Max Reaves Continues Undefeated Performance At Nashville Fairgrounds

Joe Gibbs Racing is always a threat to find Victory Lane week in and week out in the ARCA Menards Series East, but 15-year-old Max Reaves has shown out in his first two starts, dominating the Music City 150 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.

Reaves dominated the race, leading all but three laps after starting from pole position due to a rainout. He maintained his lead throughout, with Tyler Reif being the only other driver to lead a lap after a debris caution brought out the yellow flag.

Reaves and Reif continued their door-to-door battle after the restart. However, on Lap 22, Reif lost control as he exited Turn 2, which allowed Reaves to create enough distance to keep Reif in his rearview mirrors for the remaining 128 laps of the race.

After the break, Reaves successfully fended off challenges from a determined Reif and pulled away by over seven seconds to become the third driver in ARCA East Series history to win in their first two career starts.

“Those restarts were tough.” Said Reaves following the victory at Nashville Fairgrounds. “I would just spin the tires, but we came back from that, the car (Joe Gibbs Racing) was great, and we came back from those restarts.”

“Not on a long run wise, I think just with better car knowledge and more car control that if we had a late race restart, we definitely would’ve won but the car was really good,” said runner-up finisher Reif. Have to give credit to the team and Max. They do a good job and their baseline is good every week, so we did a good job, we were really consistent, we just need a little more speed.”

Tennessee native Hunter Wright was able to best series points leader Isaac Kitzmiller for fourth, followed by Zachary Tinkle finishing fifth, the last car on the lead lap.

Jackson McLerran, Takuma Koga, Becca Monopoli, Quinn Davis, the 15-year-old female short track racer making her ARCA East debut, and Nate Moeller rounded out the top 10 after 150 laps around the 0.596-mile oval.

Jeff Maconi, who struggled with engine issues, finished his ARCA East debut in 12th spot in the No. 86 Ford Fusion for Clubb Racing Inc.

After three of eight ARCA Menards Series East events, Isaac Kitzmiller holds a seven-point advantage over Tyler Reif in the fight for the championship. Zachary Tinkle is third, 11 points back, with Takuma Koga in fourth. Max Reaves (despite not running Rockingham) is third in points.

Music City 150 Results: