Jade Avedisian Becomes First Female CARS Tour Pro Late Model Winner After DeCaire DQed

Jade Avedisian has been declared the winner of Saturday night's zMAX CARS Tour Pro Late Model season-opener at New River All-American Speedway, which makes her the first-ever female race winner in the history of the CARS Tour.

The 18-year-old Toyota GAZOO Racing development driver was initially scored as the runner-up finisher in the race, but race winner T.J. DeCaire was disqualified following his car failing left-side weights in post-race inspection.

Avedisian put in a hell of an effort from behind the wheel on Saturday night as she pressured Tristan McKee, the race's dominant driver, for the race lead for the majority of the race. In the closing laps, Avedisian found herself in a three-way battle for the win with McKee and DeCaire.

While she initially thought she came up just shy of her first win, a historic win in the annals of CARS Tour history, it all changed in post-race technical inspection as the driver of the No. 24 Wilson Motorsports Toyota was named the official winner of the race.

ORIGINAL STORY: Saturday, March 1: 8:31 PM ET

Tristan McKee dominated Saturday night's CARS Tour Pro Late Model season-opening event at New River All-American Speedway, but after a rash of cautions in the closing laps, the Spire Motorsports development driver found himself in a dog-fight for the win against Jade Avedisian and T.J. DeCaire.

DeCaire seemed like a longshot to win the race in the closing laps as he was running third behind McKee and Avedisian, who was applying pressure to McKee for the lead throughout the second half of the race. But it was DeCaire's decision to make a three-wide move on a restart with four laps to go that flipped the outcome of the race.

That move secured DeCaire the lead, and allowed him to survive one final restart with two laps to go to take home his first-career CARS Tour Pro Late Model victory.

"I felt like I was the third best car there. I think it was my only shot," DeCaire said of his daring decision to make the three-wide move for the lead, "not knowing what was going to happen at the end, there. So, took the shot, the yellow came out after that, rewind on the top, and I got it cleared on the top. I'm pretty proud of myself for that. Tristan raced me clear on that last restart, so, I really appreciate it. Super pumped. I can't thank Scott [Walker], and everybody [at Walker Motorsports] enough. Super grateful for this situation."

Avedisian, a development driver for Toyota GAZOO Racing, would come up just short of becoming the first female racer to notch a win in CARS Tour competition as she would finish runner-up in the No. 24 Wilson Motorsports Toyota.

While Avedisian was happy for DeCaire, she feels like she needs to go back and watch the tape as she felt she should have been able to close out her first career win on Saturday night.

"Just really tight racing. T.J. did a really good job. I remember texting him before I came here asking what it was like, and he had never been. It's cool seeing him win, but yeah, I just need to go back and just kind of watch the last few restarts," Avedisian admitted. "I feel like there's no reason I shouldn't have won. I'll go back, study hard, and come out swinging hard for the next one."

For McKee, who led nearly all of the laps in the race on Saturday night, it was a disappointing finish, but he feels contact with DeCaire during one of the late-race battles led to his car having some handling issues, which hampered him down the stretch.

"I'm not really sure what happened on that restart, there. We got that caution, and then I don't know, [DeCaire], I don't know what happened if he got into me or what. But after that, I don't know, I think it bent the rear end or something. Because after that, it was just tight," McKee explained. "It was vibrating down the straightaway. Still P3, so, not bad. I think we could have done a lot better if that didn't happen. Oh well, we'll go onto the next one."

Isaac Kitzmiller worked his way into a fourth-place finish behind DeCaire, Avedisian, and McKee, and Ben Maier rounded out the top-five finishers in the race.

CARS Tour Pro Late Model National Dodge 225 Results

Photo Credit: Screengrab from the FloRacing broadcast