When the 2026 ARCA Menards Series season finale at Kansas Speedway took the green flag, two drivers were in the hunt for the title. Nitro Motorsports teammates Jake Bollman and Thomas Annunziata were separated by 16 points entering the race. An 11th-place finish for Bollman would have secured the rookie a championship no matter what his New Jersey-born teammate did.
Ultimately, Annunziata secured the championship on a tiebreaker, but that was perhaps the least dramatic part of the evening.
Meet the Contenders
Jake Bollman is a 19-year-old ARCA rookie. Bollman secured a full-time opportunity in Nitro’s No. 20 Toyota after a 2025 season which saw a majority schedule in the ARCA Menards Series West for Bill McAnally Racing. In seven starts, the 19-year-old won one race and secured three podiums. Entering the final race at Kansas, the Californian had 12 top-fives and 18 top-10 finishes including four runner-ups.
Annunziata’s first full ARCA season came after a partial schedule in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for Cope Family Racing. The 21-year-old finished the year with ten top-5s and seventeen top-10s. Annunziata had fewer top-fives and top-10s than his teammate, but did take his No. 70 Toyota to Victory Lane at Lime Rock Park.
Opening Laps: “An Eye for an Eye”
And now we have part TWO of championship contenders colliding!!! 🤔
📺 FS1 | @kansasspeedway pic.twitter.com/n49B0gcUWu
— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) September 26, 2026
Bollman started third and Annunziata fifth due to rained out qualifying. Annunziata passed his teammate for third, but it would not be enough to win the championship. On Lap 16 Bollman slid up the track, collecting both himself and his teammate. Bollman remained in the top five, while Annunziata fell outside the top 10.
“I didn’t really mean to get into him,” Bollman said. “That lap car gave me no room and I had nowhere to go. I tried to keep it out of him as best I can, but contact was made and it is what is is, right?”
Annunziata gained multiple spots while Bollman lost multiple spots on the ensuing restart. On Lap 24, the teammates began a battle for sixth place. Contact from Annunziata sent Bollman around, bringing out yet another caution.
“If I was in his position I don’t know if I would have retaliated the way he did,” Bollman said. “I feel like that’s gonna hurt his career a little bit and it shows the type of person he is.”
Annunziata would restart in the top-five with Bollman outside the top-20. Bollman made quick work of his competition and returned to a position to clinch the title. On Lap 41, everything changed. Kimmel spun from sixth place, collecting Bollman from eighth. A lapped car, the No. 91 of Austin Vaughn, was also involved in the crash. This caused Bollman’s No. 20 significant damage.
“We’re gonna get the car back out there and finish where we can,” Bollman said. “There’s still a chance, you never know. We got 20 guys working on this thing, and we’re gonna get it back out there.”
The Final Stretch
After the halfway break, the mission became clear for Annunziata. With Bollman in the garage and down to 23rd place, a seventh-place result would secure him the title.
With 25 laps to go, the caution came out for Charles Weslowski Jr. During this caution Bollman returned to the track. If the damaged No. 2o Toyota could make minimum speed, two positions were up for grabs. These would force Annunziata to finish fifth for the championship
The season’s final caution came out 12 laps later after Landon S. Huffman made contact with the wall. At this stage of the race Bollman gained enough positions for Annunziata to need a fifth place finish for the title. The No. 70 then pitted to make an adjustment to give Annunziata, who had spent a majority of the race around seventh, a shot at a top-five. With nine to go Annunziata started ninth, putting four cars between him and the championship.
With a pass on Talladega winner Andy Jankowiak with six laps to go, Annunziata took fifth place and never relinquished it. This gave him the championship on a points tiebreaker over Bollman.
“It was huge, I didn’t think it was going to happen,” Annunziata said after winning his first title. “I missed all the late model years and legends car years of learning ovals and I had to do it the hard way. I knew it was going to be hard especially against my teammates, they’re very talented […] We started collecting poles and wins, we were the only full-time driver to do that. I felt like we deserved it, but I’m gutted for my teammate.”
Looking Forward
Thomas Annunziata confirmed during media availability before the race that he will not return to the ARCA Menards Series in 2027. It appears that the now-former teammates plan not to have a professional or personal relationship following this event.
“I won’t ever talk to him again,” Bollman told Bob Pockrass. “I think that’s just a disrespect kid, right? I apologized right as I [collected him] on the radio, like ‘I just got loose man, the No. 5 car gave me no room’. We’re battling for a championship here, but to flat out dump me? Come on, that’s just unsportsmanlike and I wouldn’t do that to him. I could have went out there those last eight laps and wrecked him to win the championship, right? But I wasn’t raised that way. Sorry, I just wasn’t and I won’t ever drive like that.”
Annunziata had a markedly different take than his teammate.
“Jake Bollman did a good job too, he had a great year,” he said. “It’s unfortunate he had bad luck there, but we had horrible luck in the beginning as well. I kept my head in it. We made contact there in the beginning and then I misjudged it on the straightaway there, but I mean it’s an eye for an eye. We were racing hard, and he’s gotten into me a few times, so it was hard racing there at the end.”
If the former teammates rise up the ranks together, the 2026 ARCA Menards Series finale could be the start of a budding rivalry that lasts for years.
