Chip Ganassi Racing No. 1 team crew chief Matt McCall traded in the pit box for a late model on Sunday night, winning the Late Model Stock Cars Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National Motorsports Park.
After getting caught up in a multicar incident toward the midway point of the 200-lap event, McCall worked his way up from the rear of the field, passing Deac McCaskill with three laps to go to take the victory in the 18th annual event at the Lucama, North Carolina, track.
RELATED: McMurray out of the No. 1 car | Busch’s 2019 contract still in limbo
“Win, win, win, win, that’s the mentality,” McCall said after the race, according to a Short Track Scene report. “It doesn’t matter if I only race once a year, I’m still coming to win. That was the whole objective. It’s fun, especially when you don’t get to race much and I’m trying to keep a streak of winning a race a year for a long time so that’s really when I show back up one time, try to keep that streak going because it’s my only opportunity to do that.”
The win was McCall’s second consecutive Thanksgiving Classic triumph. McCall is a veteran in the Late Model Stock Car ranks, working his way up to compete in a handful of NASCAR Xfinity Series, Camping World Truck Series and ARCA Racing Series events from 2003 through 2013. McCall became a full-time crew chief in 2015.
With ongoing speculation that Kurt Busch will drive the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series No. 1 Chevrolet for Ganassi in 2019, McCall said he “doesn’t know anything about that” when asked for comment on the rumor.
MORE: Silly Season updates
McCall has served as McMurray’s crew chief for the past four seasons, but the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway was the pairing’s final race together after it was announced in September that McMurray would not return to the seat in 2019.
As the future for McMurray and the vacant No. 1 car seat remains unknown, McMurray has been offered an administrative role at CGR, as well as a contract to drive in the 2019 Daytona 500.
The post McCall spins and wins second straight Thanksgiving Classic late model race appeared first on Official Site Of NASCAR.