Mason Diaz Looking to Gain Experience, Run Full K&N East Season

Balancing schoolwork and budding racing career is becoming a norm in the lower levels of NASCAR, specifically the K&N Pro Series.

Mason Diaz is no different, as the 18-year-old Manassas, Virginia native concentrates on textbooks and exams during the week at Old Dominion University and on a steering wheel and helmet on the weekends.

Like anything, balancing the two commitments can be difficult at times. But Diaz has developed solid relationships with his professors at ODU who are aware of his engagements on the weekends and plans ahead.

“The hardest part about it is knowing my schedule,” he said. “I have no Friday classes, so I can leave Thursday night to get to the track Friday for a practice session and be good to go. My teachers are working with me. If I do have to miss a day, like when I missed the Monday at New Smyrna, as long as I get my schoolwork done before I go to the track for a weekend, I‘ll be fine. I can stay up until 1 or 2 a.m. to finish my stuff so I can race.”

Diaz will be spending much more time at the track this year, as him and MAD Motorsports are attempting to run a full 2019 K&N Pro Series East slate. It all kicked off at New Smyrna Speedway, a Florida venue in which Diaz has much experience at, winning in late models multiple times.

“My teams very first start was at New Smyrna,” he said. “Mike Darne is our crew chief and he‘s new to it all, but he‘s been around it his whole life. We have a new car chief named Danny Johnson. He‘s been around K&N for a few years, been a crew chief for Bassett Racing and a few places. He‘s been strong help with growing our program. He knows what to do more than anyone else on the team. He‘s been a big help.”

Diaz and the No. 24 team left the half-mile with a 14th-place finish. But the box score isn’t indicative of the opening weekend as a whole, according to Diaz.

Nothing like going into the last race restart sitting 6th and having a winning car. We tried playing the cards and making the race on one tank of gas. On to the next race of the season! Thanks to my guys and sponsors for everything! #24in19 #KNEast

— Mason Diaz (@masondiazracing) February 12, 2019

“I think the weekend overall went really well,” he said. “There were some minor issues throughout the team that will only be resolved by getting more experience. So far in my career for NASCAR, I‘m pretty sure I‘ve missed two of three rookie meetings. Minor things like that. Going towards NASCAR and away from short track staff, it‘s a lot more time commitment, a lot more meetings, a lot more business like. You have to be there, they won’t wait for you. Short tracks will wait for you. They aren‘t so time oriented. We have to really be on our game more so. It‘s a lot different than short tracks.”

Adjusting to different situations has been Diaz’s speciality. From late models to NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Trucks and NASCAR Xfinity Series, he has starts in a plethora of divisions. In his only NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series start, he came home 22nd at Martinsville. However, his NASCAR Xfinity Series start at Richmond (finished 19th) will be the one he can take into his K&N starts this season.

Racing-Reference: Mason Diaz Career Statistics

“That one was really close in body style to K&N cars,” he said. “That helps with knowing the aero going into the corner, how important the aero is compared to a truck at the short track. Braking points, with an Xfinity car, so much more horsepower going into the corners, understanding the weight is so high so you have to let off early. Understanding throughout the race what you have to do to your car, what you have to do throughout the race to save tires to be able to be there at the end of the race.”

Diaz knows he’s up against some steep competition this season with defending champions DGR Crosley and veterans such as Spencer Davis and Brandon McReynolds in the field, not to mention fellow rookies Max McLaughlin and Sam Mayer in top tier equipment too. His season won’t be defined by results, but rather by acquired knowledge.

“This is really a year for me to gain experience,” he said. “Moving on, I want to go and perform well. I think we can as a team. We‘ve had two races so far as a team. The New Smyrna late model and K&N race and we had bad luck in both of them. Moving forward, our performance will be shown by our finishing places. We were running top five at New Smyrna, ran out of gas, bad luck. We would‘ve came in second place in the CARS Tour race got dumped. I just want to perform well as a team.”

Diaz has been to Bristol Motor Speedway before and knows what it takes to run well on the “World’s Fastest Half Mile.” But doing so in a K&N Pro Series car is a whole different animal.

“We only have one 45-minute round of practice,” he said. “That‘ll be the challenging part, me getting to the track and really understanding it, getting comfortable with it in 45 minutes which is really tough to do. Based on prior years, there‘s going to be a lot of cars going on and off the track so we just have to make sure we get a clean track for those 45 minutes.”

Diaz and company will look to gain more success wit at Bristol on April 6 in the Zombie Auto 150, the second event of the 2019 season.