ARCA Preview: Ashley Furniture 150

For the first time in seven years, the NASCAR garage heads to the Chicagoland Speedway, and what better way to kick the weekend off than an ARCA Menards Series race?

Like the upper levels of the sport, ARCA has not seen Chicagoland since 2019. Up until that point, however, the track was a staple on the series schedule. ARCA had a visit to Chicagoland each year from 2001 to 2019, with some notable winners that include Michael McDowell, Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell.

In the most recent running of the race, it was Ty Majeski who found victory lane. Only 20 cars started that race, the fewest the series had ever seen at the track. Two drivers entered in that race return this weekend: Brad Smith and Morgen Baird. In fact, those two are the only drivers entered this weekend that have any experience at the track at all. 

This year, 27 cars are slated to tackle the mile-and-a-half in Northern Illinois. It marks the largest entry list for the series since it headed to Michigan International Speedway three races ago. 

The series’ most dominant entry, the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18, will welcome back a familiar face this weekend. William Sawalich, who won 20 ARCA races from 2023 to 2025 with the team, is slated to drive the car for the first and likely only time this season. The combination of Max Reaves and Gio Ruggiero the team has rolled out has been lethal this season, winning over half of the races run so far. With Sawalich bringing his fair share of experience to the track, expect the No. 18 to be a strong competitor for the win once again. 

Nitro Motorsports has a very young driver lineup, and perhaps that’s a good way to gauge just how long its been since the series has been to Chicagoland. Its five drivers entered were between the ages of 11 and 15 that weekend. Isabella Robusto, who is the eldest of the group, is coming off of one of her rougher short-track outings with a sixth-place finish at Elko Speedway. However, a top-10 finish still keeps her third in points, 33 off teammate Jake Bollman. 

Speaking of Bollman, he is coming off a runner-up finish at Elko last weekend, in a race that he said he drove the hardest he’s ever had in his career. His points lead over Thomas Annunziata is healthy, but not safe, at 21 points.

Annunziata showed very good speed at Elko, earning the pole for the event. However, an unexpected pit stop forced him a few laps down, and into a seventh-place finish. The 21-year-old ran well at similarly built Kansas Speedway earlier this season before a flat tire forced another green-flag pit stop. A top-three run could be in the cards for the No. 70.  

The last two Nitro entries belong to Jade Avedisian and Gavan Boschele, both driving for the first time since Pocono Raceway. Boschele ran his best ARCA race to date that day, finishing second after driving through the field. The 18-year-old has finished inside of the top five in all four of his starts this season. Avedisian is a bit more raw to asphalt racing but has ran well in limited starts this season. She’s coming off of back-to-back top-10 finishes at Kansas and Pocono and will look to extend that in her fourth start of the 2026 season.

CR7 Motorsports will have a second entry this weekend, though it’s not for Isaac Kitzmiller. It’ll be Landon S. Huffman joining Jason Kitzmiller at the team this weekend, with Huffman driving his second consecutive race, though doing so for different teams. Huffman led laps at Elko with Pinnacle Racing Group but suffered a five-lap penalty for intentionally bringing out a caution, forcing a finish outside of the top 10. Chicagoland marks the first time Huffman has raced on a larger oval track. 

As for Kitzmiller, he comes off of his first-career top-five finish on a short track and is a near-shoo-in for a top 10 effort week in and week out. The last time he finished outside of the top 10 on a mile-and-a-half-style oval was at Kansas in 2023. 

Welcome back to the entry list, Andy Jankowiak. The Talladega Superspeedway winner had his full-time efforts washed away after crashes at both Michigan and Toledo Speedway, forcing the 38-year-old to miss three consecutive races. After his win, Jankowiak has failed to record a top-10 finish, but he does have success at Kansas in his career, so a solid return isn’t out of the question for the No. 71 team this weekend. 

PRG is coming off of perhaps its strongest effort of the year at Elko. Huffman led laps and stayed ahead of the No. 18 prior to his penalty, and Taylor Reimer had the No. 77 inside of the top three for nearly the entire race. Now headed to Chicagoland, the team sees two fresh faces. Connor Mosack will pilot the No. 28, with Lanie Buice in the No. 77. 

Buice is fresh off of her own best race in the series, finishing fifth at Pocono after earning the pole and leading a handful of laps. Though just part time this season, it’d be hard to find someone as consistent as Buice has been in her three starts. She’s finished fifth in each race and has seemingly gotten more and more competitive each time out. 

As for Mosack, Chicagoland is his second race of the 2026 season, the first being the rain-shortened Michigan race in which he finished fourth. Mosack joins Sawalich as the two drivers with the most experience in the upper series of the sport, and with a fast car beneath him could be a factor in the win Friday evening. 

Sigma Performance Services has a car entered for the first time in three races, as Daniel Dye returns to the series for his fourth race of 2026. Dye finished runner-up at Kansas earlier this season and seventh at Pocono his last time out. 

It’s a home race for Clubb Racing Inc. this weekend, and the team will debut its third car, the No. 83. The entry is expected to make more starts later this season and will have Nate Moeller behind the wheel for the team’s home race. Owner Alex Clubb calls nearby Morris, Ill., home and will race at Chicagoland for the first time in his career. CRI will also field the No. 86 for Jeff Maconi, per usual.

With the return to Chicagoland, the series will be allotted a longer practice session this weekend. ARCA teams have an 80-minute practice, from 2 p.m. ET to 3:20 p.m. ET. It’ll also have a 20-minute timed qualifying session that follows from 3:35 to 3:55 p.m. ET. After a pair of NASCAR practices, ARCA returns to the track Friday evening at 8 p.m. ET for the start of the Ashley Furniture 150. The race will be broadcast on FOX Sports 1.