TOLEDO, Ohio — Thomas Annunziata became the 43rd champion in ARCA Menards Series history when he finished fifth in last Friday’s Menards 150 at Kansas Speedway.
Annunziata and his Nitro Motorsports teammate Jake Bollman scored an identical 947 points, but Annunziata’s victory at Lime Rock Park gave him the tie breaker over a winless Bollman.
It was the second time in series history that there was a tie atop the ARCA Menards Series standings, but it was the first time a tie breaker was used to determine the champion.
Ron Hutcherson and Dave Dayton tied for the title in 1974 and were named co-champions.
Bollman led the series with 12 top-five finishes in the series’ 20 races. He and Annunziata both had 18 top-10finishes.
• Isabella Robusto finished third in the ARCA Menards Series standings to give Nitro Motorsports a sweep of the top three positions in the driver’s championship. For Robusto, she matched Hailie Deegan’s third-place finish in 2020 as the highest finishing female in the series standings, and for Nitro Motorsports, it is the first team to ever sweep the top-three positions in the final standings.
• Eight drivers won at least one ARCA Menards Series race: Gio Ruggiero, Carson Brown, and Max Reaves all scored four victories, Tristan McKee won three times, Kaden Honeycutt won twice, and Connor Mosack, Thomas Annunziata, and Andy Jankowiak all notched a single victory.
• Carson Brown became the 39th driver since 1979 to win in his ARCA Menards Series debut with his victory at Phoenix Raceway in March.
• Gio Ruggiero (Daytona), Carson Brown (Phoenix), Andy Jankowiak (Talladega), and Kaden Honeycutt (Watkins Glen) all earned their first career ARCA Menards Series victory in 2026. Honeycutt was the 372nd driver to earn at least one ARCA Menards Series win.
• Lanie Buice’s second-place finish at Chicagoland Speedway matched the all-time series best finish by a female driver. Shawna Robinson (Daytona, 1999), Erin Crocker-Evernham (Kentucky 2005, Kansas 2007m Kentucky 2007), Hailie Deegan (Daytona 2020, Springfield, 2020), and Isabella Robusto (Springfield, 2024) all have earned second place finishes previously.
• Isabella Robusto set the record for most top-five finishes for a female driver in ARCA Menards Series history with her 13th top-five result, a fifth-place finish at Berlin Raceway in June. She ended the season with 14 total top-five finishes with another fifth-place at Salem Speedway to extend her record.
• Nine drivers won at least one Sioux Chief PowerPEX Pole Award: Carson Brown had the most with six, Max Reaves had four, Thomas Annunziata had three, Gio Ruggiero had two, and Gus Dean, Jack Wood, Garrett Mitchell, Lanie Buice, and Tristan McKee all had one each. There were four races without a speed for the pole: both races at Kansas Speedway and the road course race at Watkins Glen International and qualifying canceled by inclement weather, while the field was set per the rulebook for the race at Talladega Superspeedway. Jack Wood was on the pole for the first Kansas race, Gio Ruggiero was on the pole at Talladega and the second Kansas race, and Max Reaves was on the pole at Watkins Glen.
• Bollman led the ARCA Menards Series standings for 18 consecutive races and held a lead as high as 27 points after the race at Pocono Raceway in June. He also led the series’ full-time drivers with a 5.9 average finish, over a full position better than Annunziata who was second at 6.95.
• Despite only making only 13 starts, Max Reaves led more laps than any other driver with 690 laps at the front of the field in six different races. Carson Brown was second at 576 in a season-best seven different races. Tristan McKee was third with 430, Gio Ruggiero fourth at 245, and Landon S. Huffman fifth at 132. Annunziata was sixth, but the highest driver who started all 20 races, with 129 laps led in five races.
• Twenty-four different drivers led at least one lap: Reaves (690), Brown (576), McKee (430), Ruggiero (245), Huffman (132), Annunziata (129), Connor Mosack (107), Kaden Honeycutt (101), Daniel Dye (42), Jack Wood (39), Jake Finch (32), Garrett Mitchell (25), Isabella Robusto (16), Gus Dean (15), Jake Bollman (10), Gavan Boschele (10), Lanie Buice (6), Ryan Huff (5), Ryan Vargas (3), John Kennedy (2), Andy Jankowiak (1), and Isaac Kitzmiller (1).
• Annunziata completed 2607 of a possible 2617 laps for a 99.62% completion percentage. Prior to the finale, Bollman had completed every lap but one, but he lost 42 laps due to crash damage just before the halfway point. He ended the season with 2574 laps completed for a 98.36% completion percentage.
• There were 70 lead changes in the 20 races, an average of 3.5 swaps per race. There were 69 lead changes in 2025.
There were 111 caution periods for 708 laps, up from 100 cautions for 535 laps in 2025. That works to an average of 5.55 caution flags per race for an average of 35.40 laps.
• Twenty-nine drivers scored at least one top-five finish and 59 drivers had at least one top-10. One-hundred forty drivers scored ARCA Menards Series points in 2026, and 137 started at least one race.
