Coming into Friday’s Menards 150 at Kansas Speedway, Jake Bollman held a 16 point lead over his Nitro Motorsports teammate Thomas Annunziata for the ARCA Menards Series championship. All Bollman needed was a clean race and no major issues to secure the title. However, his day went from promising to disasterous
As for the race winner, driving the No. 28 Whelen Chevrolet SS for Pinnacle Racing Group, Carson Brown outdueled Gio Ruggiero in the final restart, and after some contact on the final lap, he was able to pull away and earn his fourth win of 2026.
“Very bittersweet to end it on a really high note with Pinnacle Racing Group,” Brown said post-race. “Really pumped to get this Whelen Chevrolet in victory lane for the first time, and hopefully more to come, right?”
Brown did not expect much coming into the race, making his first intermediate start without practice or qualifying after both sessions were cancelled from rain showers. With the help from his crew chief Steven Dawson and spotter Derek Kneeland, he was able to get the hang of it.
“Just closed off the year about as good as we could have,” he continued. “Practice and qualifying got canceled, it was my first one mile and a half, didn’t really know what to expect. They said hold it wide, I said OK.”
Not only did Brown win the race, his year was also highlighted by six poles in 13 starts in 2026. The Richard Childress Racing development driver will make the transition to the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2027, replacing Jesse Love in the No. 2 car.
Despite winning the race, most of the attention was focused on the championship battle between Bollman and Annunziata.
The chaos began on lap 16, as both drivers navigated through the lap car of Ed Pompa. Bollman entered the turn low and got loose, causing him to slip up into Annunziata, getting them both sideways with Annunziata having the worst outcome.
It wasn’t long before both drivers collided again. On lap 24, Annunziata clipped the left rear of Bollman coming into turn two, spinning him and bringing out the second caution of the race.
Then on lap 42, Bollman’s championship run turned into disaster after running into the spinning car of Will Kimmel in turn three, getting significant front damage. Moments later, the No. 91 of Austin Vaughn lost control in oil laid down by the No. 20 and plowed into the driver’s side door of Bollman. Both drivers ended up walking away under their own power, and were both released from the infield care center afterwards.
From that point on, Annunziata needed to stay out of trouble for the rest of the night, and secure a top-five finish to clinch the championship. Thanks to his win at Lime Rock Park, Annunziata would win the tiebreaker over Bollman. He was able to surpass Andy Jankowiak for the fifth spot with six laps to go, and held off until the end to clinch the 2026 ARCA Menards Series championship.
“It was crazy. I came into here without any preconceived notions. I knew it was going to be hard,” Annunziata said post-race. “Jake Bollman did a good job, too. He had a great year, just unfortunate he had bad luck there, but we had horrible luck in the beginning, as well. We led the championship for one race. That’s really cool.”
Bollman returned to the track with under 20 laps to go as a last resort for the championship, but ultimately was not enough in the end.
“I wasn’t trying to worry about the points tonight,” Bollman said post-race. “We should have been more patient, but you know, I wanted to get that last win right? I don’t think I put myself in any bad situation except that lap car deal and cost us a little bit there.”
Bollman led the points for all but one race in 2026, and felt devastated to lose it in the most important one.
“It just hurts real bad,” he continued. “We still showed speed today, half that race when we were falling back, we ran second place times.”
Gio Ruggiero started from the pole position and dominated the majority of the event, before slipping to a second place finish. Gavan Boschele, Lanie Buice, and Annunziata completed the rest of the top-five positions. Andy Jankowiak, Jason Kitzmiller, Isabella Robusto, Michael Christopher Jr., and Esteban Rodriguez completed the top-10 spots.
With the ARCA Menards Series season coming to an end, there’s one division that remains.
The ARCA Menards Series West will be in action on Saturday, September 26, at Madera Speedway for the Madera 150, which will air live on FloRacing at 10:15 PM EST.
Menards 150 Race Results
- #28 Carson Brown
- #18 Gio Ruggiero
- #25 Gavan Boschele
- #77 Lanie Buice
- #70 Thomas Annunziata
- #71 Andy Jankowiak
- #97 Jason Kitzmiller
- #55 Isabella Robusto
- #42 Michael Christopher Jr.
- #38 Esteban Rodriguez
- #89 Bobby Earnhardt (-1 Lap)
- #11 D.L. Wilson (-2 Laps)
- #12 Takuma Koga (-5 Laps)
- #86 Jeff Maconi (-5 Laps)
- #99 Michael Maples (-5 Laps)
- #10 Ed Pompa (-6 Laps)
- #03 Alex Clubb (-7 Laps)
- #32 Charles Weslowski (-8 Laps)
- #48 Brad Smith (-8 Laps)
- #9 Landon S. Huffman (OUT)
- #20 Jake Bollman (-42 Laps)
- #81 Kevin Campbell (OUT)
- #69 Will Kimmel (OUT)
- #06 Nate Moeller (OUT)
- #91 Austin Vaughn (OUT)
- #83 Brayton Laster (OUT)
- #15 Landon Brown (OUT)
