ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (Oct. 27, 2025) – When 15-year-old Tristan McKee was first across the finish line Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, it put an exclamation point on much more than just his fourth win in the last six Cube 3 Architecture TA2 Series races to clinch the season-long driver championship with still one event to go.
In a grander scheme, it became the high-water mark of a master plan years in the making within the walls of TeamSLR (Scott Lagasse Racing) and its integral role as an official driver development partner for Chevrolet Motorsports. McKee is one of the elite, young talents mentored by Josh Wise, Scott Speed and Lorin Ranier at the Chevrolet Tech Center in Concord, North Carolina. The aspiring NASCAR Cup Series driver signed a development contract with Spire Motorsports in January.
Now, one race before his official TA2 Series rookie season concludes with the Nov. 2 finale at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, McKee is already the youngest champion in the 60-year history of the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli at 15 years, two months and 16 days. He’s displayed the poise and maturity of a driver twice or three times his age along the way, regularly outpacing, often dominating, the stout field of TA2 regulars made up of fellow teen prodigies and seasoned road-racing veterans and former champions.
“Tristan’s done so good, and our collaborative effort with Josh Wise, Scott Speed and Lorin Ranier at Chevrolet was executed so well, that we’re actually going to lose him some next year to series further up the racing ladder,” Lagasse Jr., continued. “That’s a good problem to have, right? What makes me the most proud is his work ethic, his ability to listen, internalize, and get better. He’ll qualify on the pole, then go break down a lap and study data for hours.”
McKee led every race lap en route to three of his four wins this season – June 22 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, July 12 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, and Sunday at Barber – and all but the first five laps of his Aug. 30 victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario. Through 11 of 12 events, he has an average start of 4.18 and an average finish of 3.36. He posted seven consecutive podium finishes in one stretch, during which his lead atop the driver standings ballooned.
The podium streak ended with his lone mechanical issue of the season Sept. 20 at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) in Alton, but that transmission part failure only served to heighten McKee’s determination to lock up the championship at the next round during Trans Am’s first-ever visit to Barber last weekend.
“Tristan had never seen the place, but Josh (Wise) called me before we even got there and said, ‘Get ready, he’s the best-prepped I’ve seen him, yet.’ He knew he might have to carry us as a race team and he was ready for it,” Lagasse Jr., said. “Then during the weekend, at nine o’clock that night, after leading every session during practice and qualifying, he was still in the motorhome with me watching video, asking questions, talking theory and approach. That’s what separates him.”
McKee and TeamSLR certainly separated themselves from the rest of the TA2 Series field the second half of the season. In the midst of McKee’s four wins were another two for TeamSLR and its M1 Racecars – July 29 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, for veteran Mike Skeen, and Sept. 20 at VIR for 17-year-old road-racing newcomer Carson Brown. The Road America win was made all the more special as McKee finished second and 19-year-old Corey Day, from the Hendrick Motorsports stable of young drivers, third to make it a 1-2-3 finish for TeamSLR.
McKee and his No. 28 Spire/Gainbridge/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro will arrive at COTA with championship in-hand and ready to have some fun as the team looks to close out the season with its seventh win in a row. At the 2024 finale there, in just his second TA2 start, McKee was racing for a top-five finish when a cut tire dropped him to the back of the pack. He rallied from 37th to finish 15th over the closing laps to set the stage for his charge to the championship this year.
Well before McKee began working with TeamSLR to learn the ins and outs of road racing in 2023, his talent, discipline and tremendous work ethic were apparent in his rise through primarily oval-track racing in go-karts, Bandoleros, Legend cars and Late Models. He became the CARS Tour’s youngest winner in the Pro Late Model division as a 12-year-old in 2023. After a rigorous testing program over the first seven months of 2024, McKee’s TA2 debut at VIR that October was a head-turner as he qualified sixth and held position among the leaders en route to a fourth-place finish, just .7 of a second behind the final spot on the podium.
That he rose from road-course newby to the ranks of TA2 Series champion with just 13 races under his belt is not surprising to those who know him. It’s also a testament to the years-long effort by TeamSLR and its M1 Racecars operation to become the most complete, data-driven, driver-focused organization in the TA2 paddock, according to Lagasse Sr.
Chevrolet’s Ranier first took notice of McKee in December 2021 when, as an 11-year-old, he qualified a Late Model Stock car on the pole for the Christmas Clash at Carteret County Speedway in Swansboro, North Carolina. Ranier told Wise and Speed that he’d found “a true phenom” and that they needed to keep an eye on him, which they did over the next two seasons of short-track racing. By December of 2023, an intensive testing plan was in place with TeamSLR for McKee to learn the tracks on the Trans Am schedule in 2024, and to run a pair of races at the end of the season to prepare for a full-season effort in 2025.
“Our goal was to make him the youngest champion in Trans Am history, and he did it,” Ranier said. “It’s a testament to the planning, the people, and the partnership with TeamSLR that it all came together. We’ve been doing this with TeamSLR since 2019, starting with Sam Mayer, and it’s just worked. The way Scotty interacts with Josh Wise and Scott Speed at the Tech Center – the energy, the prep, the communication – it all ties together perfectly. Enough can’t be said for the Lagasses and how they’ve handled Tristan. They’re great partners. The relationship between Chevrolet and that team has been outstanding. We knew from all the testing and sim work that Tristan was going to be good. The prep that Scotty, Josh Wise and Scott Speed put him through was just unbelievable. He was so well-prepared for every race.”
Lagasse Jr., points out that the stage for this year’s championship run, as well as the overall success enjoyed by TeamSLR and its M1 Racecars customer programs, was set when the team campaigned Mosack for full-season runs in 2021 and 2022, netting a pair of race wins, eight podium finishes and 14 top-10s in 24 starts, with finishes of third in the championship the first year and fourth the next.
“We are without a doubt a better organization than we were during the Connor Mosack years,” he said. “I’m better. We’re much more organized. Connor deserved that championship, but there were things that caught us off guard back then that we’ve fixed. The failures from that era are why we have systems in place now. So we took those lessons and just got better.”
The process-driven mindset that has become the defining strength of the team and its support of its M1 Racecars customers was also on display this season in both the race for the national series’ Pro-Am Challenge championship, and the Trans Am Western Championship. The late Barry Boes was on pace to successfully defend his 2024 Pro-Am title this season before he was involved in a fatal aviation incident Aug. 18. Second-year Pro-Am competitor Jared Odrick and his M1 Racecars Camaro campaigned by Troy Benner Autosport heads to the COTA finale just eight points out of the class lead after three wins and seven top-two finishes this season.
“Even the teams outside our immediate walls are having success, and that success comes from the culture and people within our immediate walls,” said Lagasse Jr. “That’s a big part of why we’re successful. We’re all in this together. Why would I not give a veteran driver like Brody Goble information to enable him to help us make Tristan or Jared better?”
That cooperative approach has created a network of stronger and smarter drivers as the team executes its role as a proving ground for future NASCAR hopefuls, and professional and gentlemen racers alike. For Lagasse Jr., that’s the overlying goal.
“At the end of the day, this is a training platform for young drivers, and really for any driver,” he said. “The goal isn’t just to win in Trans Am for the young guys, the goal is to win in Xfinity and Cup. If we prepare them to do that, they’ll win here, too.”
McKee put his TeamSLR road-racing education to the test at the next level Aug. 8 at Watkins Glen, when he made his ARCA Menards Series debut just five days after his 15th birthday. He passed it with flying colors, emerging with the victory that made him the second-youngest winner in series history. He was quick to credit the preparation processes he’s experienced at TeamSLR and Chevrolet.
“Even when we started winning TA2 races and stringing together all these good finishes, we never stopped working,” he said. “That just shows how much effort our crew puts in and how much I put into preparing for every race. It’s been really cool to have the momentum rolling the past several months. Me, Carson Brown and Mike Skeen have all had wins. It’s just been awesome to see it all come together.”
-TeamSLR-