Behind the scenes: Southern National Motorsports Park in photos

Southern National Motorsports Park, a 0.4-mile oval located in Lucama, North Carolina, features a blend of characteristics that typically creates exciting racing, starting with the 17-degree banking in the corners that produces sustained high speeds. And the entirety of the oval is wide enough to promote advantageous side-by-side racing.

June 12, 2021 marked the first time Southern National Motorsports Park hosted the ARCA Menards Series East, a NASCAR touring division. But multiple stock-car racing greats have competed on the half-mile oval located between Raleigh and Greenville.

The venue opened as a weekly track in 1993. Five years later, Southern National joined the NASCAR world as a member track in what is now the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series.

Scott Riggs won the track’s first two championships in the Late Model Stock Car division in 1993 and 1994 before he went on to compete in all three of NASCAR’s national series.

In 1997, a young driver by the name of Jimmie Johnson ran his first race in a stock car at Southern National. He of course went on to win seven NASCAR Cup Series championships.

Current Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin also is a Southern National alum; he won the 2003 track championship a year before he started racing in NASCAR’s national series. Hamlin also won Southern National’s Thanksgiving Classic in 2003 and 2007. Other notables who have competed on a weekly basis at Southern National include Jamey Caudill, Joey Coulter, Brandon Brown, Tommy Lemons Jr., Brandon Setzer, Kate Dallenbach, Steven Wallace and Harrison Burton.

Southern National Motorsports Park closed in 2008, but in 2011, current owners Michael Diaz and Jerry Brown purchased the track and reopened it the next year under the NASCAR banner.