Tristan McKee dominated the ARCA Menards Series East 125, winning the race after qualifying on the pole. He led all 125 laps over his teammate, Carson Brown, in what was his second consecutive victory since winning at Hickory.
It was the second race of the ARCA Menards East Series and took place early Saturday morning at Rockingham Speedway as part of a doubleheader day with the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
“(The race) got sketchy a little bit there a few times with the lap cars, some of those guys are all over the place and the closing rates are really fast,” McKee said, “so it was definitely tough to keep my mental state and fight through it all to get through the lap cars,” McKee said in his victory interview.
“It was definitely a lot of fun and this track is awesome. This is my first time here. Totally a lot of fun,” McKee emphasized. “Thanks to Campers Inn for coming on board this week and all the PRG guys for all their hard work. Had a bad fast racecar and our team got one-two in the running order, which is really cool. That’s the second one for PRG this year. Thanks to everyone at Spire Motorsports for allowing me to do this.”
The series had its 2026 season opener last weekend at Hickory Motor Speedway, which saw some fireworks late in the going between Tristan McKee, Landon S. Huffman, and Max Reaves. McKee, who is driving the No. 77 Pinnacle Racing Group entry, ended up winning the race in a five-lap dash and came into this weekend with tons of momentum.
During qualifying for the ARCA race at Rockingham, McKee qualified on the pole position with a lap time of 22.459 seconds at 155.483 mph, with Reaves in second and Phoenix winner, Carson Brown, in the third position. By qualifying on the pole and being the recent race winner in the East Series, McKee was seeking his second consecutive back-to-back wins. The halfway race break occurred at or around Lap 63.
Through the first half of the race, McKee dominated, leading every lap and fending off challengers from his teammate Brown, Reaves, and Gavan Boschele. However, there were a couple of notable incidents. During the first 10 laps of the race, Reaves made slight contact with the wall off Turn 2 and was able to get away without any incident. Unfortunately, trouble came calling several laps later for Reaves at Lap 35, as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver had a left-rear tire go flat and went off the pace. He would eventually return to the track just three laps down.
The race went green for about 10 laps before the second caution of the event flew at Lap 45. Boschele, driving in the No. 25 Nitro Motorsports entry, also had a flat tire and wound up hitting the wall in Turn 2. This time, it was the right front and Boschele wasn’t as lucky as Reaves. He was unable to finish the race and had to settle for a DNF.
One more yellow flew at Lap 54 for debris on the frontstretch of Rockingham, which came off the No. 70 of Wesley Slimp. Shortly thereafter, the field went for a two-lap dash and the caution came out once more at the halfway break on Lap 63. McKee, Brown, Connor Hall, Garrett Mitchell, Isaac Kitzmiller, Jackson McLerran, Slimp, Cory Roper, George Siciliano, and Reaves rounded out the Top 10.
As the race went back to green-flag conditions following the break, two more yellows slowed the event. One at Lap 81 for the No. 0 of Siciliano, who went sideways in Turns 1 and 2, but did not hit anything. The other caution occurred with 15 laps to go as the No. 99 of Michael Maples came to a stop in Turn 3 after heavy contact with the No. 24 of Maples.
Before the caution at 15 to go, race leader McKee and his teammate Brown had fierce battles for the top spot. At one point during the battle, Brown got sideways in the middle of Turns 3 and 4, and almost took the leader, McKee, out with him. Despite losing some ground in the process, Brown threw another challenge at McKee for the lead before the caution and ultimately, the red flag to clean up fluid from Maple’s car.
The final restart came with nine laps to go, with McKee, Brown, Kitzmiller, Mitchell, and Slimp the top five. Off the restart, Kitzmiller had a slight battle with Brown, but Brown got the better of him and set his sights on McKee to challenge for the win. However, the victory went to McKee, who would lead every lap from pole position.
Brown had to ultimately settle for a second-place finish at Rockingham, despite having some great battles with McKee late in the going.
“I’m not quite sure what I needed in the final laps,” Brown said to Flo Racing after coming one spot short. “I’m just happy to be standing here, honestly. It was a very fun race. Unfortunately, we struggled there at first and we had something wrong.
“Just wrecking free at the start and fired off really bad, and kind of struggled to get going there. Finally, it was coming to us a little bit. I almost wrecked both of us at one point with Tristan. I was just trying to hang on there. When we stopped at the break, we were decent and we made a few changes. Fired off better and better, but still kind of struggled. Big thanks to PRG and all the guys.”
Last year’s ARCA Menards East Series champion, Kitzmiller, rounded out the podium finishers in third position.
“That was a good day for CR7 Motorsports and A.L.L. Construction, Carter Cat, and everyone else who works on these cars,” Kitzmiller told Flo Racing on the fronstretch post race. “Super awesome to get a top three. We started firing off super loose there and we got it (the car) tightened up at halfway. Just can’t thank these guys enough. We almost had the 28 passed, but he was just a little better on the long runs. Like I said, can’t thank these guys enough and it’s super awesome to race here at The Rock.”
Tristan McKee, Carson Brown, Isaac Kitzmiller, Garrett Mitchell, Wesley Slimp, Jackson McLerran, Cory Roper, Max Reaves, George Siciliano, and Craig Pellegrini Jr rounded out the Top 10 finishers. There were five cautions for 28 laps and zero lead changes.
Up Next – The next ARCA Menards East Series race is slated for Saturday night, May 2nd, live on Flo Racing at the Nashville Fairgrounds. Additionally, the next ARCA Menards West Series is scheduled for Saturday, April 11, at Tucson Speedway. It will be aired live on Flo Racing. The national ARCA Menards Series tour is still off for two weeks. The next race will occur at Kansas Speedway, Saturday, April 18, live on Fox Sports 1 at 12:30 p.m./ET.
Complete Results – ARCA Menards Series East 125:
Pos | Driver
1. Tristan McKee
2. Carson Brown
3. Isaac Kitzmiller
4. Garrett Mitchell
5. Wesley Slimp
6. Jackson McLerran
7. Corey Roper
8. Max Reaves
9. George Siciliano
10. Craig Pellegrini Jr
11. Brian Weber
12. Dystany Spurlock
13. TJ Harris
14. Austin Vaughn
15. Dustin Hillenburg
16. Nate Moeller
17. Connor Hall
18. Toby Blanton
19. Michael Maples
20. Gavin Boschele
21. Quinn Davis
22. Mike Basham
