LUCAMA, NC – While Matt Cox came up short in his bid to win the Thanksgiving Classic, he did achieve his primary goal of clinching the I-95 Showdown championship at Southern National Motorsports Park on Sunday evening.
The I-95 Showdown is a joint series between Florence Motor Speedway in South Carolina and Southern National Motorsports Park and consisted of select Ultra Racing Association (URA) Late Model Stock Car events at each track. The final round of the series culminated with the South Carolina 400, which was run on November 22, and Sunday’s Thanksgiving Classic.
Cox’s 10th place finish was enough to secure the I-95 Showdown title, which paid $7,500.
“It was a good fortune,” Cox said. “We came here to try to win this, and you know, just two kind of bad weekends for us, unfortunately. You know, we got spun last weekend battling up front and got spun just tonight battling up front for the race. It’s just, it’s part of racing. Everybody’s just tight and just small holes trying to fill, and things happen.
“We accomplished what we came to accomplish, which was try to win the I-95 Showdown. That was our main goal and we were able to accomplish that.”
With the 2025 season now in the rear view mirror, Cox will now turn his attention to the 2026 season at Florence Motor Speedway and Southern National Motorsports Park.
“We’ll take it and move on down the road, try to get ready for next year. Just got to thank everybody for putting it on and everybody that helps us. We’ll try to get better. I thought we had this place figured out a little bit and we’re better, but we got to get a little better here than we are, so we’ll keep working at it and work on it this offseason and try to get better for next year.”
Cox said the $7,500 his team won will likely go back into the racecar to get better for next season.
Doug Barnes, Jr., who won the Thanksgiving Classic, finished second in the I-95 Showdown while Andrew Grady placed third.
Southern National Motorsports Park track owner Michael Diaz and Florence Motor Speedway track owner Steve Zacharias, who worked together to form the URA and the I-95 Showdown, both said the program would likely be renewed for the 2026 racing season. Along with Florence, Zacharias is also the promoter for Coastal Plains Raceway in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
