Admittedly, Berlin Raceway is one of my favorite racetracks. Nestled near Grand Rapids, Mich., it’s well run by Jeff Striegle and his staff. Furthermore, the 0.348-mile short track, in addition to its unique length, has no backstretch wall. Fortunately, no ARCA Menards Series cars have ventured off course there. Hopefully though, the 22 entrants provide quite the action when the series visits Berlin on Saturday, June 20.
So, what do you need to know ahead of the Herr’s Snacks 200? For starters, the 200-lap race will have two competition cautions at laps 75 and 125. When drivers enter pit road, they enter from turn 1 and exit turn 4. Again, it’s a unique racetrack.
And there are zero former winners entered in it.
Although his No. 18 team has won at Berlin three of the last four times there, Max Reaves did not win in his lone start there in 2025. Reaves qualified fourth and finished second. Moreover, Reaves also competed in the racetrack’s Money in the Bank 150 earlier this year to gain more experience there. Reaves is also seeking to give his Joe Gibbs Racing team their third straight ARCA triumph. Expect Reaves to be up front.
Pinnacle Racing Group has a unique duo entered at Berlin. In the No. 77 Chevrolet is Taylor Reimer, who is making her 10th career national series start and fourth this season. She has never competed at Berlin before, but she has three top 10s in three platform short track starts. Her most recent start this season came at Talladega Superspeedway when she wound up sixth. She will again carry her Fre Nicotine sponsorship.
Reimer’s teammate Tyler Lupton is making his series debut, though he is a regular at Berlin, capturing two feature wins there in 2025.
Lupton competed in the Money in the Bank 150 too. Reaves finished fourth and Lupton was 11th.
Berlin was the site of Nitro Motorsports’ first ARCA victory last season. Now the team visits the racetrack with four drivers, albeit with a zero in the wins column.
“We’re going in the right direction,” team owner Nick Tucker told Frontstretch. “We’re excited for Berlin because it has an obviously cool place in our history of being our first ARCA win. We’re really looking forward to it, especially with where our cars have been the last several months of being competitive and we’re looking for continued success there. We’ve been in position several times to win this year and just circumstances have not gone in our favor. Yes, it’d be nice to get that monkey off our back.”
Thomas Annunziata has one career win, last year at Lime Rock Park, and he enters Berlin with the defending race-winning crew chief Shannon Rursch. Rursch not only guided Treyten Lapcevich to victory; Lapcevich won the pole and led every lap too.
“For sure, Shannon’s had success there with winning there last year with Treyten and what he did with Jesse [Love],” Tucker said. “They’ve run good on the short tracks here so they’re looking for a strong run. Thomas is going to be a strong contender. He’s got as good a shot as anyone and they’re working hard on the car and on his craft so he will be a strong contender for the win.”
Isabella Robusto finished sixth in the ’25 Berlin race. She has a strong ARCA short track background with nine of her 12 career top-five finishes on tracks one mile in length or shorter.
“They’re starting to platform their consistency being right around that top-five area and they’ve just got to continue to build on that and top threes will start rolling in for her,” Tucker added about her performance thus far this season.
Jake Bollman arguably has been the surprise driver of the season. Announced full time in the No. 20 late in the offseason, he leads the points by 27 over Annunziata.
“Absolutely, Jake’s doing a fantastic job,” Tucker continued. “He works very hard at preparing each week and the No. 20 team, led by Doug George, is doing a good job of preparing good fast racecars. They keep knocking out top threes every week. They were on pace for a great run at Pocono Raceway and had a collision with a lapped car in the closing laps which relegated him to fourth. They probably would’ve ended up second otherwise. They’re doing a nice job.”
Bollman competed part time in the ARCA Menards Series West in 2025. He accrued one win, three top fives, six top 10s and 198 laps led in six short track starts, highlighted by a win at 0.375-mile Colorado National Speedway.
“They have a tremendous amount of confidence going into Berlin and he’ll be one to watch,” Tucker remarked.
In the series most recent short track race at Toledo Speedway, Annunziata finished second, Bollman in fourth, and Robusto in sixth.
Will Robinson is the fourth Nitro driver, piloting the No. 25 Toyota. It will be his main series debut after making two West series starts this season.
“He is in his very early stages of ARCA racing and a short track is a good place to cut his teeth, right,” Tucker explained. “It’s just a good opportunity for him to build on his experience.”
Using a rotation of drivers, the No. 25 is fifth in the owners’ point standings thanks to five top fives, six top 10s, one pole award and 18 laps led.
“What’s great about that is consistency within the race team itself,” Tucker continued. “Shane Wilson’s doing a great job with that group and they just keep bringing good racecars to the track and good drivers piloting it. So, they’re doing a good job as well. They’re coming off a second place last week and a third before that. They’re knocking off some good days here.”
Bollman is first in points, Annunziata is second, 27 behind, and Robusto is fourth, 60 behind. Berlin is race No. 9 of the 20-race season, so Nitro drivers have clearly run solidly thus far.
“We’re just trying to have the best days that we can and where the points fall, they fall,” Tucker noted. “In the drivers’ standings, it’s a battle between our guys and in the owners’ standings, just trying to battle the PRG and Gibbs cars for that. We don’t look at it any particular way of chasing them. Just we are really focused on ourselves of trying to develop our cars and program as best we can to have consistent results.”
PRG, JGR and Nitro are all full-time organizations. Berlin marks the return of Willie Mullins, back in action for the first time since the season opener at Daytona International Speedway.
“It’s great to be back at the track with my ARCA family,” Mullins told Frontstretch. “We miss them and are looking forward to seeing familiar friends back at Berlin.”
Mullins wheeled his self-owned No. 3 to a 10th-place result at Berlin last year.
“Our program is getting stronger and with the veteran of Bryant Frazier on the pit box we are looking forward to having a better finish,” he added.
Mullins will run Berlin and the following race at Elko Speedway. He tested his No. 3 at South Boston Speedway in preparation, learning “We were missing something in the rear of the car. We had Peyton Sellers in the car testing, giving myself feedback, and making our program stronger.”
Mullins has earned a top 10 in six straight years. Bet on him to continue that streak with another top-10 run at Berlin.
The 22 drivers will compete at Berlin on Saturday the 20th at 6:30 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by FOX Sports 2.
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.
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