After a costly mistake by Max Reaves, it was Tristan McKee who was able to prevail late during Friday’s Atlas 200 at Madison International Speedway.
Driving the No. 77 Zeigler Chevrolet SS for Pinnacle Racing Group, McKee was able to grab the lead early from his teammate Carson Brown, before losing the lead to Max Reaves on lap 14. Reaves led the next handful of laps until shortly after halfway, when McKee got to his inside on the restart, securing the lead after Reaves locked up his tires on lap 109. McKee led the remaining laps and survived a late restart to pick up his fourth career ARCA Menards Series win, and his third of 2026.
“It feels good,” McKee said post-race. “Had some issues in practice, so we were kind of behind at the beginning and qualified second, which wasn’t bad after not getting a mock [qualifying run in practice]. The guys made some good adjustments at the breaks and got the car better.”
Carson Brown says he needed “a little bit more” on the final restart in order to take the win from his teammate. He ended up settling for a second place effort.
Max Reaves, who dominated the first half of the event, stated that he was unsure what his car needed to keep the lead from McKee. He ended up with a third place finish at race’s end.
“We’ll definitely come back next year and figure it out and come back with what we need,” Reaves said post-race. “Congratulations to Tristan; he ran a good race.”
ARCA Menards Series points leader Jake Bollman had a solid showing with a fourth place finish, which was good enough to increase his points gap ahead of his Nitro Motorsports teammate Thomas Annunziata by five points.
Annunziata was able to sneak into a fifth place finish after an intense battle with Isabella Robusto and Isaac Kitzmiller in the final laps. Robusto fell to seventh after getting bumped on the final lap, where Kitzmiller was able to slip into the sixth position. Will Robinson, Jason Kitzmiller, and Tony Consentino rounded out the top-10 positions.
The ARCA Menards Series competitiors will be back in action on September 6 at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds Racetrack, the second and final dirt race of the year.
Atlas 200 Race Results
- #77 Tristan McKee
- #28 Carson Brown
- #18 Max Reaves
- #20 Jake Bollman
- #70 Thomas Annunziata
- #79 Isaac Kitzmiller
- #55 Isabella Robusto
- #25 Will Robinson
- #97 Jason Kitzmiller
- #10 Tony Cosentino (-3 Laps)
- #12 Takuma Koga (-5 Laps)
- #91 Austin Vaughn (-7 Laps)
- #11 Mike Basham (-12 Laps)
- #06 Daniel Sasnett (-14 Laps)
- #03 Alex Clubb (-16 Laps)
- #42 Taylor Mayhew (-17 Laps)
- #86 Jeff Maconi (-17 Laps)
- #99 Michael Maples (-23 Laps)
- #36 Ty Fredrickson (-44 Laps)
- #81 Kevin Campbell (OUT)
- #48 Brad Smith (OUT)
