Lines 125
Southern National Motorsports Park
March 11 2023
- 08 Deac McCaskill
- 8 Carson Kvapil
- 10 Kaden Honeycutt
- 77 Connor Hall
- 15 Ryan Millington
- 95 Jacob Heafner
- 03 Brenden Queen
- 24 Mason Diaz
- 8B Chase Burrow
- 6 Bobby McCarty
- 16 Chad McCumbee
- 14 Jared Fryar
- 1 Andrew Grady
- 2 Brandon Pierce
- 0 Landon Pembelton
- 04 Ronnie Bassett Jr.
- 8F Tate Fogleman
- 67 Cameron Bolin -1
- 22 Cale Gale -1
- 32 Zack Miracle -1
- 4F Jonathan Findley -1
- 81 Mini Tyrrell -1
- 4 Dylon Wilson -1
- 59 Blake Lothian -1
- 42 Carson Brown -1
- 97A Jason Kitzmiller -1
- 20 Joshua Dickens -1
- 00 Jody Measamer -2
- 2W Ryan Wilson – OUT
- 55 Isabella Robusto – OUT
- 29 Brian Obiedzenski – OUT
- 19 Jessica Cann – OUT
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