- Tristan McKee (No. 77 Tibbett’s Lumber Co. Chevrolet) stole the lead from Landon Huffman (No. 9 Hoosier Daddy / Hoosier Momma Chevrolet) who in turn stole the lead from Max Reaves (No. 18 Cook Out Toyota) with 14 laps to go and held on through a hectic restart with just six laps to go to win Saturday’s ARCA Menards East Cook Out 200 at Hickory Motor Speedway.
- The victory is McKee’s first ARCA Menards East win in his second series start; he finished second at Bristol Motor Speedway in his East debut last September.
- Reaves finished second after starting from the Sioux Chief PowerPEX Pole and leading the first 184 laps. For Reaves it’s the first time in his ARCA Menards East career he had won; he won his first three career starts last year at Five Flags Speedway, Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, and Flat Rock Speedway.
- Reigning ARCA Menards East champion Isaac Kitzmiller (No. 79 A.L.L. Construction / Carter CAT Chevrolet) avoided all the late-race fender banging and finished third, his best career series finish.
- Derek Kneeland (No. 28 A&D Welding / Kryptoquiet Marine Bearings Chevrolet), the full-time spotter for Austin Hill in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Kyle Busch in the NASCAR Cup Series, started on the front row but spun the tires on the initial start and dropped outside the top five but battled to rejoin the top five throughout the night; he finished fourth in his East debut.
- Nitro Motorsports team co-owner Nick Tucker (No. 70 Nitro Motorsports Toyota) recovered from a spin battling for a position in the top five to finish fifth.
- Huffman, son of two-time Hickory Motor Speedway champion Shane Huffman and himself a four-time Late Model Stock Car winner at Hickory, recovered from a spin while battling for the lead on lap 189 to finish sixth.
- Dystany Spurlock (No. 66 Foxxtecca Chevrolet) made history by becoming the first Black female to ever start an ARCA Menards Series platform race; driving for Carl Long’s MBM Motorsports team, Spurlock stayed out of trouble all night long to finish seventh, the final car on the lead lap.
- Jackson McLerran (No. 95 JSJ Construction Toyota) finished eighth; LcLerran and the MAN Motorsports team honored PFC Luther Rhodes, who was killed in action in the Battle of Guadalcanal in October, 1942. His remains were identified by a DNA test in 2025 and he was returned to North Carolina where he was buried near his family on the afternoon of the Hickory race.
- Carig Pellegrini, Jr. (No. 10 Let’s Be Frank Toyota) finished ninth in his ARCA Menards East debut.
- Reigning ARCA Menards East Bounty Rookie of the Year Austin Vaughn (No. 19 The Air Compressor Depot Ford) finished tenth in his first start for Michael Maples Motorsports.
- George Siciliano (No. 0 Heat Wave Visuals Ford), know to his fans on the Cleetus McFarland YouTube channel as “Squirrel McNutt” finished 13th in his professional stock car debut.
- The race was slowed 9 times for 56 laps; McKee’s winning average speed was 56.396 miles per hour. The margin of victory was 0.500 seconds.
- There were three lead changes among three drivers; Reaves led laps 1-185, Huffman led lap 186, Reaves led lap 187, and McKee led laps 188-200.
- The next race for the ARCA Menards East is the ARCA East Rockingham 125 at Rockingham Speedway at 11:30 am ET on Saturday, April 4. The race will be streamed live on FloRacing and simulcast on The NASCAR Channel. ARCARacing.com will have live timing & scoring data for all on-track activity.
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About ARCA
The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), founded in 1953 by John and Mildred Marcum in Toledo, Ohio, and acquired by NASCAR in April 2018, is the leading grassroots stock car sanctioning body in the United States. Bridging the gap between NASCAR’s top three national touring series and weekly and regional tour racing all across the country, the organization to sanctions over 100 races per year in the ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series East, ARCA Menards Series West, ASA STARS National Tour, ASA CRA Super Series, ASA Midwest Tour, ASA Southern Super Series plus weekly racing at Toledo and Flat Rock Speedways. For more information about ARCA visit , or follow ARCA on Facebook (@ARCARacing) and Twitter (@ARCA_Racing).
About Menards
A family-owned and run company started in 1958, Menards is recognized as the retail home center leader of the Midwest with 236 stores in 15 states. Menards is truly a one-stop shop for all of your home improvement needs featuring a full-service lumberyard and everything you need to plan a renovation or build a home, garage, cabin, shed, deck, fence or post frame building. You’ll find a large selection of lumber, roofing, siding, construction blocks, trusses, doors and windows, plus cabinets, appliances, countertops, flooring, lighting, paint, plumbing supplies and more. To complete the job, Menards has quality hand tools, power tools, fasteners, electrical tools plus storage options and supplies for everyone from the weekend warrior to the pro!
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