Tristan McKee Wins Super Fest Series Opener at Cordele

Tristan McKee rallied late to win Sunday's Super Fest Series feature at Cordele Motor Speedway, passing Stephen Nasse with 13 laps to go for the victory.

McKee charged to the lead at the end of the 125-lap feature, scoring the victory in the first Super Fest Series event of 2026 at Cordele. McKee went to the rear of the field after a lap-88 incident with Bubba Pollard, which sent Pollard's No. 26 spinning in turn two.

The 15-year-old driver persevered, working his way back through the pack. In the closing laps, McKee passed Nasse, who led from lap 38 until the pivotal pass for the win.

McKee managed his tires, hoping to put together a late-race charge. That charge proved to be a little more dramatic than he hoped, but the gameplan worked to perfection.

"Towards the beginning, I let the front two or three go," said McKee. "I was just trying to ride. This place is super abrasive. I was just saving my right-rear and I feel like it paid off quite a bit there at the end. Halfway through the race, I was kind of thinking I burned it up a little bit too much compared to everyone else. Then, I just kept being easy on it and waiting for it to come back around. The track kind of came to us a little bit there.

"We just persevered through there to the end after I got together with Bubba. He was running a big old arc line and cutting down late. I don't really know what he was doing, so I'm not going to say too much on that."

McKee has joined Wauters Motorsports for the 2026 season in Super Late Model competition, with a focus on the Appalachian Sucker Punch ASA STARS National Tour as a member of the series' Platinum Program. Last year, McKee won the zMAX CARS Tour Pro Late Model event at Cordele Motor Speedway, as well as the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series championship.

George Gorham, Jr. finished second, also passing Nasse in the closing laps. He also had to work his way through the field after an early incident to find the second step on the podium.

"Qualifying killed us," said Gorham. "We can't find qualifying speed, but we found race speed, and we were really good. A driver mistake on my part, I let my guys down. I got into [Brandon Lopez] and got him spun out and put to the rear. I'd like to see where we'd stack up if we got to qualify up front."

Gorham, Jr. hopes to compete more frequently against top-notch Super Late Model competition in 2026 in order to improve his team's capabilities against the best in the nation.

"If we want to get our program better, we have to run with better cars. That's why we came here. We're going to run with these guys as much as we can, as much as my work allows. Huston Cadillac in Lake Wales, they work with me a lot, let me off on Fridays. It's hard to be off racing, but they let me do that. Dave and Tim are great people, great family."

Nasse settled for a third-place finish after leading more than half of the race. While Nasse had plenty of pace, he had used the best of his tires before the end of Sunday's contest.

"The track was pretty racey," said Nasse. "We just definitely burned the right-rear tire off of it, trying to stay in front of Bubba and them guys there. Just racing hard. I didn't want to see that last caution, that's for sure. My guys did a great job. We got the car home in one piece and get to go home semi-happy. We'd have liked to get the win, but we've got something to work on."

Michael Goddard finished fourth, with Jake Finch rounding out the top five.

Colin Allman set the fastest time in Super Late Model qualifying, with McKee starting on the pole following an invert. However, Allman battled mechanical issues on his fast lap, and fell out of the race after just one lap.

The event was originally scheduled for Saturday, but inclement weather postponed the Super Fest Series race and Ray Ingle Memorial 54 to Sunday. Kyle Lowry scored the victory in the Ray Ingle Memorial 54 for Outlaws, with J.T. Chastain (Pro Trucks) and Jason Lang, Jr. (Crown Vics) also taking checkered flags.

-Photo credit: Cordele Motor Speedway

Super Fest Series Unofficial Results