Tristan McKee celebrated a 16th birthday at the beginning of the week. By the end, he was a winner in the ARCA Menards Series.
Mckee started on pole tonight, which allowed him to lead a majority of the 150 laps. After his victory at Iowa, Mckee now has accumulated three career wins in the series.
Mckee led most of the race, but his teammate Carson Brown was in his shadow all night long. The Pinnacle Racing Group duo had the faster cars all night, as they would consistently stretch their lead over the rest of the field by five to ten seconds each green flag run. The The key difference on track tonight were the restarts. Brown struggled getting through the gears, while Mckee would shoot out to consistent 1.5 second leads. Carson Brown will make his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut on Saturday August 8th, so maybe the struggles of Friday can be a learning experience for Saturday.
As far as the season long points battle goes, it is still neck and neck between Jake Bollman, and Thomas Annunziata. Bollman brought home his Toyota in third, while Annunziata finished seventh. This was the first time Bollman had finished ahead of Annunziata since the series visited Elko Speedway on June 27th.
Looking farther down the standings, Nitro Motorsports’ Isabella Robusto has climbed up to third despite another frustrating night. Robusto was part of an accident involving fellow female driver Jade Avedisian, stemming from a spin by Brad Smith. Robusto then was able to benefit from the misfortune of Jason Kitzmiller, who backed his car into the fence on lap 134. Kitzmiller was running tenth at the time, but this crash would end his night as he would finish in 25th.
Jason’s son Isaac began the race at the front but an early restart violation would bury him laps down. Isaac Kitzmiller was able to get back on the lead lap later on, due to cautions and the race breaks. On the bright side, Isaac was able to battle back to a top five finish.
The ARCA Menards Series will be back on Sunday August 23rd, as the Series will visit the Illinois State Fairgrounds, a one mile dirt track for the Calypso 100.
