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The Eagerly Awaited Return to Hickory Launches North Carolina SCSCS Swing

Statesville, North Carolina (May 13, 2026) – After more than a decade, the Super Cup Stock Car Series goes back to where it all started.  With expenses escalating across other touring series at the time, a lower-cost option came together and on October 13, 2007, Hickory Motor Speedway was chosen for a 50-lap trophy dash exhibition that was won by local racer Dexter Canipe Jr.

The 2008, 2010, and 2011 season champions were crowned at the historic 0.363-mile oval, but a checkered flag has not flown for the series composed of 3,300-pound, 600 horsepower “Gen 4” style stock cars at the track since then.  That will change this Saturday with a 60-lap main event, the longest race distance since twin races at Dominion in 2022.

Also on the line are double points being awarded, which will be important for the top four in the standings currently separated by only 60 points altogether but also allowing for any who missed both or one of the opening events at Shenandoah and Lonesome Pine to catch up further.

Those expected include the season debut of Ben Ebeling, the winningest driver in SCSCS history whose shop is only a few minutes away in Newton, North Carolina.  The 2021 series champion has participated previously in the annual Bobby Isaac Memorial for Late Models at Hickory as well as in Super Trucks and has past wins in Street Stocks.  Several of Ebeling’s current and past team members will be in their own cars and trucks during the local division features that follow on Saturday evening.

Scheduled to make the longest tow is Michigan’s Richard Hauck, a veteran of the ARCA Racing Series surfacing for the first time since 2023.  “ShoTime” Mike from nearby Denver, North Carolina comes out of “retirement” after his wins at West Virginia’s Ona Speedway in summer 2025 in a new machine to him that will be familiar to short track racing fans of these types of cars from a little earlier in the millennium.

The driver with the most success is a two-time winner already in 2026 and leads the standings coming into this event.  Chrissy Wallace went to the prior two venues without a lap of on-track experience and has not raced a Super Cup car at Hickory, but at this facility she was the first woman to win in a Late Model the number of years ago that matches her current car number – 19.

“Out of the whole schedule Hickory, Tri-County, and Carteret are the three that I’ve been really looking forward to,” the Concord, North Carolina competitor, who could become the second woman to win a SCSCS race at the track after Megan Reitenour made it happen in 2008, indicated.  “We’re going back to the playbooks, working on this motor and car, and hopefully we’ll give it all and win that race there.”

Not only will Chrissy be representing the D2 Motorsports campaign of cars.  Her father Mike Wallace, with more than 800 starts and nine wins across the three NASCAR national series, will make his series debut in the 19w.  The St. Louis, Missouri native was a 1990 Winston Racing Series regional champion and ran six races at Hickory in that decade with what was then the Busch Series.

Another winner this year has not taken a green flag before at the “Birthplace of NASCAR Stars” but, in addition to being on a crew for a friend and fellow racer in weekly competition Zack Wells that has assisted him as well, has been on the Hickory surface at speed back when it was not on the schedule and was permitted to shake down his ride for the first time.

“I’m excited for it,” Damian Payton, who now resides only about an hour out in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, confidently said.  “We tested there at the beginning of last year with this car, so I’m familiar.  I’ve turned a few laps there.  I know it’s got its own characteristics that set it apart from anything else.”

Harvey Harrison is a two-time champion who made his first series start at Hickory during its inaugural season and is looking forward to coming back to the storied venue.

“I’ve had some good luck there and I’ve had some bad nights there too, but that’s a fun track,” the Renick, West Virginia driver with a third-place finish at the facility in 2010 commented.  “It’s got a lot of history to it and we just can’t wait.”

Additional expertise in Harvey’s corner will be his son Brian Harrison, who also has past knowledge navigating the 14-degree banked turns in turns one and two as well as the 12-degree banked third and fourth corners, previously with two top five finishes and winning a “first-time winners” exhibition in 2011 when behind the wheel.

The most recent winner in the series has two prior appearances at Hickory toward the beginning of his longstanding career but is searching for his first top 10 finish there.

“All I remember is coming off turn four you better be pointed toward the flag stand,” Brent Nelson, from Petersburg, West Virginia and ranked second in all-time wins with a total of 26 victories, recalled.  “It’s a rough and bumpy track, wore out, we’re going to be slipping and sliding, and it’ll be fun.”

Running the car that Nelson competed in during those early years will be Hickory first-timer Larry Frame.  Dylan Godinez lives just down the road in Conover, North Carolina and looks to put together an impressive performance following a pair of fifth place showings to begin 2026 at Shenandoah last month with some of his coworkers planned to be in attendance from his day job at Front Row Motorsports in nearby Mooresville.

One more series champion intending to be there is Midland, Virginia’s JJ Pack.  The seven-time winner made his series debut at Hickory in 2010 where he led 45 laps right out of the box and ultimately finished sixth.

The track is available for practice throughout the week by the hour for all competitors and an early optional practice is offered at $100 per car from 10:00 a.m. through 1:00 p.m.

The first of two official practice sessions for the SCSCS is scheduled to take place at 2:30 p.m. with qualifying kicking off for all divisions at 5:00 p.m. and racing beginning at 7:00 p.m.  The 60-lap double points main event will be first on the docket.  Anyone out of town and unable to make the trip, the entire Saturday evening program at Hickory Motor Speedway is streamed live for FloRacing subscribers.

Grandstands open at 4:45 p.m. and spectators will be admitted for $14 with teens, seniors, and military for $12, and kids 12 and under are admitted free.

More information can be found on the Super Cup Stock Car Series official web site supercupstockcarseries.com with interactive updates throughout race days and in between available on Facebook (search Super Cup Stock Car Series), Twitter (@SCSCSRacing), Instagram (SCSCS_Racing), and https://www.youtube.com/SCSCSRacing.

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