With the most entrants at an ARCA Menards Series race at Iowa Speedway since 2012, one would think it was a thrilling race with exciting battles throughout the field.
Yet the Pinnacle Racing Group duo of Tristan McKee and Carson Brown literally dominated the day. They were the only two to lead laps in the 150-lap affair. McKee went to victory lane and Brown wound up one spot behind in second.
Iowa was the penultimate race for the ARCA Menards Series East season. McKee retook the points lead from Max Reaves. In the national division, Jake Bollman maintained his lead over Thomas Annunziata.
Yes, those four drivers made the Frontstretch power rankings. Moreover, McKee triumphed in another category.
1. Tristan McKee
McKee was outrageously fast at Iowa. He captured the pole, led 125 of the 200 laps, including the final 94, and held off the field on four restart attempts. Only nine drivers finished on the lead lap.
McKee’s performance handed him that East points lead and his No. 77 team has the East owners’ points lead, too. PRG is positioned to win back-to-back ARCA series owners and drivers titles.
McKee has won twice this season in the national division and led laps in three races. So, despite competing in six of the 14 races, McKee leads the series in laps led with 325. His Iowa triumph and overall on-track speed thus far hand him No. 1 in these rankings.
2. Carson Brown
After pacing the field during practice, Brown started and finished second, leading 25 laps in the process.
In 14 platform starts in 2026, Brown has two wins – the combo race at Phoenix Raceway – 13 top fives, and 13 top 10s. He ought to be in contention for a title, right?
Sadly, no, because Brown did not compete in the East season opener at Hickory Motor Speedway. For the record, a person with knowledge of the situation told Frontstretch that the decision was Brown’s and that the team was not thrilled with it.
It is a shame because Brown’s team is still in the East owners’ title hunt, third in the standings, 16 points behind the No. 77. Brown, meanwhile, is ninth, mathematically able to climb as high as fifth. Yes, had he been at Hickory, Brown could’ve had an outside chance at the title.
Brown continued his good weekend with a strong NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut at Iowa on Saturday. From start to finish, he gained five spots, earning a lead-lap 15th-place effort. The two drivers he finished directly ahead of? Brent Crews and Sammy Smith, both of whom are above The Chase cut line. Suffice to say, Brown has a promising career trajectory.
3. Jake Bollman
Bollman has led the points since the second race of the season at Phoenix. Annunziata has been in second since Michigan International Speedway, about two months ago. Bollman finished third at Iowa, the highest-finishing driver outside of the PRG duo, four spots ahead of Annunziata. The duo battled hard throughout the race. Bollman expects that to continue with six races left this season.
“Yeah, I mean, you know, it’s going to get heated like that,” Bollman told Frontstretch post-race. “It’s going to get worse, right? But I’m not going to give an inch and I know he’s not either, right? I feel like, you know, we raced each other hard right there and I feel like it was fun for me. And he did the same thing. You know, he got me back and, you know, we just battled, and I felt like we had a car to run top three right there.
“Just, we need to figure out how to find that other more speed, you know. I feel like we’ve been struggling with that all year. But, still happy, extended the points lead back to seven points and just hopefully going to keep doing that over the next couple of races and hopefully get a win by the end of the year and the championship.”
Bollman obviously wants a win, but he’s had a fast No. 20 Toyota this season too. Nine top fives, 13 top 10s and an average finish of 5.5 have been the model of consistency to sit atop the points. To find that speed, though, he must lead laps as he has only paced the field for nine.
4. Thomas Annunziata
Comparatively, Annunziata has led more laps than the points top 10 combined. Yet he trails Bollman by seven points. Ironically, head-to-head, they are split at besting each other seven times. Seven must be the lucky number here because Annunziata wheeled his No. 70 Toyota to P7 at Iowa, his 10th-straight top 10.
If Annunziata has one saving grace for his first-ever dirt-track start, it’s his crew chief Shannon Rursch. In the past five races at the Illinois State Fairgrounds – he was not at the 2024 edition – Rursch has led his drivers to two wins, four top fives, and four top 10s. Rursch’s two winning drivers? Crews and Jesse Love. Rursch’s record ought to give Annunziata a boost of confidence as he heads into the unknown of dirt-track racing.
5. Max Reaves
In his ARCA series starts in 2026, Reaves has one finish outside the top 10, 11th at Toledo Speedway.
Reaves has either dominated the competition, leading at least 100 laps in five races, or not leading at all, with Toledo the outlier at six laps led.
Iowa fell into the zero laps-led category. Reaves qualified sixth, drove through the field into the top five and ultimately finished fourth.
He lost the East points lead, now trailing McKee by two points. Reaves maintained the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 owners’ points lead in the national division, now 10 over the PRG No. 28.
So, Reaves is doing well, just not as fast as he would like. At Iowa, his Achilles heel was restarts.
Reaves will get more experience at difficult restarts at the Springfield Mile. In his first dirt start there last year, he slid from second place to sixth at the finish.
Paint Scheme of the Race
Did you do a double-take when you saw McKee’s No. 77 Chevrolet on TV? If yes, that’s OK. Carson Hocevar, McKee’s Spire Motorsports teammate, has driven that Chili’s paint scheme before, including in his first NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega Superspeedway this year.
McKee’s paint scheme was rad, shining while leading under the lights. Therefore, he also takes the Iowa Paint Scheme of the Race Award.
Hey Lionel Racing, can we get that race-winning ARCA diecast? Combo it as a 1/64-scale package with Hocevar’s race-winning car. Then send me the bill when I inevitably purchase it.
You can find all of Frontstretch’s video coverage from Iowa and the ARCA Menards Series West race at Portland International Raceway on the Frontstretch Grassroots YouTube channel.
Jokes aside, the ARCA competitors have a one-week break to prepare for their next event. They’ll go dirt tracking at the Springfield Mile on Sunday, Aug. 23. The green flag for that 100-lap race will fly at 2 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by FOX Sports 1.
As for the East series field, they’ll wrap their season at Bristol Motor Speedway in about a month. They’ll race alongside their main-series counterparts on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 5:30 p.m. ET with TV coverage again provided by FS1.
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.