What had been a dominant day for Brent Crews turned into a historic triumph for Tristan McKee at Watkins Glen International.
Five days after celebrating his 15th birthday, Tristan McKee claimed a victory in his ARCA Menards Series debut Aug. 8 at Watkins Glen International.
McKee, from Kannapolis, North Carolina, held off Tyler Reif on the final lap following a restart to win Friday afternoon's 41-lap General Tire 100 at The Glen on the track's 2.45-mile short course.
He became the second-youngest winner in series history, piloting the No. 77 Gainbridge Chevrolet owned by Jeff Dickerson. Todd Gilliland won in the ARCA Series at 15 years and 2 days in 2015 at Toledo Speedway. The minimum age to drive in the series is 15.
"I wasn't really worried about the youngest part of it because I knew that Todd had already gotten that," McKee said. "It feels good to be the second-youngest."
McKee doesn't yet have his learner's permit, but he owns two victories at Watkins Glen. Last month he secured a Trans-Am 2 triumph at the road course while racing the full 3.4-mile configuration.
"It feels good. I'm 2-for-2 now in my career I guess you could say here at this track. I just won the Trans-Am race here the other day, so that felt really good to get this one done as well," McKee said.
Brent Crews appeared headed to a runaway win after grabbing the pole earlier in the day and leading the first 39 laps. But his No. 18 JBL Toyota, owned by Joe Gibbs, lost power during the final caution and had to be assisted to the pits.
That left an opening for McKee, who scraped the wall near the start/finish line on the final-lap restart as he battled Reif.
"We got a little luck, but it’s good to have some of that sometimes," McKee said.
"On that last restart I knew I had to get a really good start and I got into the wall a little bit and had a pretty big tire rub. I was kind of scared going around the rest of the lap, but I’m glad we only had one more lap so we were able to bring it home."
McKee credited his team for giving him a car that had good pace and said he was confident he could have given Crews a battle on the restart if Crews didn't have his issues.
Reif finished 1.127 seconds back in second place. Kris Wright took third, Glen Reen fourth and Dale Quarterley fifth.
Reif said he was overly focused on McKee on the restart and followed his tire tracks.
"I couldn't really keep the nose on the track and kind of got the wall harder than he did," Reif said.
"Just really upset at myself, not anybody else. It was a race we could have won and I should have executed better. It’s going to be hard to sleep tonight."
Crews was poised for his third win in six starts this season when he saw his car's voltage light turn yellow. He said it was "probably the worst feeling in the world" seeing a race that was his to win slip away.
The caution came out after Jason Kitzmiller crashed a few laps earlier.
"The second I saw Kitzmiller in the wall there I knew we were probably in trouble," Crews said.
Crews ended up ninth.
Series points-leader Brenden Queen, who won five of the first 12 events this year, dealt with a mechanical issue from the get-go. He finished 21st out of 27 drivers after bringing his No. 28 Pinnacle Racing Group Chevrolet back from the garage.
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This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: McKee second-youngest ARCA Menards Series winner with victory at WGI
Category: General Sports
