Keith Edward McGee (born May 7, 1981) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the Nos. 02, 22, and 27 Ford F-150s for Reaume Brothers Racing. He has also previously competed in what is now the ARCA Menards Series West.
| Keith McGee | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
McGee at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2024 | |||||||
| Born | Keith Edward McGee May 7, 1981 Truckee, California, U.S. | ||||||
| NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career | |||||||
| 22 races run over 4 years | |||||||
| Truck no., team | Nos. 02/22/27 (Reaume Brothers Racing) | ||||||
| 2024 position | 36th | ||||||
| Best finish | 36th (2024) | ||||||
| First race | 2021 ToyotaCare 250 (Richmond) | ||||||
| Last race | 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race (Phoenix) | ||||||
| |||||||
| ARCA Menards Series West career | |||||||
| 5 races run over 2 years | |||||||
| Best finish | 19th (2019) | ||||||
| First race | 2018 NAPA Auto Parts 175 (Bakersfield) | ||||||
| Last race | 2019 Arizona Lottery 100 (Phoenix) | ||||||
| |||||||
| Statistics current as of November 8, 2024. | |||||||
McGee previously served in the United States Air Force for eight years. McGee is notable for being the first Alaskan and the first disabled veteran to compete in a NASCAR national series race.[1]
Racing career
editEarly career
editMcGee was interested in racing as a child, but he either could become a professional snowboarder[citation needed] or go to the military, and he chose the latter. After moving from California to Alaska and serving for eight years in the United States Air Force beginning in 2001, he started racing when a go-kart facility opened near his town of Eagle River, Alaska. At the time, he was age 35.[2]
He competed in 115 local go-karting events in 2017, racking up 78 wins. He competed in the Extreme Racing League, a go-kart series in its first year, where he won every race on the way to the championship. In 2018, McGee competed in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, finishing second in points and driving at his home track, Alaska Raceway Park. He also won the championship in the Pro Grand National Series.[3]
NASCAR and ARCA
editMcGee made his debut in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West at the 2018 season-finale at Kern County Raceway Park in the No. 39 for Patriot Motorsports Group, but finished last, not finishing the race due to clutch issues.[4]
For 2019, McGee had been announced to run at the Tucson doubleheader race in one of the Jefferson Pitts Racing cars, but this did not end up happening.[5] His first start of the year came at Douglas County Speedway in Oregon in June of that year. He drove the No. 37 and finished 11th. He later got his first top-10 in his next race at Meridian Speedway in Idaho. It was just his third start in the West Series.[6]
McGee stated in an interview for the Racing-Reference website that he was hoping to run full-time in the ARCA Series and also make his Truck Series debut in 2020.[7] He did drive an ARCA Menards Series car for the first time at the series' Daytona testing in January 2020, driving for Our Motorsports in the No. 02 car (along with Andy Seuss, Sebastian Arias, and Ronnie Osmer).[8] McGee ended up not running the race there in February (Seuss and Benny Chastain filled the seats of team's two cars in that race), nor any others for the team and in the series in 2020. On the Truck side, McGee did try to attempt to make his Truck debut at Talladega, driving the No. 33 for Reaume Brothers Racing, but those plans were called off and postponed once he was not approved to race there. With his first start in the series coming at a restrictor plate track during the COVID-19 pandemic, where NASCAR canceled all practice and qualifying for the race, McGee would have gotten behind the wheel of a truck for the first time in the race, which NASCAR was against (the same thing happened in June to James Davison in the Cup Series, also at Talladega). As a result, RBR stated that he would make his Truck debut for them sometime in 2021.[9] On January 18, 2021, Reaume announced that McGee's first race would be at Richmond and that he would be in the No. 33, which would be a Chevy in that race. In addition, the team stated that he could run more races in 2021 if sponsorship could be found.[10] On May 25, 2021, McGee announced that he would be competing in the race at Charlotte in the No. 3 for Jordan Anderson Racing. After previously sponsoring Matt DiBenedetto in 2019 and Clint Bowyer in 2020, both in the NASCAR Cup Series, Barstool Sports returned to NASCAR as McGee's sponsor in this race.[11] McGee later drove the No. 49 CMI Motorsports Ford at the Victoria's Voice Foundation 200. In his last appearance of the year at Talladega Superspeedway, he was one of only five trucks that finished clean, leading a lap and running in the top 15 for the final 20 laps; avoiding a last lap crash, he slipped to tenth for his best finish of the season.
On November 11, 2023, RBR announced that McGee would return to drive for the team in one of their trucks, the No. 27, in 2024 in six races: Daytona, Las Vegas, Texas, Charlotte, Richmond and Phoenix.[12] On October 4, 2024, McGee ran the No. 02 for Young's Motorsports, but instead of their usual Chevrolet, it was a technical partnership with RBR, so it was a Ford instead. He failed to qualify for the race but ended up replacing Bryan Dauzat in the No. 28 FDNY Racing Chevrolet.
Personal life
editMcGee grew up in Nevada County, California, and is the youngest of seven children in his family. He moved from California to Alaska in 2005 when he was serving in the military. However, after his service ended, he did not move back to California and remained in Alaska living there permanently. He got a job as a RADAR specialist for the U.S. Department of Defense.[3]
His grandfather worked on and built racecars for drivers on the west coast of the U.S. McGee and his father, also involved in racing as a driver for Factory Polaris, would also watch NASCAR races on TV and attend local Sprint car races in person. McGee's mother competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary and won a gold medal after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis earlier in her life and being told she would not be able to walk again.[7] His mother is also a cancer survivor, which is why McGee often runs with Breast Cancer Awareness ribbons on his West Series cars and has run some races with his car number being the color pink.[2]
Motorsports career results
editNASCAR
edit(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
Craftsman Truck Series
edit| NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | NCTC | Pts | Ref |
| 2021 | Reaume Brothers Racing | 33 | Chevy | DAY | DRC | LVS | ATL | BRD | RCH 30 |
KAN | DAR | COA | TEX 29 |
46th | 55 | [13] | |||||||||||||
| Jordan Anderson Racing | 3 | Chevy | CLT 29 |
NSH DNQ |
POC | KNX | GLN | GTW | DAR | BRI | |||||||||||||||||||
| CMI Motorsports | 49 | Toyota | LVS 32 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cram Racing Enterprises | 41 | Toyota | TAL 10 |
MAR | PHO | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | Reaume Brothers Racing | 43 | Chevy | DAY | LVS | ATL | COA | MAR | BRD 34 |
DAR | KAN | TEX | 66th | 10 | [14] | ||||||||||||||
| Toyota | CLT 33 |
GTW | SON | KNX | NSH | MOH | POC | IRP | RCH | KAN | BRI | TAL | HOM | ||||||||||||||||
| 33 | Chevy | PHO 34 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2023 | 34 | Ford | DAY | LVS | ATL 36 |
COA | TEX 33 |
BRD | MAR | KAN | DAR | NWS | CLT 36 |
GTW | NSH | MOH | POC | RCH | IRP | MLW | KAN | BRI | 76th | 6 | [15] | ||||
| 33 | TAL DNQ |
HOM | PHO DNQ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2024 | 27 | DAY 31 |
NSH DNQ |
POC | IRP | 36th | 85 | [16] | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 22 | ATL 21 |
LVS 27 |
BRI 32 |
COA | MAR | TEX 28 |
KAN | DAR | NWS | CLT 34 |
GTW 27 |
RCH 34 |
MLW | BRI 33 |
KAN | PHO 29 | |||||||||||||
| 02 | TAL DNQ |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FDNY Racing | 28 | Chevy | TAL 26 |
HOM | MAR | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
* Season still in progress
1 Ineligible for series points
K&N Pro Series West
edit| NASCAR K&N Pro Series West results | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | NKNPSWC | Pts | Ref |
| 2018 | Patriot Motorsports Group | 39 | Ford | KCR | TUS | TUS | OSS | CNS | SON | DCS | IOW | EVG | GTW | LVS | MER | AAS | KCR 18 |
55th | 26 | [17] |
| 2019 | Kart Idaho Racing | 37 | Chevy | LVS | IRW | TUS | TUS | CNS | SON | DCS 11 |
IOW | EVG | GTW | 19th | 121 | [18] | ||||
| Ford | MER 10 |
AAS 10 |
KCR | PHO 24 | ||||||||||||||||
References
edit- ^ "McGee becomes first Alaskan, disabled veteran to race in NASCAR". April 21, 2021.
- ^ a b Segal, Davey (October 23, 2019). "Alaskan Racer Keith McGee Living His Dream While Thinking Pink". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
- ^ a b "About Me". KeithMcGeeRacing.com. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
- ^ Beard, Brock (October 30, 2018). "K&N West: Alaskan Keith McGee finds no success in first K&N race". lastcar.info. Blogger. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
- ^ Segal, Davey (April 18, 2019). "Keith McGee Teaming Up With American Cancer Society for Tucson". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
- ^ Burgess, Mary Kate (October 7, 2019). "2 on 2: Keith McGee is first Alaskan to race NASCAR professionally". NBC 2 KTUU. Gray Digital Media. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
- ^ a b Vince (October 23, 2019). "Get to know Keith McGee in 6 questions". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
- ^ Handy, Sarah (January 7, 2020). "Our Motorsports ready for ARCA test at Daytona". Kickin' the Tires. Archived from the original on January 12, 2020. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
- ^ Srigley, Joseph (September 27, 2020). "Keith McGee Joins Reaume Brothers Racing's Driver Lineup; Planned NASCAR Truck Series Debut Moved to 2021". TobyChristie.com. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
- ^ Christie, Toby (January 18, 2021). "Keith McGee Slated For NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Debut at Richmond With Reaume Brothers Racing". TobyChristie.com.
- ^ "(Twitter post)". Twitter. Keith McGee. May 25, 2021.
I'm proud to announce that I will be racing @CLTMotorSpdwy this Friday in the @ZeroBlog30 @barstoolsports Chevy Silverado for @j66anderson.
- ^ Christie, Toby (November 11, 2023). "Keith McGee Returns to Reaume Brothers Racing for Six Races in 2024". TobyChristie.com.
- ^ "Keith McGee – 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
- ^ "Keith McGee – 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 17, 2022.
- ^ "Keith McGee – 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
- ^ "Keith McGee – 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved February 16, 2024.
- ^ "Keith McGee – 2018 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
- ^ "Keith McGee – 2019 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
External links
edit- Official website
- Official profile at Reaume Brothers Racing
- Keith McGee driver statistics at Racing-Reference