07/15/2026
To Win Your First Carolina Sprint Tour Race, You Might Have to Beat Jake McLain
Almost every racing series or weekly track program has that one driver you have to beat if you want to earn your first victory. The kind of driver who becomes a measuring stick for the rest of the field — a champion, a multiple-time winner, and someone who never gives an inch on the racetrack.
For the Carolina Sprint Tour, that driver is Jacob McLain of Hemby Bridge, North Carolina.
McLain is the all-time winningest driver in series history with 23 career victories and remains the only two-time Carolina Sprint Tour champion, capturing titles in 2012 and 2023.
According to race-by-race statistics compiled by TheThirdTurn.com dating back to the series’ inaugural season in 2012, McLain has finished runner-up to a driver earning their first career Carolina Sprint Tour victory an incredible 10 times. Even more impressive, five of those drivers would later go on to become series champions themselves: George Loux, Cale Cozad, Richard Wisdo, Tony Grams, and Johnny Petrozelle.
It’s become somewhat of a rite of passage within the series.
Time and time again, drivers celebrating their first Carolina Sprint Tour victory have mentioned McLain in Victory Lane interviews, often saying some version of, “If I was going to win one of these races, I knew I was going to have to beat Jake.”
That trend has already continued twice during the 2026 season.
In June at Carolina Speedway, Caleb Scarborough lined up alongside “The Midnight Rider” and spent all 25 laps keeping the veteran at bay to score his first career series victory. Just over a month later, Robert Tyler added his name to the list by holding off McLain at Sumter Speedway to capture his maiden Carolina Sprint Tour win.
Whether it’s coincidence, destiny, or simply the mark of a great competitor, one thing has become clear over the years: if you’re searching for your first Carolina Sprint Tour victory, chances are Jacob McLain is the driver you’ll have to beat to get there.
First-Time Carolina Sprint Tour Winners Who Defeated Jake McLain
* Johnny Petrozelle — September 1, 2012 — Friendship Motor Speedway
* Tony Grams — April 20, 2013 — Friendship Motor Speedway
* Darren Hasty — August 23, 2014 — East Lincoln Speedway
* Matt Hope — May 16, 2015 — East Lincoln Speedway
* Bradley Galedridge — October 23, 2020 — Fayetteville Motor Speedway
* Richard Wisdo — October 8, 2022 — Harris Speedway
* George Loux — April 22, 2023 — Sumter Speedway
* Cale Cozad — August 24, 2024 — Smoky Mountain Speedway
* Caleb Scarborough — June 5, 2026 — Carolina Speedway
* Robert Tyler — July 11, 2026 — Sumter Speedway
It’s one of the more unusual statistics in Carolina Sprint Tour history, but perhaps it says more about McLain than anyone else. For nearly a decade and a half, the path to Victory Lane for many of the series’ newest winners has gone directly through the series toughest benchmark.
