Tristan McKee etched his name as the youngest pole winner in the history of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series division, a feat in which he achieved at Martinsville Speedway for the Black’s Tire 200 on Friday, October 30.
The event’s starting lineup was determined through an on-track qualifying session that consisted of a single-truck, two-lap qualifying format. During the session, each of the 36 competitors vying for 36 starting spots cycled around Martinsville twice to post the fastest lap amongst one another. The competitor who posted the fastest lap earned pole position.
During the session, McKee, who was the second-fastest competitor in practice earlier on Friday, utilized his two-lap session to post the fastest lap at 96.864 mph in 19.549 seconds. McKee’s lap was enough for the Kannapolis, North Carolina, native to notch his first Truck career pole for his fifth start of the 2026 season.
With the pole, McKee, this year’s ARCA Menards Series East champion, became the youngest pole winner in the Truck Series’ history at age 16 years, two months and 27 days old. He also became the 152nd competitor overall to achieve a pole position in the Truck division and the fourth first-time pole winner of the 2026 season. With McKee set to compete on a part-time basis in both the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Truck Series divisions with JR Motorsports and Spire Motorsports, respectively, in 2027, he will first attempt to become the fourth first-time winner of this season in the series for Friday night’s main event in Ridgway, Virginia, and in his pole-winning No. 77 Zeigler/Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado RST entry.
McKee will share the front row with Layne Riggs, the latter of whom posted the second-fastest qualifying lap at 96.775 mph in 19.567 seconds. Chandler Smith, Riggs’ teammate and who was the fastest in practice earlier on Friday, will start in third place and he will share the second row with Ben Rhodes. Kaden Honeycutt, the 2026 series’ points leader, will start in fifth place.
Ty Majeski, Christian Eckes, Sammy Smith, Tyler Ankrum and Tanner Gray complete the top-10 starting grid.
With seven of 10 Chase contenders (Riggs, Smith, Rhodes, Honeycutt, Majeski, Eckes and Ankrum) starting in the top 10, the remaining Chasers that include Giovanni Ruggiero, Daniel Hemric and Grant Enfinger will start 11th, 15th and 19th, respectively.
Notably, Jake Garcia and Gavan Boschele did not post qualifying laps. Garcia wrecked his primary truck in the closing minutes of practice while Boschele’s No. 1 TRICON Garage Toyota entry was found to be leaking. Boschele and Garcia will start at the tail end of the field in 35th and 36th, respectively.
With 36 competitors vying for 36 starting spots, all made the main event.
Martinsville – Starting Lineup:
- Tristan McKee, 96.864 mph, 19.549 seconds
- Layne Riggs, 96.775 mph, 19.567 seconds
- Chandler Smith, 96.691 mph, 19.584 seconds
- Ben Rhodes, 96.509 mph, 19.621 seconds
- Kaden Honeycutt, 96.420 mph, 19.639 seconds
- Ty Majeski, 96.239 mph, 19.676 seconds
- Christian Eckes, 96.229 mph, 19.678 seconds
- Sammy Smith, 95.981 mph, 19.729 seconds
- Tyler Ankrum, 95.946 mph, 19.736 seconds
- Tanner Gray, 95.932 mph, 19.739 seconds
- Giovanni Ruggiero, 95.878 mph, 19.750 seconds
- Landen Lewis, 95.733 mph, 19.780 seconds
- Andres Perez De Lara, 95.521 mph, 19.824 seconds
- Stewart Friesen, 95.309 mph, 19.868 seconds
- Daniel Hemric, 95.290 mph, 19.872 seconds
- Tyler Reif, 95.290 mph, 19.872 seconds
- Justin Haley, 95.213 mph, 19.888 seconds
- William Sawalich, 95.113 mph, 19.909 seconds
- Grant Enfinger, 95.094 mph, 19.913 seconds
- Brenden Queen, 95.070 mph, 19.918 seconds
- Conner Jones, 95.017 mph, 19.929 seconds
- Cole Butcher, 94.908 mph, 19.952 seconds
- Kasey Kleyn, 94.808 mph, 19.973 seconds
- Timmy Hill, 94.642 mph, 20.008 seconds
- Mini Tyrrell, 94.538 mph, 20.030 seconds
- Josh Reaume, 94.354 mph, 20.069 seconds
- Carson Ferguson, 94.289 mph, 20.083 seconds
- Kris Wright, 93.989 mph, 20.147 seconds
- Corey LaJoie, 93.980 mph, 20.149 seconds
- Frankie Muniz, 93.901 mph, 20.166 seconds
- Spencer Boyd, 93.761 mph, 20.196 seconds
- Monty Tipton, 93.729 mph, 20.203 seconds
- Justin Carroll, 92.398 mph, 20.494 seconds
- Tyler Tomassi, 91.289 mph, 20.743 seconds
- Gavan Boschele, 0.000 mph, 0.000 seconds
- Jake Garcia, 0.000 mph, 0.000 seconds
*Bold indicates Chase Drivers
The 2026 Black’s Tire 200 at Martinsville Speedway is scheduled to occur on Friday, October 30, at 6 p.m. ET on FS1, NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM.
