The ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East pair up for the third of four combination races on the 2026 schedule, this time in the JR&CO 150 on Friday (Aug. 7) at Iowa Speedway.
As the schedule begins to wind down for both, that means double the championship discussions. ARCA East’s championship sees the top three contenders separated by just 14 points. Max Reaves currently paces second-place Tristan McKee by just seven points, with third-place Isaac Kitzmiller 14 notches off the points lead. Iowa marks the penultimate race of the East season, with the finale at Bristol Motor Speedway remaining afterward.
In the national division, Jake Bollman holds a narrow three-point lead over Nitro Motorsports teammate Thomas Annunziata. There’s more time for the championship to play out in the main series with six races afterward.
Reaves and his Joe Gibbs Racing team enter Iowa fresh off that East win at Flat Rock Speedway. Reaves will see Iowa for the first time in his career, and will do so with a new paint scheme. Victory Junction climbs aboard his No. 18 Toyota for the first time this season.Â
Nitro enters Iowa looking at its busiest ARCA weekend to date. The organization enters six cars at Iowa and five more in the ARCA Menards Series West race at Portland International Raceway on Saturday, the 8th. Looking strictly at Iowa, regulars Isabella Robusto, Bollman and Annunziata will be joined by Ty Fredrickson, Jade Avedisian and Gavan Boschele.Â
Bollman has never run a race at Iowa in his career, though he has succeeded at short tracks all season long. Both Annunziata and Robusto ran their only races at the track last season, with Robusto coming home fourth in the ARCA race. Annunziata’s experience came in NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series competition, albeit with a 32nd-place result.
Fredrickson starts a newly announced four-race slate with the team, driving the No. 90 Toyota. A Minnesota native, he’ll compete at Iowa, Bristol, Madison International Speedway and the West series event at Phoenix Raceway. Fredrickson has never contested an ARCA race at any of those tracks, but he has two top fives in three career starts, both coming at fellow short track Elko Speedway.
Boschele and Avedisian have been the most consistent part-timers Nitro has deployed this season. Boschele has still only finished outside the top four in one of six races, and he’s contending for a trip to victory lane. His No. 25 is sixth in the main-series owner points standings, with one runner-up result, seven top fives and nine top 10s.
Avedisian has only run three races but has yet to finish outside the top eight. She last ran sixth at Chicagoland Speedway. While the Nitro No. 15 is part time with 10 starts, the entry has one top five and six top 10s, so Avedisian will be fast.
McKee enters Iowa within striking distance of Reaves for the East points lead, at just seven points back. The last combination race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park did not treat McKee well, as an early incident put him behind the wall and numerous laps down before lap 20. That resulted in a 32nd-place finish, flipping the points outlook in Reaves’ favor. If McKee can avoid that result and finish at Iowa, he’ll set up a true duel for the title at Bristol. He is racing at Iowa for the first time, though.
He’ll be joined by Carson Brown. Brown won the pole at Flat Rock, but finished with an 18th-place DNF after a fuel pump problem. Looking solely at his national division starts, Brown has yet to finish worse than third in six attempts. This will be his first trip to Iowa Speedway, and it’ll be a busy one. Brown will also run Jordan Anderson Racing’s No. 32 in his NOAPS debut on Saturday.
The third East championship contender, Isaac Kitzmiller, is the lone driver out of the three to have experience at Iowa. Kitzmiller finished sixth in the race last season, en route to his East championship-winning season. This season, Isaac comes into the race with some momentum, fresh off a top five effort at IRP and a third place run at Flat Rock.
His father, Jason Kitzmiller, sits third in the standings, 91 points back of Bollman. His 10th-place finish at Iowa last year gave the Kitzmiller duo a pair of top-10 finishes, results they’ve become accustomed to in their starts together.
Maples Motorsports will have three cars at the track this week, as the familiar trio of Ryan Vargas, Michael Maples and Austin Vaughn are entered. Michael Maples has endured a string of bad luck lately, with engine issues plaguing his races at both IRP and Flat Rock. Though he was originally entered at IRP, Vargas withdrew in favor of Maples after his engine issues in practice. So, Iowa will his first ARCA start since Pocono Raceway, where he finished 10th. It comes at the same track Vargas made his NASCAR national debut in 2019, finishing 17th for JD Motorsports in the O’Reilly Series race. Vaughn, meanwhile, finished seventh at Flat Rock and is coming off two top-15 finishes in national division competition. The 17-year-old finished 10th at Elko and 14th at IRP.
When discussing that East race at Flat Rock, it’d be remiss not to mention Quinn Davis. The 17-year-old driver piloted the City Garage Motorsports No. 85 Ford to a fifth-place finish, her first ARCA platform top five and second top 10. Now, she comes to Iowa narrowly missing back-to-back top 10 finishes, as she finished 11th at IRP. She also finished 15th in the 2025 Iowa race.
It’s a customary one-day show in Iowa for the ARCA garage on Friday, the 7th, as practice will be at 3:30 p.m. ET with qualifying set to follow at 4:30. The green flag is slated to fly at 7 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by FOX Sports 1.
Josh joined Frontstretch in 2023 and currently covers the ARCA Menards Series. Born and raised in Missouri, Josh has been watching motorsports since 2005. He currently is studying for a Mass Communication degree at Lindenwood University