TeamSLR’s Lanie Buice Fast, Focused and Fearless

19-Year-Old Chevrolet Development Driver Scores Record-Setting TA2 Series Western Championship Win in Just Her Fifth Career Start

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (May 5, 2026) - Two weekends ago at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, 19-year-old Lanie Buice delivered a breakthrough performance that felt both sudden and inevitable.

The native of Jackson, Georgia, qualified her No. 27 Sunoco/Guthrie’s Garage/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro for North Florida-based TeamSLR on the Western Championship-class pole for the April 25-26 weekend doubleheader opener, then backed it up with a commanding victory on race day.

For a driver admittedly still in the early stages of learning the nuances of road racing, it was a statement performance, one that brought to light both her rapid development and the strength of the program around her at TeamSLR through just five career TA2 Series starts.

“It was a little bit of a shock qualifying on the pole and winning the Western Championship race, but my TeamSLR guys always bring a really bad fast racecar,” said Buice, who’s one of the hand-picked class of young Chevrolet development drivers under the tutelage of Josh Wise, Scott Speed and Lorin Ranier. “That was a lot of fun. I cannot thank TeamSLR enough, and Chevrolet and Sunoco Race Fuels and Guthrie’s Garage for the opportunity to be out here. Everybody just gave me a really good car and I’m super grateful.”

Buice arrived at Sonoma bolstered with confidence after her ARCA Menards Series career-best finish of fifth just days earlier on the 1.5-mile oval at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. She applied that momentum into navigating one of the most technical tracks in North America for the first time in a TA2 car, and emerged as the first female driver ever to win a Western Championship race.

Her progress through five race weekends of TA2 competition dating back to her series debut last September at Virginia International Raceway in Alton has been steady, if not rapid enough to her liking.

“I have a lot of expectations of myself and I’m very hard on myself,” Buice said. “But I also know it takes time and I have to work at it every single day.”

That work ethic is central to her rise not just in her race craft, but in her preparation. As a development driver in the Chevrolet Wise Optimization program, Buice credits the system and culture created by performance coach Josh Wise and his team for sharpening her mental approach.

“The mind makes a huge difference in this industry,” she said. “Being able to switch it on and off, to reset after a tough day, that’s been one of the biggest things I’ve learned.”

At Sonoma, those lessons were put to the test. Buice handled relentless pressure throughout the race while running deep inside the overall top-10, navigating traffic and maintaining composure well beyond her road-racing experience level.

Team co-owner Scott Lagasse Jr., wasn’t the least bit surprised by what he witnessed that day.

“To see her mental strength, under massive pressure, passing lapped cars, I didn’t have to do or say much,” Lagasse said. “She did it. And for me, that’s absolutely awesome.”

Lagasse emphasized the bigger picture behind Buice’s performance gains since joining TeamSLR, crediting the synergy between TeamSLR and the pipeline of young drivers from Chevrolet, with whom his team is an official driver development partner.

“Any driver that gets in that system just gets better,” he said. “The culture they’ve built, looking internally, improving without tearing yourself down, it’s very special.”

While Buice stood atop the Western Championship podium after the Saturday-afternoon race with her overall sixth-place finish in the 34-car field, she was quick to praise the collective effort behind her result. It was a day TeamSLR occupied all three spots on the overall podium with Buice’s fellow Chevrolet development driver Helio Meza leading the way after his fourth of five consecutive victories to start his TA2 Series career. Meza was joined on the Saturday podium by teammates Alon Day, the runnerup, and Connor Mosack, the third-place finisher. Meza followed it up with a victory in the Sunday race that extended TeamSLR’s winning streak to 11 races dating back to last June at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, where its 15-year-old driver Tristan McKee scored his first of four wins en route to the 2025 CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series championship.

“TeamSLR is like a family,” Buice said. “We have some of the hardest-working people in the series, and I think that’s what makes the difference.”

That culture has become a defining trait. From veteran crew chiefs to rising teenage drivers, the organization’s depth was on full display at Sonoma, where TeamSLR drivers occupied the top four starting positions for the weekend’s second race.

Lagasse sees it all as an exercise in trust.

“You find the right people, put them in the right seats, and let them do their jobs,” he said. “We’re feeling very fortunate to have what we have going on right now.”

For Buice, her Sonoma victory is positioned as a launching point. Her 2026 campaign includes the full, 12-race TA2 Series schedule, additional ARCA races, and continued development across multiple disciplines including Late Model weekly series events.

Through it all, her ambition is unmistakable.

“I want this more than anything,” she said. “I want to be up front, and I want to win races.”

- TeamSLR -