By Zane Miller

With the start of the 2026 ARCA Menards Series season less than two weeks away, it’s time to take a closer look at the potential championship contenders and decide which full-time driver will have the upper hand. Now, the #18 fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing and the #28 Pinnacle Racing Group entry are expected to take the lion’s share of wins this season, as has been the case for the past two years. However, both teams are expected to each split the season between three different drivers, thus eliminating themselves from the championship equation.

This leaves a few realistic candidates to take home the hardware in the season finale at Kansas Speedway. Normally, this role would be occupied by either Venturini Motorsports or Rev Racing, as both have used full-time drivers and won ARCA championships earlier this decade. However, both teams ceased operations after the 2025 season, leaving an opening for a new organization to make their mark on history in 2026. The favorite to have a breakthrough year is Nitro Motorsports, which, while it attempted a partial season in 2025, ballooned to a multi-car operation after acquiring the assets of Venturini following their closure.

With Nitro being such a new team, it’s hard to tell who the ‘lead driver’ is at the moment, but Thomas Annunziata makes a strong case. While Annunziata comes from a sports car racing background, he is the only full-time ARCA driver with a series win already under their belt, doing so at Lime Rock Park last year. In addition, he also raced roughly half the NASCAR O’Reilly Series schedule last season, taking a best finish of 17^th at the Chicago Street Course. While Annunziata’s level of experience naturally makes him a frontrunner for the title, his Nitro Motorsports teammate is coming off a strong rookie campaign in ARCA and could break through not only with a first victory, but a championship as well.

With nine top-fives and 14 top-10s in the full 20-race slate for Venturini in 2025, Isabella Robusto will retain the #55 ride with Nitro and look to build off of the positive momentum in year two. In fact, after a relatively slow start to last year with a handful of early season DNFs, a mid-season crew chief swap immediately paid dividends, seeing her collect three straight top-five finishes on the way to fourth place in the final standings. While Robusto has already shown what she is capable of at the main ARCA series level, her other full-time teammate comes in as somewhat of a wild card.

Jake Bollman was announced as a full-time racer for Nitro in late January, after competing in seven ARCA Series West events in 2025. During that stint, though, he impressed with three top-fives and four top-10s, including a win at Colorado National Speedway. Of course, this small sample size leaves a lot of room for variables, but with competitive equipment behind him it’s definitely possible for Bollman to make an immediate run at the title.

Outside of the Nitro Motorsports sphere, the biggest championship threat comes from CR7 Motorsports, with driver Jason Kitzmiller behind the wheel of the #97 machine. Like Robusto, Kitzmiller had a successful run in his first full ARCA season in 2025, earning two top-fives and 14 top-10s as he grabbed a third-place points finish. Also working in the West Virginia native’s favor is the return of 10-time ARCA Series champion Frank Kimmel as crew chief, as well as his son, Isaac Kitzmiller, winning the ARCA Series East title for CR7 last season.

As usual, there are also a number of smaller teams with at least one full-season driver, including Tony Cosentino and Michael Maples for Maples Motorsports, Alex Clubb and Brad Smith for their self-owned teams, as well as Takuma Koga and Bobby Dale Earnhardt for Fast Track Racing and Rise Racing respectively. While it would take some unforeseen circumstances for a championship to be in the cards this season, they are certainly still capable of posting impressive showings in the standings by season’s end. Finally, I should note that the lineup of ARCA drivers usually changes over the course of the year, so there may be more or fewer full-time drivers/teams once the season gets underway.

Unlike in years past, there isn’t a super clear-cut favorite for the ARCA championship this year, and I’m excited to watch how it all plays out over the course of the season.

Photo Credit: Caleb Spicer – Wikipedia