Just five days after losing a $50,000 Late Model race at the last minute, 15-year-old Tristan McKee bounced back in a big way. The teenager from Kannapolis, North Carolina won his very first ARCA Menards Series race on Friday at Watkins Glen International.

McKee, driving the No. 77 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports, inherited the lead when race leader Brent Crews had mechanical problems with six laps to go. McKee held on to win the General Tire 100 at the Glen and become the second youngest winner in ARCA history at just 15 years and five days old.

Last Sunday at Hickory Motor Speedway, McKee was leading a Late Model race with just 12 laps left when he crashed after a restart. The wreck cost him a $50,000 payday on his 15th birthday.

“That was a tough one after leading 115 laps for $50,000 only to get into a wreck there at the end, but you’ve just got to put that past you and move on to what’s next,” McKee said. “I quickly moved on past that and got right back to the office.”

That tough loss turned into motivation for his ARCA debut at Watkins Glen just days later.

Brent Crews had dominated most of Friday’s race from the pole position in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He was comfortably leading when a caution came out with six laps remaining for a crash involving Jason Kitzmiller.

While running under caution, Crews’ car suddenly slowed to a crawl due to a voltage problem. This handed the lead to McKee, who had been running second for most of the race in a close battle with Tyler Reif.

“We got a little lucky there obviously with Brent having issues,” McKee admitted. “I was prepared really well coming into this race with the sim stuff and pre-race from Josh Wise and Scott Speed. I got up to speed really quickly.”

With just one lap left, McKee had to survive a green-white-checkered restart. Things got hairy when McKee and Reif both hit the outside wall coming out of Turn 13 on the front stretch.

The contact damaged the left side of McKee’s car and caused smoke to pour from his left rear tire. But he kept his foot on the gas and stayed ahead of Kris Wright, who had moved into second place after the restart.

“I was just trying to be as aggressive as I possibly could,” McKee said. “Restarts are super, super important. I had gotten clear of Tyler, and I got a little loose and got into the wall. I definitely had some tire smoke going down into Turn 1 and up the esses.”

Despite the damage, McKee held on to win by 1.127 seconds over Reif, who barely beat Wright to the finish line for second place. Glen Reen finished fourth and Dale Quarterley was fifth.

The victory made McKee the second youngest ARCA winner ever and gave Spire Motorsports their first ARCA victory as a team.

“To win in my debut is one thing, but to win in general is another,” McKee said. “A lot of guys have never won in the ARCA series, and they’ve been doing it a long time. It just goes back to everyone who has helped me get here.”

McKee has been racing Late Models across the Southeast since 2022 and has won at famous tracks like North Wilkesboro Speedway, Hickory Motor Speedway, and Orange County Speedway.

He only started road course racing last year but has already won twice in the Trans Am Series TA2 class. His first Trans Am win came at Mid-Ohio when he was just 14 years old, making him the second youngest winner in Trans Am history.

His second Trans Am victory came last month at Watkins Glen, which gave him valuable experience for Friday’s ARCA race.

McKee will return to his busy schedule of Late Model and Trans Am racing for the rest of the season. His next ARCA race will be at Phoenix Raceway on November 1st when the West Series finishes their season.

“I’ve already started to do some of my sim work for Phoenix,” McKee said. “Phoenix is a really fun track as far as the sim stuff goes. I’ve never driven it in real life, obviously, but I’m looking forward to that.”

The ARCA Menards Series returns to action this Sunday, August 17th with the Springfield ARCA 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. The race will be shown live on FS1 at 2 p.m. ET.

With his first ARCA win now complete, McKee has proven he can compete with the best young drivers in motorsports. At just 15 years old, his racing career is off to an incredible start.