17 April’s ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway will mark the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series début of Keith McGee, who will drive the #33 for Reaume Brothers Racing. While the plans have been in place since January, the United States Air Force veteran will have backing from the Air Force Reserve, as announced on Wednesday evening.
“All of here at Reaume Brothers Racing are honored that Keith will have the support of the US Air Force Reserve for his upcoming races this season,” said RBR owner Josh Reaume in a team release. “It is really cool to see that the Air Force Reserve is helping back a veteran of their branch pursue his dream in NASCAR now, after he has served for this country.”
McGee served in the Air Force from 2001 to 2009 as a radar specialist. A racing fan since youth, he began driving himself when an indoor karting track opened in his hometown Eagle River, Alaska, in 2015. After climbing through the karting ranks, including winning the Extreme Racing League championship in 2017, McGee started competing in what is now the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series.
He made his début in the now-ARCA Menards Series West in 2018 at Kern County Raceway Park, where he retired after clutch problems. He ran four West Series races for Kart Idaho Racing in 2019 with a best finish of tenth on two occasions at Meridian and All American Speedways.
In January 2020, he joined Our Motorsports for the ARCA Menards Series preseason test at Daytona International Speedway, where he was nineteenth-fastest of thirty-seven drivers who set a time on the first day and twenty-second of thirty-nine on the second. He signed with RBR to race in the Truck Series at Talladega later in the year, but the COVID-19 pandemic shelved those plans. Reaume instead drove the truck himself which featured sponsorship from The Mullet That Changed My Life, a Facebook group that helped McGee raise funding to race. In mid-January, McGee rejoined the team for the Richmond race, and when the event arrives in April, he will be the first Alaskan and disabled veteran to race in a NASCAR national series.
“I am honored to be partnering with the US Air Force Reserve for my historic season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series,” McGee commented. “After serving 8 years in the Air Force for this great Nation, I am blessed to be able to represent all the men and women that have served or are currently serving our country. I would personally like to thank all Veterans both past and present for all of the sacrifices that they have made. When I take my first green flag on April 17th, I will be doing it in your honor, and I will always be forever grateful for everything you have done in the name of freedom.”
RBR are fielding two full-time trucks, the #33 and #34, for a variety of drivers in 2021. Jason White drove the #33 in the first two races of the season while Jesse Iwuji and Lawless Alan split the #34. Like McGee, Iwuji has a military background as an officer in the United States Navy.
The Air Force Reserve Command is no stranger to motorsport sponsorship. In 2007, the Reserve sponsored a drifting exhibition event at Irwindale Speedway that included some NASCAR drivers. Air Force branding has not appeared on a NASCAR truck in over a decade, most notably with Wood Brothers Racing in the mid-2000s, though it is an associate sponsor of Cup Series team Richard Petty Motorsports and Erik Jones.
