KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The final race of the ARCA Menards Series season, the Menards 150 at Kansas Speedway, is set for Friday, September 25.
Jake Bollman (No. 20 Nitro Motorsports Toyota) enters the race with a 16-point advantage over his Nitro Motorsports teammate Thomas Annunziata (No. 70 JBL Audio Toyota) as both look to clinch the ARCA Menards Series championship in their first full-time season.
Bollman has a series leading 18 top-ten finishes in 19 starts, while Annunziata has 17. Bollman leads with 12 top-five finishes to Annunziata’s ten, but should there be a tie in the final points, Annunziata holds the tie breaker: he has one win this season, at Lime Rock Park, while Bollman is looking for his first career series victory.
If Bollman finishes 10th or better, he will clinch the ARCA Menards Series championship even if Annunziata wins the race and scores maximum bonus points.
If neither driver wins or scores any bonus points, Annunziata must beat Bollman by 16 positions to win the championship. If either driver scores a bonus point and the other does not, that changes the number of positions by one in favor if that driver. For example, if Annunziata leads a lap and Bollman does not, then Bollman must finish 15 positions ahead of Annunziata to win the title. There are a total of three non-victory bonus points available, one each for winning the Sioux Chief PowerPEX Pole, leading a lap, and leading the most laps.
Bollman finished third in his only previous start at Kansas Speedway in May, while Annunziata finished ninth.
-The Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 team holds a slim 11-point advantage over the Pinnacle Racing Group No. 28 team for the ARCA Menards Series owner’s championship.
The No. 18 team is looking to clinch its fifth championship in the last seven years, while PRG owner Mark Webb is looking to clinch for the second consecutive year. If Gio Ruggiero (No. 18 First Auto Group) finishes sixth or higher, the No. 18 team will win regardless of what Carson Brown (No. 28 DWC Chevrolet) does.
Ruggiero won at Kansas in the spring, while PRG won both races at Kansas in 2025 with reigning series champion Brenden Queen driving. Each team won in 2024, with Connor Mosack (PRG) and Taylor Gray (JGR) each taking a victory. Ironically, Mosack, who is PRG team owner Mark Webb’s stepson, also scored a Kansas victory for JGR in 2023.
Brown will be on the hunt for his fourth ARCA Menards Series victory of the season and his second in the last eight days. He also won the series’ most recent race at Bristol Motor Speedway to go along with wins at Phoenix Raceway and the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds.
-Lanie Buice (No. 77 Sunoco Chevrolet) tied Shawna Robinson, Erin Crocker, Hailie Deegan, and Isabella Robusto for the best finish by a female driver in ARCA Menards Series history with her second-place finish in her last series start at Chicagoland Speedway in July.
She also joined Patty Moise, Robinson, Crocker, Milka Duno, Natalie Decker, and Robusto as the seventh female driver in series history to earn a Sioux Chief PowerPEX Pole award with her pole at Pocono Raceway in June. Buice has a 4.25 average finish in her four starts so far in 2026 and will be back behind the wheel for the team that cliched the ARCA Menards Series East championship on Thursday with Tristan McKee.
-Landon Brown (No. 15 University of Kentucky Toyota) will make his third ARCA Menards Series start in the Menards 150, and his first for Nitro Motorsports. Brown finished a career-best 15th in his most recent start at Chicagoland Speedway and 18th in his most recent start at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
-Former ARCA Menards Series winners at Kansas Speedway include Jason Jarrett (2001), Frank Kimmel (2002, 2006, 2013), Shelby Howard (2003), Ryan Hemphill (2004), Chad Blount (2005), Scott Lagasse, Jr, (2007), 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 (2020-1), Corey Heim (2020-2, 2022-2), Ty Gibbs (2021-1), Nick Sanchez (2021-2, 2022-1), Jesse Love (2023-1), Connor Mosack (2023-2, 2024-1), Tanner Gray (2024-2), Brenden Queen (2025-1, 2025-2), and Gio Ruggiero (2026-1).
-The record for most cautions in an ARCA Menards Series race at Kansas Speedway is 10 for a record 53 laps, set in 2006. The record for the fewest cautions in an ARCA Menards Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway is two, four times (2019, 2020-2, 2021-2, and 2023-2) while the fewest laps under caution was in 2006 at six.
-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 race record at Kansas Speedway, set in 2019, at 141.695 miles per hour.
