KANSAS CITY, Kan. — After a six-week hiatus, the ARCA Menards Series returns to action in the Tide 150, the third race of the 20 that make up the 2026 season. It’s the first of two races scheduled for Kansas Speedway; the second will be the season finale in September.
The 30-car entry list is the largest for an ARCA Menards Series race at Kansas Speedway since 2016.
• Nitro Motorsports’ Jake Bollman (No. 20 Nitro Motorsports Toyota) leads the ARCA Menards Series standings entering the Tide 150. Bollman finished second in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway and followed it with a sixth-place result at Phoenix Raceway. He will be making his first start at Kansas Speedway.
Bollman leads Jason Kitzmiller (No. 97 A.L.L. Construction / Carter CAT Chevrolet) by nine points heading into the Tide 150. Kitzmiller finished seventh in the season opener at Daytona and battled to a 16th-place finish at Phoenix after an accident in practice necessitated a switch to a backup car.
• Ryan Vargas (No. 91 Maples Motorsports Ford) enters the Tide 150 third in the ARCA Menards Series championship standings, just one point out of second. Vargas finished seventh at Daytona, the best finish for the budding Michael Maples Motorsports team in its second year of existence.
• Dystany Spurlock (No. 66 Foxxtecca Ford) will make her ARCA Menards Series debut in the Tide 150, and when she takes the green flag she will become the first Black female driver to compete in an ARCA Menards Series race.
She accomplished the same feat in the ARCA Menards East, finishing seventh in her debut race at Hickory Motor Speedway three weeks ago.
• Daytona winner Gio Ruggiero (No. 18 First Auto Group Toyota) returns to the seat of the Joe Gibbs Racing entry, and Jack Wood (No. 28 Chevrolet Performance Chevrolet) returns to the Pinnacle Racing Group entry.
• Garrett Mitchell (No. 30 Kenetik Ford), known to his millions of fans as Cleetus McFarland, will make his second start of the year with the ARCA Menards Series in the Tide 150. Mitchell competed in the ARCA Menards East race at Rockingham, scoring his first top-five finish in fourth.
• George Siciliano (No. 0 Heat Wave Visuals Ford), known to millions of viewers of Cleetus McFarland’s YouTube channel as Squirrel McNutt, will make his ARCA Menards Series debut after competing in ARCA Menards East races at Hickory and Rockingham Speedway. Siciliano finished an impressive ninth at Rockingham in just his second professional stock car start.
• Andy Jankowiak (No. 71 Sbarro Chevrolet) will look to rebound from an 18th-place finish at Phoenix. The result does not belie the performance for the KLAS Motorsports team; Jankowiak was in the top five at the mid-race break but lost three laps when the battery failed on the car as the field lined up for the ensuing restart.
• ARCA Menards West regular Robbie Kennealy (No. 11 Jan’s Towing Ford) will make his third ARCA Menards Series start of the season in the Tide 150. Kennealy earned a seat in the ARCA Menards Series “Road to Daytona” program during the January pre-race practice at Daytona by virtue of his 2025 West Series’ Bounty Rookie of the Year award.
Kennealy and team owner Jan Qualkenbush enjoyed the experience at Daytona so much they entered into a strategic alliance with 1995 ARCA Menards Series champion Andy Hillenburg for the Daytona race, where Kennealy finished 15th. Kennealy and Qualkenbush also intend to compete at Talladega Superspeedway next weekend.
• Daniel Dye (No. 24 Champion Container Corporation Chevrolet) will make his second start of the season with the Sigma Performance Services team. Dye finished fourth at Daytona; he has two previous ARCA Menards Series starts at Kansas Speedway, finishing third and fourth in the two 2022 races.
• Lanie Buice (No. 77 Sunoco Chevrolet) makes her first start of the season in the second Pinnacle Racing Group entry. The No. 77 entry has had a productive hiatus, winning both ARCA Menards East races at Hickory and Rockingham with Tristan McKee at the wheel.
Buice finished eighth in her ARCA Menards Series debut at Kansas Speedway in April 2025; it’s her first start since she finished 12th at Bristol Motor Speedway last September.
• There have been 33 previous ARCA Menards Series races at Kansas Speedway.
Previous winners include Jason Jarrett (2001), Frank Kimmel (2002, 2006, 2013), Shelby Howard (2003), Ryan Hemphill (2004), Chad Blount (2005), Scott Lagasse, Jr. (20707), Scott Speed (2008), Parker Kligerman (2009), Ty Dillon (2010), Alex Bowman (2011, 2012), Spencer Gallagher (2014), Mason Mitchell (2015), Chase Briscoe (2016), Michael Self (2017), Sheldon Creed (2018), Christian Eckes (2019), Bret Holmes (2020), Corey Heim (2020, 2022), Ty Gibbs (2021), Nick Sanchez (2021, 2022), Jesse Love (2023), Connor Mosack (2023, 2024), Tanner Gray (2024), and Brenden Queen (2 – 2025).
• Alex Bowman holds the ARCA Menards Series track qualifying record at Kansas Speedway, set in 2012, at 29.258 seconds/184.559 miles per hour.
• Christian Eckes holds the ARCA Menards Series track race record at Kansas Speedway, set in 2019, at 1 hour, 3 minutes, 31 seconds / 141.695 miles per hour.
