Tristan McKee Is a Star of the Future

Last year, Tristan McKee took the stock car racing world by storm when he won the ARCA Menards Series General Tire 100 at the Glen in his debut less than a week after he turned 15. Sure, he had the might of Pinnacle Racing Group (via Spire Motorsports) behind him, but the adjustment to a full-sized ARCA race car is a big one, to say the least.

The race marked the first appearance in a Spire Motorsports-branded car for McKee. He’s very thankful for the opportunity.

“It feels great,” McKee told Frontstretch. “Super thankful to everyone over there, Jeff Dickerson, Bill Anthony [and] every single person over in that building has done so much for me over the past year and a half. Last year was a great first year with them. We did a lot, got them some wins, championship in Trans-Am, won my first ARCA race with them. It’s been really, really cool and they’re allowing me to do [Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup along] with Chevrolet. I feel really special to be able to take part in both teams.”

In addition to his current racing, McKee was named as one of the three members of Spire’s ASCENT Program (he joins Carson Hocevar and Gio Scelzi). The program is designed to focus on racing outside of NASCAR and expose drivers to other disciplines. It’s somewhat unclear if his MX-5 Cup racing is part of that.

“I feel like it’s one of the different vehicles and series that I’m racing in, so I guess it could be considered to be under that,” McKee said. “It’s not directly with [Spire Motorsports], but it’s one of the different things that I’m taking part in outside of NASCAR.”

This year, McKee is running full-time in the ARCA Menards Series East. So far, he couldn’t have asked for more out of his PRG No. 77.

At Hickory Motor Speedway, he took advantage of contact between Max Reaves and Landon S. Huffman to take the lead with 13 laps to go. From there, he hung on to win in front of packed stands.

Rockingham Speedway wasn’t anywhere near as difficult. There, McKee led flag-to-flag to win the Rockingham ARCA Menards East 125, adding to his trophy case.

McKee’s schedule for 2026 is not just the eight-race ARCA East schedule, though. He’s got a full plate.

“It’s busy for sure. I’ll be racing in many different series,” McKee said. “MX-5, hopefully some late models, super late models. Just super busy.”

For the remainder of 2026, McKee’s schedule in the ARCA national division will be comprised of “whatever ARCA national races I can run without being 18 for the mile-and-a-halfs. Anything other than that, I should be taking part in them.”

That would mean that he can run as many as 12 of the remaining 16 races, including Watkins Glen next Friday. Four of those races are combination events with ARCA East.

Daytona International Speedway in January was McKee’s debut in the MX-5 Cup. He seemed to enjoy racing against 44 other drivers in a slipstreaming classic.

“I think it’s going to be fun once we’re racing around a bunch of cars and we’re all in a pack together,” McKee said. “There’s been [some games] between all the packs in practice and qualifying. Missed out a little bit on that in qualifying and didn’t get a good draft.”

That substandard qualifying session saw him line up 30th of 45 cars for his first MX-5 Cup start. He raced up into the top 10 before a spin dropped him back to 17th.

Through four races, McKee is currently fourth in points with a best finish of sixth in Race No. 2 at Daytona. Compared to everything else he’s driven, it’s a completely different kettle of fish.

“These cars are completely different than anything I’ve ever felt,” McKee said. “They’re super different and twitchy. I feel like I can take some stuff out of every car that I’ve driven and…translate them to this [car].”

In addition to his ARCA victory last year, McKee also won the Trans-Am CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series title with four wins and nine podium finishes. He believes that the series is key to his development as a racer.

“TA2’s great. It’s a growing series right now,” McKee stated. “I love TA2, the cars are so much fun. You can hustle [the cars]; the tires are good and have a ton of grip. The cars are really fun to drive; when there’s a lot of cars around you, they’re a lot of fun to race to race around.

“[TA2 cars] are not based around the same chassis, but they are a similar model,” McKee added. “They do drive sort of similar. From the late model to a TA2, they have a little bit of a different feel, but not a lot.”

In late models, McKee doesn’t necessarily have the best reputation. Last fall, he had a run-in with Sam Yarborough during the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway, which he took blame for and apologized.

Outside of that race, he’s often been accused of overly aggressive driving. But McKee doesn’t seem affected by this chatter in any way.

“I feel like everyone that I’ve been racing against recently, I did have one incident at Martinsville, which was an accident, but everything else has been fair game,” McKee said. “There have been racing incidents that I don’t think there was any harm or foul between any one of the drivers. I just focus on winning races and doing the best I can in every race.”

McKee has already been back to victory lane this year in late models at Cordele Motor Speedway (Georgia) in February. He plans to run as many as 30 late model races this season. As for the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series in Trans-Am, he’s unsure if he’s going to race this year, but there’s a good reason for that. McKee’s busy.

Next up for McKee is Saturday (May 2) night’s ARCA Menards Series East Cook Out Music City 150 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. That race will air live on both The NASCAR Channel and FloRacing at 8:30 p.m. ET.