At 16 years, 2 months, and 27 days old, Tristan McKee is now the youngest polesitter in the history of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series – earning the top spot in qualifying for Friday’s Black’s Tire 200 at Martinsville Speedway.
In just his fifth start in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series, and his first at the 0.526-mile paperclip of Martinsville Speedway, McKee, a native of Kannapolis, North Carolina, shot to the top of the speed charts in single-vehicle qualifying.
With a lap time of 19.549 seconds (96.864mph), McKee, a development driver for Spire Motorsports, managed to beat Front Row Motorsports teammates Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith for the pole on Friday.
McKee is just the fourth driver in NASCAR National Series history to win a pole before turning 18 and joins Cole Custer as the only drivers to win a pole before turning 17. The 16-year-old has plans to run part-time in the NASCAR Truck Series in 2027 for Spire Motorsports, while also running select NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series events for JR Motorsports after his 17th birthday.
“It was a really good lap,” McKee said post-qualifying. “Unfortunately, the second lap I thought was going to be even better but I kind of messed up Turns 3 and 4, but the truck is really fast, thank to everybody with the No. 77 group, thanks to Zeigler, Chad [Walter], all the guys brought a really fast truck.”
“We just gotta go execute here on pit road and on the racetrack later tonight, but I’m really looking forward to it. Martinsville is one of my favorite racetracks, it’s really cool to win the pole – I won the pole in the Late Model race here the other day – so hopefully we can get the win here later.”
Layne Riggs, who enters Martinsville chasing Kaden Honeycutt for the lead in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series point standings, will roll from second, with Front Row Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith in third.
Ben Rhodes has shown speed throughout Friday’s practice and qualifying sessions at Martinsville and will roll from fourth in the No. 99 Ford F-150 for ThorSport Racing, with championship leader Kaden Honeycutt rounding out the top-five.
Ty Majeski will roll from the sixth position, with Christian Eckes seventh, Sammy Smith eighth, Tyler Ankrum in ninth, and Tanner Gray rounding out the top-10.
Other drivers in the Chase for the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Championship starting outside the top-10 include Gio Ruggiero in 11th, Daniel Hemric in 15th, and Grant Enfinger in 19th.
Jake Garcia and Gavan Boschele will start at the rear for Friday’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series event at Martinsville after not posting a qualifying run – Garcia is going to a backup after a crash in practice, while Boschele and TRICON discovered an oil leak that forced them to go to the garage.
