Max Reaves capped off a dominant run by outdueling a series of late-race competitions through a 10-lap shootout to win the Sunbelt Rentals 150 at Flat Rock Speedway in Ash Township, Michigan, on Saturday, August 1.
The 16-year-old Reaves from Trinity, North Carolina, motored his way from qualifying in third place to assume the lead for the first time on Lap 14. Leading three times for a race-high 130 of 150-scheduled laps, Reaves was challenged by championship rival Tristan McKee and Isaac Kitzmiller at the start of a 10-lap shootout, where the latter two took brief turns upfront amid on-track contacts and hard duels with Reaves. Amid the battles, Reaves prevailed by assuming the lead for good for the final time with seven laps remaining and muscling away to both add another victory to his ARCA Menards Series East column this season and maintain his lead in the championship battle.
With on-track qualifying that occurred on Saturday, August 1, Carson Brown qualified on the pole position with a pole-winning lap at 75.326 mph in 11.948 seconds. Tristan McKee started on the front row with the second-fastest lap at 74.3 mph in 12.113 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Carson Brown dueled with Tristan McKee for nearly a full lap before the former motored ahead through Turns 3 and 4. As Brown led the first lap, title contenders Max Reaves and McKee battled dead even for the runner-up spot in front of Isaac Kitzmiller while the rest of the 21-car field trailed behind.
By the fifth lap mark, the leaders caught the tail end of the field and started to lap the competitors racing at the rear. Amid the lapped traffic, Brown, who was getting intimidated and bumped by Reaves through the turns, maintained his early, steady advantage. Then on Lap 14, Reaves seized an opportunity through Turns 3 and 4 by going beneath Brown and dueling alongside the latter through the frontstretch. After leading his first lap on Lap 14, Reaves motored his No. 18 Cook Out Toyota Camry entry ahead of Brown through the first two turns. While Reaves had both lanes under his control with the lead, McKee followed suit in the runner-up spot while Brown slipped to third place in front of Kitzmiller.
On Lap 40, the event’s first caution flew due to Jeff Maczink spinning through the first two turns. Maczink’s incident occurred as he was racing beneath Toby Blanton through the frontstretch and briefly drove through the grass while kicking up some dirt in the process before he then came back across the racing surface and spun. The incident occurred in front of the leaders, led by Reaves.
As the event resumed on Lap 52, McKee launched ahead of Reaves from the outside lane, and he spent the following lap gaining a slight advantage over Reaves from his lane before he motored ahead and moved in front of Reaves through the backstretch. Reaves, though, would reassume the lead just past the Lap 55 mark. Despite getting hit and nearly turned by the lapped competitor of Alex Malycke through the first two turns, Reaves maintained his steady advantage over McKee.
At the event’s halfway mark on Lap 75, Reaves continued to lead ahead of McKee, Kitzmiller, Matt Kemp and Quinn Davis while Brown, Jackson McLerran, Esteban Rodriguez, Austin Vaughn and Craig Pellegrini Jr. were in the top 10 ahead of Blaine Donahue, Brian Barbarow, Maczink, Alex Clubb, Rita Goulet, Nate Moeller, Alex Malycke, Toby Blanton, Dan Boys and Michael Clayton, respectively.
Down to the final 60 laps, Reaves, who was leading by nearly half of the circuit and was mired in lapped traffic, retained the lead over McKee. Reaves proceeded to lead the next 10 laps over McKee while Kitzmiller, Kemp and Davis remained in the top five, respectively. Seconds later, Brown pitted and had both the hood and rear cover of his No. 28 Grizzly Coolers Chevrolet SS entry lifted up due to a fuel pump issue. With Brown out of contention, Reaves continued to lead until the caution flew with 46 laps remaining due to Jeff MacZink getting loose and spinning through the first two turns for a second time of the event.
The next restart with 38 laps remaining featured Reaves motoring away from McKee and the field from the inside lane. As Reaves led, Kitzmiller challenged McKee for the runner-up spot through half of the circuit. Despite contact ensuing, McKee fended off Kitzmiller for the runner-up spot. While Kemp and Davis trailed in the top five, Reaves extended his late advantage. Despite catching up to the tail end of the field, he maintained a steady gap both with 30 laps remaining and with 20 laps remaining. The caution then flew with 17 laps remaining due to MacZink and Blaine Donahue spinning simultaneously amid contact through the first two turns. This marked MacZink’s third incident of the event, all of which occurred through the first two turns.
For the restart that followed with 10 laps remaining, Reaves led through the first two turns while McKee drove right to the rear bumper of McKee. With McKee glued to the rear of Reaves through the backstretch, he then got Reaves loose entering the third turn. This allowed McKee to muscle ahead and lead the next lap, where McKee used the inside lane to motor ahead of Reaves. McKee maintained his steady lead over a side-by-side duel between Reaves and Kitzmiller through the backstretch before Reaves ran into the rear of McKee. This caused McKee to slide sideways entering the third turn and allowed Kitzmiller to storm to the lead with eight laps remaining.
Through Turns 3 and 4, Reaves bumped and moved Kitzmiller up the track. As the latter led the following lap (7 to go), Reaves got beneath Kitzmiller through the first two turns and returned atop the leaderboard. Kitzmiller then spent the next two laps making contact with Reaves and tried to get beneath him to motor ahead through the turns and straightaways, but Reaves motored ahead with five laps remaining as McKee bumped, got beneath and overtook Kitzmiller for the runner-up spot.
For the event’s remainder, final five laps, Reaves maintained a steady gap over McKee and cycled back to the frontstretch amid lapped traffic to achieve his second ARCA Menards Series East victory of the 2026 season, his fourth between the ARCA Menards Series & ARCA Menards Series East divisions and his second in a row at Flat Rock Speedway.
“My guys brought me such a good car, so we had to win this one,” Reaves said on FloRacing. “[I] Wanted to back it up from last year. There was a lot of good competition here this year. They all ran a good race, so I just gotta thank all my guys. This Cook Out Camry was so fast. I gotta thank Coach [Joe] Gibbs for the opportunity…I like this track. I’m learning to like it a lot, so I like these little tracks like this.”
With the victory, Reaves slightly extended his lead in the ARCA Menards Series East driver’s standings from three to seven over Tristan McKee. As the series looks ahead to its final two scheduled events of this season at Iowa Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway, respectively, Reaves is not yet ready to crown himself a champion until the season’s conclusion.
“It’s never over till it’s over,” Reaves said. “I don’t want to say anything yet, but I’m very confident in me and my guys, so we’ll see.”
Tristan McKee, who led five laps at Flat Rock and led the series’ standings prior to last weekend’s event at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, settled in second place for his fifth top-five result of this season. Isaac Kitzmiller, the reigning ARCA Menards Series East champion who led two laps at Flat Rock, finished in third place for his fifth top-five result of this season. The latter is 14 points behind the series’ lead.
Matt Kemp and Quinn Davis finished in the top five. Esteban Rodriguez, Austin Vaughn, Jackson McLerran, Craig Pellegrini Jr. and Blaine Donahue completed the top 10 on the track. Meanwhile, Carson Brown, the pole winner who led the first 13 laps, ended up in 18th place.
The 2026 Sunbelt Rentals 150 at Flat Rock Speedway generated six lead changes for four different leaders, three cautions for 29 laps and four of 21 starters finishing on the lead lap.
Results
- Max Reaves, 130 laps led
- Tristan McKee, five laps led
- Isaac Kitzmiller, two laps led
- Matt Kemp
- Quinn Davis, one lap down
- Esteban Rodriguez, two laps down
- Austin Vaughn, three laps down
- Jackson McLerran, four laps down
- Craig Pellegrini Jr., four laps down
- Blaine Donahue, four laps down
- Brian Barbarow, five laps down
- Jeff MacZink, six laps down
- Alex Clubb, eight laps down
- Nate Moeller, 12 laps down
- Rita Goulet, 12 laps down
- Alex Malycke, 15 laps down
- Toby Blanton, 19 laps down
- Carson Brown, 27 laps down
- Dan Boys, 110 laps down
- Michael Clayton, 119 laps down
The 2026 ARCA Menards Series East season resumes next Friday, August 7, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, for the JR&CO 150, which will also be a combined event with the ARCA Menards Series. The event’s broadcast time is slated to commence at 7 p.m. ET on FS1.
