After ARCA’s return to Chicagoland Speedway on Friday, July 3, the season enters its midsummer stretch with just nine races remaining. While Friday’s event did not produce late-race fireworks, it was exactly what Connor Mosack‘s Pinnacle Racing Group team needed as he cruised to victory.Â
Mosack’s dominant win helped tighten the owners’ championship battle after Joe Gibbs Racing suffered a DNF. Meanwhile, Thomas Annunziata continued to show impressive speed and closed the gap to Jake Bollman in the drivers’ standings. With both title fights heating up, here’s how the latest Frontstretch ARCA Power Rankings stack up.
1. Connor Mosack
Mosack had the fastest car at Chicagoland, and in the second half of the race, he was able to stretch his lead. But even with the best equipment, you still have to execute to win. Mosack made a crafty three=wide pass on Annunziata and Lanie Buice, taking control of the race and was able to keep the field in his rear-view mirror with ease.
The win was a big one for Pinnacle Racing Group. PRG’s No. 28 car dominated the series last year, with Brenden Queen finding victory lane on eight occasions. Friday was the first win for the No. 28 car since Carson Brown‘s victory at Phoenix in March. It was also the second week in a row that the car looked like the best in the field, as Landon S. Huffman had a commanding lead before suffering a mechanical failure the previous week at Elko Speedway.
Mosack’s victory could serve as a shift in momentum for the team. The lackluster day from the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 car was a welcome sight in the owner’s championship; JGR had won the previous four races. The PRG No. 28 car now sits just 24 points behind the JGR No. 18.
2. Lanie Buice
Mosack’s PRG teammate claims the second spot as she finished second at Chicagoland. Buice continues to show her consistency in the PRG No. 77 as she seeks a career-defining win. Buice has made four ARCA Menards Series starts this year and has finished in the top five in all of them.
Despite her consistent success, Buice is not fully satisfied. Speaking to the media before the race, she said, “I feel like I have done about 80% of a good job. I’ve left a lot on the table in some races and done a really good job in others.”
One statistic that stands out about Buice is that all four of her top-five finishes have come on intermediate tracks. She ran at Kansas Speedway last year for Rev Racing, but her other three starts came at tracks where she was making her debut. On top of that, most of her racing experience before these starts came in Late Model Stock cars with the CARS Tour. Her strong finishes show how quickly she has adapted to ARCA and gotten up to speed. Could that win be close at hand?
3. Thomas Annunziata
After Toledo, Annunziata told Frontstretch, “I go into the road courses with a ton of confidence, right, and there’s two of those a year. But all those other guys have gone into those other 18 with confidence, so I feel like I’m on the back foot.”
He may now feel differently after earning three straight poles. Annunziata looks to be a driver who is gaining confidence; he backed up that speed with a fifth-place Chicagoland result.
Now, looking ahead, as a past winner at Lime Rock Park Annunziata will be favored to finish ahead of Bollman this week. If he continues to secure good track position on ovals, the championship battle is going to become even more interesting as the season progresses.
4. Jake Bollman
Bollman remains the points leader; entering Chicagoland, he had put together a five-race streak of top-five finishes. That streak came to an end with an eighth-place result, but it wasn’t enough for Annunziata to close the gap completely.
However, Lime Rock Park presents another challenge for Bollman. In his only other road course start this season at Watkins Glen International, he finished 10th.
Bollman’s overall numbers remain impressive. He has an average starting position of 6.2 and an average finish of 5.6. He has avoided mistakes, recorded zero DNFs, and done exactly what he has needed to do, aside from earning a victory.
Even with those numbers, it is hard to ignore the momentum being built by teammate Annunziata. Four races into the season, Annunziata sat seventh in the standings, 29 points behind Bollman. He has since climbed to second, and Bollman’s advantage has been cut to just 16.
5. Landon S. Huffman
Huffman had the fastest car at Elko Speedway, but a mechanical failure opened the door for Max Reaves to grab the race win. At Elko, Huffman was racing for Pinnacle Racing Group, so it was interesting to see how he would perform with CR7 Motorsports, a smaller-budget team.
Huffman made the most of his drive and finished third despite fighting a very loose race car late in the run. At just 19 years old, Huffman possesses something that is difficult to teach: speed. However, he can also get impatient on the track and force passes. His aggressive driving style is certainly not making him many friends in the garage.
Huffman’s first ARCA start of the year came in the ARCA Menards Series East race at Hickory Motor Speedway, where Max Reaves said after the race that he felt Huffman was trying to take him and the No. 77 of Tristan McKee out in the closing laps.
“If you can’t beat ‘em, you got to wreck ‘em,” Reaves remarked. Huffman will continue to show speed, but the key to his development will be improving his patience and race craft.
Paint Scheme of the Race
Daniel Dye takes the award for paint scheme of the race at Chicagoland. Dye’s team, Sigma Performance Services, pulled out all the stops with a design that paid tribute to America’s 250th anniversary. They even included a photo of the car next to “The Bean” in downtown Chicago.
His No. 24 certainly stood out on the track. While I really enjoyed the throwback look of Jeff Maconi‘s No. 86 Clubb Racing car, the patriotic paint scheme gets the nod on a holiday weekend.
It was Dye’s fourth start this season in the ARCA Menards Series and he was able to ride the red, white and blue paint scheme to a solid fourth-place finish.
Next up, the ARCA Menards Series heads to Lime Rock Park in Connecticut for the Lime Rock Park 100. The 1.5-mile road course hosts the second and final road course race on the 2026 schedule. Action begins on Friday, July 10 at 4 p.m. ET with television coverage on FOX Sports 2.
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