Update: McKee disqualified after the race for failure to make minimum weight
Matt Cox has wanted this one for a long time.
On Saturday afternoon, he claimed a big win in the Icebreaker 125 at Florence Motor Speedway against a stout field of Late Model Stocks, that also served as the debut event for the Ultra Racing Association and its I-95 Showdown championship shared with Southern National Motorsports Park.
The victory was a clinic from the veteran racer who knows Florence as well as anyone in the discipline, allowing young Tristan McKee to take the lead from him early while saving his tires until a restart with 41 to go.
Back out in front, Cox maintained a steady gap of around two seconds over McKee and finally got a marquee race win at his de facto home track with Elliott McCumbee Racing.
“This feels good,” Cox said. “We’ve had such good race cars here and just bad luck in the 400 the past couple of years. We worked hard over the winter and that’s one of the best race cars I’ve ever had here. I couldn’t do it without all the help and Robert (Elliott) gives us everything we need; great engines and cars. Chad (McCumbee) for all his set-up help. He had this thing on fire. My brother. Jamie Curtis. Jamie Godwin. I’m leaving people out but I couldn’t do this without everyone.”
It’s frustrated him in recent years because the No. 51 has been fast in the two big races at the track like the Icebreaker and the South Carolina 400.
“We have a shot anytime we unload and it’s a testament to this team and we’ve won some races here,” Cox said. “But this is one of the elite races of the year and kicks off the Late Model Stock season. This one means a lot because there’s a lot of big names that won it and now mine will be on it.”
For his part, McKee thought he actually would have got Cox back now driving for Matt Piercy Racing with support from Spire Motorsports.
“Good first race driving for the new team with Matt Piercy,” McKee said. “Matt fired off good on that last restart and I think I started to reel him back in on the long run but he had good fire off speed. Our long run speed was good. He caught some lap traffic but I thought we were better than him so in 10 more laps, I would have got him.”
Caden Kvapil rounded out the podium making an increasingly more routine appearance driving for JR Motorsports.
“We started pretty far back (18th) and made it to 10th and started to save, felt something weird, and fell back and it was obvious we had a flat,” Kvapil said. “Started at the back again but got lucky with that big crash and got some spots back and just had a really good car. It handled better than most.
“It was really good. I just wish we could have gotten through traffic easier and maybe had a chance at the win.”
This is the crash Kvapil referenced, a stack up that started inside the top-5 between JR Motorsports’ Connor Hall and Lee Pulliam Performance’s Doug Barnes Jr.
It collected Zack Miracle and Carson Loftin, with Lavar Scott also collecting damage. Everyone else had to scatter to avoid it.
The next race as part of the I-95 Showdown is Southern Nationals first Speedweek race on Wednesday March 12. Every race in the series airs on the Ultra Broadcasting platform.
Icebreaker 125 X Florence Motor Speedway February 8 2025
Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.
