The 2026 ARCA Menards Series East season kicked off Saturday night at historic Hickory Motor Speedway with an impressive run by two young drivers eager to make names for themselves. A relatively quiet and orderly first three fourths of the race quickly became a classic short track shootout. With 25 laps to go, Max Reeves had the upper hand over Landon S. Huffman and Tristan McKee, but a late race caution and restart with 15 laps to go changed everything. The upper hand quickly shifted to McKee, who was able to gain traction and use Huffman as a pick and roll to move around Reeves. McKee never looked back and Reeves could not catch him.
“After the past day and a half here, we were struggling with the car quite a bit,” McKee said. “All the guys made a really good adjustment at the halfway break. The car came alive after that stop and I passed up to second. (Reaves and Huffman) got into it there and I knew it was my shot. I ran my best four laps at the end there and came away with the win.”
After a day that was dominated by Max Reeves, who was fastest in practice, qualified on pole position, and led the majority of the race, he unfortunately could only achieve 2nd place, which broke his three race win streak from 2025 in the East series.
“We were the best by far tonight,” Reaves said. “Props to Tristan McKee and all them at PRG, but they were nothing on us. I don’t know what the plan was (with Huffman), but I think he was trying to take me (and McKee) out. If you can’t beat them, you got to wreck them. There’s a reason I’m in (the No. 18) and not one of these other ones.”
Dystany Spurlock had a great showing as well, getting valuable track time after a shaky few passes during pre-race technical inspection, the team and driver were able to crank out consistent lap times and improving during each session (9th fastest in practice, qualified 8th, finished 7th). Along with Spurlock was Derek Kneeland who qualified an incredible 2nd place and followed it up with a Top Five finish (4th place). George “Squirrel McNutt” Siciliano had one of the loudest fanbases of the evening, receiving numerous cheers from the crowd and an endless line of fans seeking out a picture & autograph with their driver. Unfortunately for him, it was a learning curve for sure. He was able to finish with all four fenders attached and managed to secure a 13th place finish.
The ARCA Menards Series East heads to Rockingham Speedway next Saturday Apr. 4th with the green flag scheduled to drop at 11:30am live on FloRacing and the NASCAR Channel.
