Tristan McKee wins inaugural CARS Pro Late Model Cordele race

Tristan McKee earned the win in the inaugural CARS Pro Late Model Tour race at Cordele Motor Speedway.

McKee took the lead on a restart with 23 to go, passing Colin Allman on the outside. They battled side by side for a few laps, but McKee cleared him and set sail to the checkered flag.

“We didn’t have quite the best car but I made use [of] the top,” McKee said in victory lane. 

“The top came in really well after the long red flag we had. I [made the pass] for second and then I was kind of riding until we got that last red flag. My car was really good. I think we still need to do a little bit of work.”

Keelan Harvick sat on the pole and led a lot of the race. This was the second-generation drivers first CARS Pro Late Model Tour start. Keelan has raced Pro before in the CARS Tour West series at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway however, giving him some experience ahead of this race.

After a clean start, everyone ran clean and green and the competition caution came out on lap 40. Then the wheels came off.

On the restart, a stack up caused by T.J. DeCaire missing a shift saw Stuart Dutton get spun into the outside wall and Logan Jones also suffered race ending damage. The next restart saw Garrett Gumm go off track on the backstretch to draw another yellow. The restart after that went even worse.

Another stack up triggered by DeCaire saw nearly the whole field involved in a pile-up into turn 1. Harvick, Allman, and McKee were the only ones to get away fully clean. A lengthy red flag followed for cleanup.

The next restart saw Allman take the lead from Harvick as the youngster spun the rears with McKee under his bumper and the field completed a lap to make the running order official. Then on the next lap Brandon Lopez spun down the backstretch after contact with Luke Yarbrough. The field restarted, and got some green flag laps in before Isaac Kitzmiller would draw the next yellow, which turned into a red flag to clean the track.

That would be the last caution of the race. McKee battled Allman on the outside and took the lead, never looking back and taking the checkered flag. Allman held on to second and Jett Noland rounded out the podium. DeCaire rebounded for fourth and Harvick held on to fifth.

The full finishing order can be viewed below.

zMAX CARS Pro Late Model Tour
Cordele Speedway
April 12, 2025

1. Tristan Mckee
2. Colin Allman
3. Jett Noland
4. TJ DeCaire
5. Keelan Harvick
6. Hudson Bulger
7. Luke Yarbrough
8. Seth Christensen
9. Dylan Garner
10. Isaac Kitzmiller
11. Cody Martell
12. Timothy Sozio
13. Patrick Hodges
14. Cody Haskins
15. Hunter Johnson
16. Spencer Bragg
17. Carson Ware
18. Brandon Lopez
19. Ben Maier
20. Casey Roderick
21. Brody Monahan
22. Rodney Dowless
23. Gage Gilby
24. Augie Grill
25. Tyler Reif
26. Garrett Gumm
27. Logan Jones
28. Stuart Dutton
29. Jaxon Bishop
30. Brandon Brilliant
DNQ: Rafe Slate, Carter Whalen, Taylor Hull