Tristan McKee wins at Watkins Glen in his ARCA Menards Series debut
Photo by ARCA Racing photo
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.—Last Sunday, Tristan McKee was a dozen laps away from a $50,000 payday at North Carolina’s Hickory Motor Speedway.
On his 15th birthday, McKee had dreams of a marquee Late Model Stock Car victory. But fate — specifically, a crash after a late restart — had different plans for the driver from Kannapolis, North Carolina.
“That was a tough one after leading 115 laps for $50,000 only to get into a wreck there at the end, but you’ve just got to put that past you and move on to what’s next,” McKee said. “I quickly moved on past that and got right back to the office.”
Fate, as it turned out, had something different in store for McKee just five days later.
McKee, driving the No. 77 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports, capitalized on Brent Crews’ mechanical misfortune to win Friday’s General Tire 100 at the Glen in his ARCA Menards Series debut.
The victory, the first for the Spire Motorsports team in ARCA competition, made McKee the second youngest driver to win an ARCA Menards Series event at 15 years and five days old.
“We got a little lucky there obviously with Brent having issues,” McKee said. “I was prepared really well coming into this race with the sim stuff and pre-race from Josh Wise and Scott Speed. I got up to speed really quickly.
“To win in my debut is one thing, but to win in general is another. A lot of guys have never won in the ARCA series, and they’ve been doing it a long time. It just goes back to everyone who has helped me get here.”
The road to Friday has been long and extensive for McKee, who has been racing Late Models at tracks across the Southeast since 2022.
During that time, he accumulated wins at some of the region’s most recognizable and historic tracks, including North Wilkesboro Speedway, Hickory, Caraway Speedway, Orange County Speedway, Dillon Motor Speedway and Cordele Motor Speedway.
Only in the last year has McKee added road racing to his repertoire. He signed a developmental deal with Spire earlier this year, and within a few months, he scored his first Trans Am Series TA2 class victory at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, becoming the second youngest winner in Trans Am history (14 years, 10 months, 19 days).
He added a second Trans Am win last month at Watkins Glen, giving him valuable experience as he prepared to make his ARCA debut at the same track.
“I was pretty well prepared. We run a little bit different of a track, because (in Trans Am), we run the boot,” McKee said. “I knew where I was going when I got here. I just kind of knew the track a little bit, so that takes a little bit out of the learning part out of practice.”
Ironically, the record holder for youngest Trans Am winner is the aforementioned Crews, who appeared on his way to a comfortable victory during Friday at Watkins Glen before disaster struck.
Crews qualified on the General Tire Pole aboard the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, and he had the fastest car throughout Friday’s race. He held a comfortable lead when a caution with six laps left for a crash involving Jason Kitzmiller changed everything.
While circulating under caution, a voltage issue caused Crews’ car to suddenly crawl to a stop. That handed the lead to McKee, who had spent most of the race engaged in a battle with Tyler Reif over the runner-up position.
“I got around Tyler there near the end of the first stage, and I was running second when we came to the break,” McKee said. “I didn’t get a great restart during the second stage there, and Tyler got back by me. I had to work on him for a couple laps, and I ended up getting back by him again.
“My car was a little free, so I was just trying to maintain in case we had a caution at the end like we did. I think we would have been just fine even if we had to start next to Brent, because I was just maintaining my pace and saving my tires a little bit for the end.”
With a one-lap dash to the checkered flag on the offer, things nearly went wrong again for McKee. Coming out of Turn 13 down the frontstretch during the restart, McKee and Reif both made contact with the outside wall.
The contact damaged the left side of McKee’s car, and smoke quickly billowed from his left-rear tire. But he kept his foot in the gas and stayed in front of Kris Wright, who had moved past Reif to take second shortly after the restart.
“I was just trying to be as aggressive as I possibly could,” McKee said. “Restarts are super, super important. I had gotten clear of (Reif), and I got a little loose and got into the wall. I definitely had some tire smoke going down into Turn 1 and up the esses.”
Despite the damage, McKee maintained his pace and crossed the finish line 1.127 seconds ahead of Reif, who narrowly slipped past Wright at the line to finish second. Glen Reen scored a career-best fourth-place finish ahead of Dale Quarterley in fifth.
With a win in ARCA competition now in the bank, McKee’s focus shifts back to his busy schedule of Late Model and Trans Am racing that will keep him busy for the rest of the season.
He’ll be back in ARCA competition when the West Series field wraps up the 2025 season at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 1. If things go according to plan, he’ll be a threat to win that race, too.
“I’ve already started to do some of my sim work (for Phoenix),” McKee said. “Phoenix is a really fun track as far as the sim stuff goes. I’ve never driven it in real life, obviously, but I’m looking forward to that. There are multiple different grooves. There is definitely a lot of dirty air and stuff like that with the ARCA cars there.
“I feel like I’ll be really well prepared coming into that race.”
The ARCA Menards is back in action Sunday, Aug. 17 with the running of Springfield ARCA 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Illinois. FS1 will provide live coverage at 1 p.m. CT / 2 p.m. ET.
RACE RESULTS
Pos. No. Name Sponsor Laps Diff.
1 77 Tristan McKee* Gainbridge Chevrolet 41 –
2 23 Tyler Reif Vegas Fastener/Sigma Performance Services Chevrolet 41 1.127
3 15 Kris Wright VMS Toyota 41 1.246
4 71 Glen Reen* New Wave Home Chevrolet 41 1.607
5 4 Dale Quarterley Van Dyk Recycling Solutions Chevrolet 41 1.95
6 29 Ryan Gemmell* Multibuilding Inc/TC3 Turf Toyota 41 2.225
7 73 Andy Jankowiak KLAS Motorsports Chevrolet 41 2.522
8 55 Isabella Robusto* Mobil 1 Toyota 41 3.144
9 18 Brent Crews* JBL Toyota 41 15.204
10 6 Lavar Scott Max Siegel Inc Chevrolet 40 1 Lap
11 25 Alon Day* JSSI Toyota 40 1 Lap
12 20 Lawless Alan AUTOParkIt Toyota 40 1 Lap
13 12 Trent Curtis* Midas of Geneva Chevrolet 39 2 Laps
14 86 Casey Carden Clubb Racing Ford 38 3 Laps
15 70 Thad Moffitt LEER Toyota 35 6 Laps
16 3 Alex Clubb Race Parts Liquidators Ford 35 6 Laps
17 97 Jason Kitzmiller A.L.L. Construction/Carter Cat Chevrolet 34 7 Laps
18 99 Michael Maples DonRay Petroleum/Maples Motorsports Chevrolet 34 7 Laps
19 72 Chris Werth* Kim’s Quliting Corner Chevrolet 30 11 Laps
20 11 Matt Wilson* Jasons Pro Detail/K1Speed Rogers Toyota 29 12 Laps
21 28 Brenden Queen* Pinnacle Racing Group Chevrolet 22 19 Laps
22 10 Ed Pompa HY-TORC of NY/Double H Ranch Toyota 20 21 Laps
23 6 Brayton Laster* OC-Cages.com Chevrolet 15 26 Laps
24 67 Shane Backes* International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Chevrolet 13 28 Laps
25 9 Trevor Ward* FastTrackRacing.com Toyota 5 36 Laps
26 34 Corey Aiken* Connors Brothers Industries LLC Ford 2 39 Laps
27 48 Brad Smith Gary’s Speed Shop Ford 1 40 Laps
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