ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — Tristan McKee is two-for-two In ARCA Menards Series East competition this season.
McKee’s triumph Saturday at Rockingham Speedway was much different than his maiden East Series win last weekend at Hickory Motor Speedway. McKee led wire-to-wire from the pole all while keeping his Pinnacle Racing Group teammate Carson Brown behind him.
The one obstacle McKee faced all day came down to maintaining his lead while navigating through lapped traffic. McKee credited the speed of his No. 77 Campers Inn Chevrolet for keeping him out front no matter what challenge he faced.
“The PRG guys gave me a really fast car,” McKee said. “A lot of it was just the clean air. [Brown] would get close a couple of times with the lapped cars. They were all over the place. Some of them were really good, others were hard to pass. He got close a couple of times, but he couldn’t get around me.”
Since entering the ARCA Menards Series platform midway through 2025, McKee has consistently founded success.
McKee took home the checkered flag in his first national ARCA Menards Series appearance at Watkins Glen International last August. Since then, McKee has amassed two more victories and five top fives across his following six starts. The only race McKee did not earn a top five in came at Madison International Speedway, where brake issues relegated him to 11th.
Of all the tracks McKee has visited in an ARCA Menards Series car, none have compared to Rockingham’s unique layout. Once he tackled Rockingham’s fast, steep corners for the first time, McKee had to adjust his approach to the 125-lap feature.
“I raced Bristol, so I was expecting [Rockingham] to have some similarities [but] there really wasn’t any,” McKee said. “It was a lot different actually. Nothing was the same, it was so much faster. [The banking was steep] like at Bristol, but it was nothing like the speeds like this.
“With some of these [tracks], it takes me a while to get used to it, but in the end, I get it in practice.”
Between the five events across the ARCA Menards Series platform in 2026, PRG has now won three between McKee and Brown. When he joined PRG last year, McKee understood the standard the program had established in a short amount of time and was determined to leave his own mark.
A perfect outing at Rockingham on Saturday continued that stellar start for McKee at PRG.
“Coming into a team like PRG, the cars are really good,” McKee said. “They’ve had a lot of good drivers in the past, so that kind of makes my job a little bit easier. Most of the time, I’m hopping into a really good car and I don’t have much to gain as far as practice goes. We’ve been super consistent, so all props to [PRG] for bringing really good cars.”
Reigning East Series champion Isaac Kitzmiller continued a strong start by finishing in third.
Cleetus McFarland (Garrett Mitchell) earned a career-best fourth place showing in front of an exuberant Rockingham crowd, with Wesley Slimp rounding out the top five.
The finish:
Tristan McKee, Carson Brown, Isaac Kitzmiller, Garrett Mitchell, Wesley Slimp, Jackson McLerran, Cory Roper, Max Reaves, George Siciliano, Craig Pellegrini Jr., Brian Weber, Dystany Spurlock, T.J. Harris, Austin Vaugh, Dustin Hillenberg, Nate Moeller, Connor Hall, Toby Blanton, Michael Maples, Gavan Boschele, Quinn Davis, Mike Basham.