Racing late into the night in Pensacola, Florida, 13-year-old Keelan Harvick became the youngest winner in the history of the Snowflake 125. He also won the prestigious Pro Lade Model race in his very first attempt.
The event didn’t go green until around 1:30 a.m. local time, with Luke Baldwin starting the race from pole position. Keelan, the son of 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick, started 15th but moved steadily up the field.
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He was in the top five by lap 40, but Kaden Honeycutt (the reigning winner of the Snowball Derby that follows the Snowflake 125) was in control until the lap 75 break.
Harvick made an outside pass to Honeycutt on a subsequent restart, but fell back to fourth on the next restart. Undeterred, he quickly regained lost ground and put his No. 62 car back in contention.
With just 25 laps remaining, 15-year-old Tristan McKee (who won an ARCA race in his debut earlier this year) was leading the way when Harvick got underneath him and took over the lead once again. This time he never gave up, holding on for a late restart to capture the checkered flag around 4:30 a.m. local time on Sunday morning.
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McKee finished second, Honeycutt third, Isaac Kitzmiller fourth and Luke Baldwin fifth. Luke Yarborough, Jimmy Renfrew Jr, Gabe Brown, Evan Szotko and Conner Jones rounded out the rest of the top ten.
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