Rain was on the way to Michigan International Speedway on Friday, June 5. On the last restart, Gio Ruggiero took the lead from Jake Bollman, leading the field when a caution came out for a multi-car crash. As the racetrack was cleaned, rain arrived, and the race was called over at lap 57. Ruggiero was the winner, scoring his third triumph of the 2026 season.
Ruggiero led the final 10 laps to increase Joe Gibbs Racing’s lead in the owners’ point standings.
“Yeah, it was awesome,” Ruggiero told FOX Sports after receiving the news that he won. “Really proud of the No. 18 team, man, they work so hard and this is such a great group of guys. Awesome to win here with my family, my mom and dad. So, it was cool that Gavan got to push me there at the end of the race and, you know, helped me get the lead. Just executed on every restart, I felt like, and, yeah, our car drove good. But I felt like we were still a little bit behind on speed and still got it done. So, definitely a good day for us. Wanted to, you know, finish it off under green but, yeah, take it how you can get it. Wish we would’ve got to drive it over there and park it in the real victory lane.”
Bollman finished second, increasing his lead in the driver’s point standings. He tied his career-best finish, set earlier in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. The winner there? Ruggiero.
Bollman’s Nitro Motorsports teammate Gavan Boschele finished third followed by Connor Mosack, who led the most laps in the race, in fourth and Lanie Buice in fifth.
Nitro teammates Thomas Annunziata and Isabella Robusto were sixth and seventh, with Will Kimmel in eighth, Nitro driver Wesley Slimp and George Siciliano, AKA Squirrel McNutt, in 10th.
Cleetus McFarland, also known as Garrett Mitchell, was the story of the race, albeit he wound up in 14th place.
“Well, went out there with a fast hot rod on the track,” McFarland said post-race. “Obviously, as you know, pole award, but I tore it up. I fricking, I was tight and it wouldn’t turn left. So inevitably hit the wall. Then it acted up even worse … it just got that crap in the wheels and, you know, vibrating. I got this much wheel in it and this much pedal in it and I just can’t do anything. It was really frustrating, especially starting off on the pole. You know, it’s just you only go backwards and it doesn’t feel good when cars are passing you. But, nothing I could do. We came in after hitting the wall. After we came in and made some adjustments, it didn’t feel much better but a little better and then I got tangled up in that accident. Now I look back on that accident, I’m like, ‘We’re three freaking wide.’ Maybe I should’ve let that guy have a little more room and raced another lap versus bombing three-wide. We all crashed, car’s tore up again, I slammed it against the wall, not good.”
The popular YouTube content creator captured the pole earlier in the day, though he was passed by Mosack for the lead on lap 1.
On lap 5, McFarland was sliding inside the top five, then made contact with Annuzniata. Amazingly, both drivers saved their racecars.
While Daniel Dye and Bobby Dale Earnhardt both had single-car spins to bring out cautions, the race was clean until the ultimate end.
Ryan Vargas slid up into McFarland, who tagged Andy Jankowiak. Jankowiak also hit Jason Kitzmiller, sending Kitzmiller to a DNF and Jankowiak to a 15th-place finish with a severely damaged No. 71.
Ruggiero had the lead, and when Mother Nature brought rain to the two-mile racetrack, he had the trophy.
ARCA Race Results from Michigan
ARCA next visits Pocono Raceway. The Tricky Triangle will host the series on Friday, June 12, at 3 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by FOX Sports 1.
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.
Thanks for choosing to comment on this article. A name and email address are required to post a comment. The email address is not publicly visible or shared. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated according to our comment policy.