Lowder Leads the Way to CPLMS Season-Opening Win

Josh Lowder loves Southern National Motorsports Park. Anyone who saw the Carolina Pro Late Model Series' 2022 season opener on Saturday now knows why.

Lowder charged to the front in the 100-lap race at the Lucama, North Carolina facility, leading the final 55 laps to score the victory.

“I love this race track. It fits into the way I like to drive a car," said Lowder in victory lane. "It’s high-banked and fast. The key here is to keep forward drive coming off, and we found something to help with that. It showed tonight.”

Lowder first took the lead from Clint King on lap 35, but King reclaimed the top spot on a restart just a few laps later. Lowder moved back into the top spot on lap 45, that time for good.

“I knew Clint was good. I followed him for a while and I knew his car was stout," said Lowder. "He just blew by me on that restart. It got me a little worried, but I knew we had plenty of time. He got a little free off, and I was able to get by him.”

King ultimately finished in second, a success for him and his team in their car's first time on track. Now, they can bring the car back to the shop and work on improving it moving forward in the season.

“That’s a brand-new car for us, so we’re glad it ran 100 laps and nothing fell off of it," said King. "It had some good speed, too, we led some laps. We were better on the initial fire-off than Josh was, but as the run went along, he’d peak and get by us. After 30 laps, we’d equalize, but he’d be up there and we’d be back here.”

Back in November, Mason Maggio finished third in the Carolina Pro Late Model Series' portion of the Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National. The Florida driver backed that up with another third-place finish Saturday, but had to do so from the 10th starting spot after disappointment in qualifying.

“It was interesting. It was just a patience game, really, waiting for the laps to wind down and work our way towards the front of the field. We had an incident in qualifying, but heck of a rebound to go from 10th to third.”

Carolina Pro Late Model Series at Southern National
Unofficial Results

1. Josh Lowder
2. Clint King
3. Mason Maggio
4. Toby Grynewicz
5. Katie Hettinger
6. Josh Van Winkle
7. Jasec Holladay
8. Kevin Campbell
9. Caleb Johnson
10. Ruben Caceres
11. Caleb Costner
12. E.J. Tamayo
13. Amber Lynn
14. David Thomas
15. Jacob Perry
16. Ryan Mathews
17. J.R. Weidman