NASHVILLE — The ARCA Menards Series East will compete in its third race of the season in Saturday’s Cook Out Music City 150 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
It will be the eighth time the ARCA Menards East has raced at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway since the first in 2007.
Tristan McKee (No. 77 Tecovas Chevrolet) leads the ARCA Menards East standings on the strength of victories in the first two races of the season at Hickory Motor Speedway and Rockingham Speedway.
McKee will be looking for his third consecutive series win to start his East Series career which would match the record set by Will Rodgers in 2018 and matched by Max Reaves (No. 18 Cook Out Toyota) last year.
Rodgers, a noted road course ace, won at Watkins Glen International and New Jersey Motorsports Park in 2017 and then again in New Jersey in 2018; Reaves won in his debut at Five Flags Speedway and then followed with wins at Nashville and Flat Rock Speedway in 2025.
Reaves will look to rebound from a disappointing eighth-place finish at Rockingham after he was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop for a flat left rear tire. Reaves dominated the season opener at Hickory, starting from the Sioux Chief PowerPEX Pole and leading 186 of the race’s 200 laps before being shoved out of the lead on a late-race restart and finishing second.
Reaves started from the pole and led 147 of the race’s 150 laps to win at Nashville last spring.
• Carson Brown (No. 28 Klean Freak Body Wipes Chevrolet) will make his second ARCA Menards East start of the season. Brown finished second to his Pinnacle Racing Group teammate Tristan McKee in his first East start of the season at Rockingham; he scored his first ARCA Menards Series victory in his first start at Phoenix Raceway in March.
• Reigning ARCA Menards East champion Isaac Kitzmiller (No. 79 A.L.L. Construction / Carter CAT Chevrolet) will be looking to capitalize on early season momentum as he attempts to lock down his first series victory. Kitzmiller has finished a career-best third in both races so far this season. Kitzmiller is currently second in the series standings, 15 points behind McKee.
• Landon S. Huffman (No. 9 Hoosier Daddy / Hoosier Momma Car Care Products Chevrolet) will make his second start of the 2026 season in the Cook Out Music City 150. Huffman, the son of Pinnacle Racing Group team manager Shane HuƯman, battled for the win late in the race at Hickory before a spin while racing for the lead sent him to the tail of the lead lap.
• Local team owner Mark Noble will field two entries in the Cook Out Music City 150, with former Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway track champion Hunter Wright (No. 95 Visit Wilco / Cedar City RV Toyota) and Jackson McLerran (No. 96 JSJ Construction / Firemark Property Management Toyota) at the wheel.
Noble and his brother David will serve as crew chiefs for the two-car effort. Wright finished a career-best third at Nashville in 2025; McLerran finished a career-best sixth at Nashville in 2025, a feat he matched in his last start at Rockingham.
• Bounty Rookie Challenge contender Craig Pellegrini, Jr, (No. 10 Let’s Be Frank Toyota) will be hunting for his third consecutive top-ten finish to start the 2026 season. The former winged 410 sprint car driver opened the season with a ninth-place effort at Hickory and followed it with a 10th-place result at Rockingham. He is fifth in the East standings, five points behind McLerran in fourth.
• Several drivers will be making their ARCA Menards Series East debut in the Cook Out Music City 150: Marty McLendon (No. 0 Peterson Motorsports Toyota), Chase Buscaglia (No. 11 Stave / CRC Ford), Ivis Earley (No. 34 107 Tire Service Center Toyota), and Landon Brown (No. 69 JeƯ Hill Trailer Sales / Lentini Auto Detail Ford).
• The 22 cars entered are the most for an ARCA Menards platform race at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway since 2019 when 21 were entered for an ARCA Menards Series race and the most for an East race at Nashville since 2008 when 28 cars were entered.
