TALLADEGA, Ala. — The ARCA Menards Series takes to the ultra-high banks of Talladega Superspeedway in Saturday’s Alabama Manufactured Housing 200.
It will be the fourth race of the 2026 season, the 1,598th race in series history and the 64th ARCA Menards Series race at Talladega since 1969.
The starting lineup for the Alabama Manufactured Housing 200 will be determined by locking in the top 36 teams in the current 2026 ARCA Menards Series owner points that have filed entries by the entry deadline. With no scheduled Sioux Chief PowerPEX Pole Qualifying, the Pole Award will go to the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team, which leads the owner’s standings.
With 41 teams entered, the final four positions in the lineup will be determined by the fastest speeds in the final group in Friday’s practice session.
All teams that are not locked into the starting field will be grouped together and the fastest four will be added to the field.
• Jake Bollman (No. 20 Nitro Motorsports Toyota) leads the ARCA Menards Series championship standings by 12 points over runner-up Jason Kitzmiller (No. 97 A.L.L. Construction / Carter CAT Chevrolet) heading into theAlabama Manufactured Housing 200.
Bollman finished second in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway but will be making his first appearance at Talladega; Kitzmiller has six previous Talladega starts dating back to 2020 and finished fifth in 2025.
Ryan Vargas (No. 91 Maples Motorsports Chevrolet) is third in the standings 18 points out of the lead.
• Gio Ruggiero (No. 18 1st Auto Group Toyota) will be looking for his third consecutive ARCA Menards Series win. Ruggiero won the season opener at Daytona and then scored his second win at Kansas Speedway last weekend at Kansas Speedway in his only two starts of the season. Ruggiero’s victory has propelled Joe Gibbs Racing to the top of the ARCA Menards Series owner point standings by 15 points over the Joe Tovo-owned Nitro Motorsports No. 20 team.
• Jack Wood (No. 28 Pinnacle Racing Group Chevrolet) was on his way to victory when a late-race caution sent last weekend’s race at Kansas Speedway into overtime. Wood was nudged out of the lead into turn one and then more contact was made down the backstretch which resulted in hard contact to the outside wall.
Wood, who led a career-high 39 laps, will look to rebound from a disappointing 18th-place finish; Wood finished sixth in the season opener at Daytona.
• Daniel Dye (No. 24 Champion Container Chevrolet) will make his third start of the season in the Alabama Manufactured Housing 200. Dye finished fourth at Daytona and then was runner-up at Kansas, his best series finish since 2022 at Phoenix Raceway.
Dye, who won in his ARCA Menards Series debut at Berlin Raceway in 2021, finished third in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Talladega in 2024; he finished 17th in his only previous ARCA Menards Series start at Talladega in 2022.
• Taylor Reimer (No. 77 FRE Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet) will make her third start of the season and second with Pinnacle Racing Group. Reimer was running among the top ten when late-race issues brought her down pit road leaving her five laps down in 30th.
Reimer finished in the top 10 in each of her first six career ARCA Menards Series starts with two top-five finishes, including a career-best third at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in 2024.
• Andy Jankowiak (No. 71 Hook’d Solutions Chevrolet) returns to Talladega looking to better his fourth-place finish in 2025. Jankowiak led four laps last year, the first laps he’s led in his ARCA Menards Series career.
• YouTube superstars Garrett Mitchell (No. 30 BaldEagle.com Ford), known better as Cleetus McFarland and his sidekick George Siciliano (No. 0 Heat Wave Visuals Ford), known as Squirrel McNutt, will compete against each other for the second consecutive week but the first in which they can serve as drafting partners. Mitchell finished 20th at Kansas last Saturday after losing an oil line and making a spectacular slide through turns one and two, while Siciliano finished 12th in his first ever race on a track larger than one mile in length.
• Twenty-one drivers have scored their first career ARCA Menards Series victory at Talladega Superspeedway: Jim Vandiver, Johnny Halford, Bruce Hill, Sandy Satullo, Billie Harvey, Mark Martin, Jim Vaughn, Rick Roland, Davey Allison, Tim Steele, Keith Segars, Paul Menard, Kraig Kinser, Michael Annet, Dakoda Armstrong, Brandon McReynolds, Blake Jones, Gus Dean, Drew Dollar, Jake Finch, and Lawless Alan.
There has not been a repeat winner in the last 19 ARCA Menards Series races at Talladega. The last driver to repeat was 10-time series champion Frank Kimmel in 2006 and again in 2013. Previous Talladega winners on the entry list include 2016 winner Gus Dean (No. 25 CAB Installers Toyota) and 2024 winner Jake Finch (No. 15 Phoenix Toyota).
• Talladega Superspeedway is the site of the series’ closest-ever finish in the electronic timing era. In 2018, Zane Smith defeated Joe Graf, Jr. by inches at the finish line, which recorded 0.000 on the timing system, a statistical dead heat.
• Each of the last six ARCA Menards Series races at Talladega Superspeedway has been won from a top five starting position, and each of the last three has been won from the front row. Drew Dollar won from second in 2020, Corey Heim and Nick Sanchez won from fourth in 2021 and 2022, Jesse Love and Lawless Alan from second in 2023 and 2025; only Jake Finch won from the pole in 2024.
