Tristan McKee tops qualifying and new track record at Martinsville Speedway Friday night

COLUMN BY: Brendan Folan / RACE PRO WEEKLY – MARTINSVILLE, VA – It was a fast afternoon at Martinsville Speedway for the 16-year-old Tristan McKee Friday afternoon and Friday night. McKee topped final practice charts, then set quick-time, while also breaking the track-record.

This will be McKee’s third attempt at chasing down a grandfather clock, and he has kicked off the weekend on the right foot.

“My guys brought me a really fast car and I knew when we unloaded it, we were going to have a really good chance at it,” McKee said. “Car was super fast, thanks to all the Matt Piercy guys, after watching all those cars there for a while, I was a little bit nervous, but it ended up really well and a really great car.”

When it comes to getting ready for the qualifying races on Saturday afternoon, the key word for McKee is ‘fine-tuning’.

“It’s been really good so far, just now fine-tuning it, so hopefully we can really get it dialed in here for the heat race and work on it a little bit before the race,” McKee said.

McKee is not locked into the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 with his fast-time, like the rest of the field, will need to lock in through his respective heat race. It got one step easier though, as he will start on the pole for his heat race.

Second fastest in qualifying and fast all day long, was the young NASCAR Cup Series winner, Corey Heim. Heim will lead the second heat to the green on the pole.

“I thought we had it there at the end,” Heim said. “I thought having a half-tenth there on second at the time we had them, but we can certainly race from there. I knew we were probably going to be Top-5 if I didn’t screw it up, but all in all, felt I was a little snugger than I’d like to be for balance in qualifying, but honestly these guys did a really good job.” 

With qualifying in the books, heat race line-ups are unofficial, pending entries withdrawing on Saturday or alterations to lineups from NASCAR based on identical lap times from qualifying.

Rounding out the Top-5 in qualifying was Dillon Harville out of Kernersville, North Carolina in third. Fourth in qualifying was current Virginia Triple Crown and CARS Late Model Stock points leader Caden Kvapil, with 2023 ValleyStar Credit Union 300 winner Trevor Ward rounding out the Top-5.

Notables in qualifying:

Carson Loftin 9th

Lee Pulliam 10th

Carson Kvapil  13th

Landon Pembelton 19th

Landon Huffman 21st

Connor Jones 22nd

 Top 5 from 1st Practice:

1. Landon Pembelton: Best time – 20.059
2. Tate Fogelman
3. Corey Heim
4. Tristan McKee
5. Dillon Harville

Top 5 from 2nd Practice:

1. Tristan McKee: Best time – 19.852
2. Corey Heim
3. Caden Kvapil
4. Carson Kvapil
5. Dillon Harville

UNOFFICIAL HEAT RACE LINE-UPS FOR SATURDAY 9/26:

Heat Races start at 4PM ET, Four 25-Lap heats, Top-10 from each heat race qualifying into the 200-Lap main event.

Heat Race 1

1. Tristan McKee
2. Trevor Ward
3. Carson Loftin
4. Carson Kvapil
5. Conner Weddell
6. Landon Huffman
7. Michael Bumgarner
8. Tate Fogleman
9. Cody Kelly
10. Chase Burgeson
11. Brandon Setzer
12. Trey Williams
13. Michael Hinde
14. Chase Robertson
15. Dexter Canipe
16. Austin Somero
17. Ryan Zima
18. Lane Woods
19. Carson Ware
20. Brady Penny
21. Darrick Coomer

Heat Race 2

1. Corey Heim
2. Ronnie Bassett, Jr.
3. Lee Pulliam
4. Tyler Reif
5. Ryan Wilson
6. Conner Jones
7. Ryan Matthews
8. Peyton Sellers
9. Donovan Strauss
10. Craig Moore
11. Clay Jones
12. Chase Burrow
13. Brice Amderspm
14. Kyle Dudley
15. Derrick Lancaster
16. Chase Dixon
17. Bryan Reedy
18. Brad Housewright
19. Chase Ratliff
20. Chase Murphy
21. Jimmy Mullins

Heat Race 3

1. Dillon Harville
2. Treyten Lapcevich
3. Doug Barnes, Jr.
4. Deac McCaskill
5. Landon Pembelton
6. Blake Stallings
7. Jacob Borst
8. Jace Hale
9. Dylan Fetcho
10. Woody Howard
11. Hudson Sharp
12. Ayden Millette
13. Coy Beard
14. Dylan Newsome
15. Jason Myers
16. Jonathan Shafer
17. Mason Bailey
18. Dylan Ward
19. Jamie York
20. Steve Zacharias
21. Connor Branch

Heat Race 4

1. Caden Kvapil
2. Ryan Millington
3. Matt Cox
4. Casey Kelley
5. Jared Fryar
6. Brandon Lopez
7. Bobby McCarty
8. Trey Crews
9. Andrew Grady
10. Chase Johnson
11. Matt Leicht
12. Cory Dunn
13. Tyler Matthews
14. Diego Mendeztorres
15. Stacy Puryear
16. J.D. Eversole
17. Logan Jones
18. Justin Carroll
19. Trey Burke
20. Bryson Brinkley

FULL QUALIFYING RESULTS, click here