Tristan McKee came into Friday’s JR & CO. 150 at Iowa Speedway knowing he needed a strong performance to compete with Max Reaves in the ARCA Menards Series East championship battle. And for McKee, he came into full clutch with a butt-whooping on the field.

Driving the No. 77 Chili’s Chevrolet SS for Pinnacle Racing Group, McKee led the first 32 laps before losing it to a short period to his teammate Carson Brown while navigating lap traffic, who led until the remainder of the first race break. McKee was able to regain the lead on the next restart, and became unstoppable for the rest of the evening, leading a race-high 125 laps to pick up his third career ARCA Menards Series victory, and his fourth ARCA Menards Series East win of 2026.

“That was a fun race,” McKee said post-race. “With all the lapped cars, it’s really tough getting around them, running the top and just maneuvering all that. I lost the lead earlier to [Brown] obviously because of that, but we had some good restarts, which helped a lot.”

McKee credits his efficiency on restarts, and the importance of clean air as a primary factor for his race win.

“It’s all restarts,” McKee said post-race. “It’s all getting the launches, getting done with the first few laps and getting clean air. When I lost the lead to [Brown], my car was driving pretty good, but I was stuck back there. It was important to have clean air and to have good restarts.”

In what looked like an early sign of hope for Carson Brown, he was not able to get the better restart launches compared to McKee, and settled for the second position.

“Obviously, I wish I was better on the restarts,” Brown said post-race. “I felt like that was our lingering issue the whole time. I felt like I couldn’t make anything happen. We were either bogging or just lighting the tires up. I just couldn’t go anywhere. Hopefully we can be a little faster tomorrow.”

ARCA Menards Series points leader Jake Bollman earned a much-needed third-place effort, extending his points gap slightly over his Nitro Motorsports teammate Thomas Annunziata by.

Max Reaves started from the rear due to late adjustments, and came up quickly through the field, reaching as high as third before settling for the fourth spot. Isaac Kitzmiller showed another consistent run with a fifth-place effort.

Gavan Boschele finished sixth in his track debut at Iowa, with Annunziata, Andy Jankowiak, Ryan Vargas, and Jade Avedisian rounding out the top-10 positions.

Despite a top-five run, it was not enough to maintain the East Series points lead for Max Reaves, as McKee pulled away by just two points heading into the final race at Bristol Motor Speedway on September 17.

The ARCA Menards Series competitors will be back in action on August 23 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds for their first dirt race of the year.

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JR & CO. 150 Race Results

1. #77 Tristan McKee
2. #28 Carson Brown
3. #20 Jake Bollman
4. #18 Max Reaves
5. #79 Isaac Kitzmiller
6. #25 Gavan Boschele
7. #70 Thomas Annunziata
8. #71 Andy Jankowiak
9. #91 Ryan Vargas
10. #15 Jade Avedisian (-2 Laps)
11. #55 Isabella Robusto (-2 Laps)
12. #90 Ty Fredrickson (-2 Laps)
13. #38 Toro Rodríguez (-3 Laps)
14. #10 Craig Pellegrini Jr. (-4 Laps)
15. #85 Quinn Davis (-4 Laps)
16. #89 Bobby Earnhardt (-5 Laps)
17. #13 Brian Weber (-6 Laps)
18. #01 Tony Musolino (-8 Laps)
19. #19 Austin Vaughn (-9 Laps)
20. #99 Michael Maples (-9 Laps)
21. #34 Brian Barbarow (-10 Laps)
22. #03 Alex Clubb (-11 Laps)
23. #11 Chase Buscaglia (-12 Laps)
24. #86 Jeff Maconi (-12 Laps)
25. #97 Jason Kitzmiller (OUT)
26. #06 Ben Peterson (-17 Laps)
27. #12 Takuma Koga (-19 Laps)
28. #95 Jackson McLerran (OUT)
29. #48 Brad Smith (OUT)
30. #0 Nate Moeller (OUT)
31. #83 Brayton Laster (OUT)
32. #81 Kevin Campbell (OUT)
33. #7 Kadence Davenport (OUT)