Seventy-four seasons of stock cars the Cup Series had finished with, raced by teenagers who want a NASCAR ride and veterans who never did. Superspeedways, bullrings, two road courses and two dirt miles.
The ARCA Menards Series is the premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America and the main feeder series into NASCAR's three national divisions. It was founded in Toledo, Ohio in 1953 as the Midwest Association for Race Cars and stayed independent for sixty-five years, until NASCAR bought ARCA on 27 April 2018 and began sanctioning the series in 2020. 2026 is its 74th season: twenty races from the Daytona opener on 14 February to the Kansas finale on 25 September, taking in superspeedways, intermediates, short tracks, two road courses and two dirt miles at Illinois state fairgrounds. Five of the twenty are combination races shared with the regional ARCA Menards Series East or West.
John Marcum founded the series in Toledo, Ohio in 1953 as the Midwest Association for Race Cars — MARC — a local touring group for the Midwestern United States. The name changed within the year to the Automobile Racing Club of America, on a suggestion from Bill France that a national name would get it national exposure. It is still run by Marcum’s grandson, Ron Drager.
What kept it alive was money, or the lack of it. ARCA raced the cars NASCAR had finished with: veteran steel-bodied Generation 4 Cup machinery, run for years after a model had been discontinued at the top. Bobby Gerhart won at Daytona in 1999 in a chassis Hendrick Motorsports had built in 1989; the same car was still racing at Talladega in 2004. One car owner put the budget at “10 percent of what a NASCAR Cup Series budget is”.
That economy produced two kinds of driver, and both still turn up. Young drivers enter the Daytona opener to earn NASCAR approval to race superspeedways in the Truck or O’Reilly Auto Parts series. Others stay: Frank Kimmel won ten championships here rather than chase a full-time NASCAR career, and Ken Schrader kept coming back long after he did not need to.
Hoosier supplied the tyres from 1995 until 2016, branded from that year as General Tire after Continental — Hoosier’s partner, and then its owner — took the company over. NASCAR announced it had bought ARCA on 27 April 2018, let the 2018 and 2019 seasons run as planned, and sanctioned the series itself from 2020.
A sealed spec engine, a composite body phased in over six years, and a calendar that still includes dirt.
The ARCA Ilmor 396, an option from 2015, makes about 700 hp on Holley fuel injection, costs $35,000 to build and $15,000 to rebuild, and runs 1,500 miles between rebuilds at every kind of track. Teams and outside builders are not allowed to maintain them, tuning is minimal and the lubricant is specified. Engines outside the package take intake and rev restrictions to keep them level.
Unveiled at SEMA in November 2014 and built with Five Star Race Car Bodies: replaceable panels, less debris after a crash, lighter than steel. Legal on short tracks in 2015, superspeedway debut at Pocono in June 2016, mandatory at Daytona and Talladega in 2018, above three-quarters of a mile in 2019, everywhere in 2020.
The 2026 season runs Daytona and Talladega, mile-and-a-half ovals, quarter-mile bullrings, the road courses at Watkins Glen and Lime Rock — and two dirt miles at the Illinois State Fairgrounds and DuQuoin, a kind of racing that has all but vanished from the NASCAR-sanctioned calendar.
Five of the twenty rounds are run jointly with a regional series: Phoenix with the ARCA Menards Series West, and Toledo, Indianapolis Raceway Park, Iowa and Bristol with the East. One race, two championships.
A straight points championship. There is no Chase, no elimination and no reset — whoever leads after Kansas on 25 September wins it.
ARCA still pays a bonus point for pole position, carried over from the system it used until 2019. All three NASCAR national series dropped their pole point for 2026.
After each block of five races, every driver who started all five receives fifty extra points. In 2026 those fall after Watkins Glen, Elko, Springfield and the Kansas finale.
Drivers aged 16 and 17 may take part in selected portions of the January Daytona test but may not race that weekend.
| Bonus | Points |
|---|---|
| Pole position | 1 |
| Starting all five | 50 |
Jake Bollman leads the 2026 championship on 794 points without winning a race. He has taken all three attendance bonuses awarded so far, worth 150 points between them — more than his margin over anyone behind him. Thomas Annunziata is second on 786 with one win, and Max Reaves, who has three, is tenth on 434.
ARCA's finishing-position scale is not stated in the sources used here, so it is not reproduced. The pole point and the five-race attendance bonus are the two documented departures from NASCAR practice — no NASCAR national series pays either in 2026.
| Round | Track | Type | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daytona International Speedway | Oval | 14 February |
| 2 | Phoenix Raceway | Oval — with the West | 5 March |
| 3 | Kansas Speedway | Oval | 18 April |
| 4 | Talladega Superspeedway | Oval | 25 April |
| 5 | Watkins Glen International | Road course | 8 May |
| 6 | Toledo Speedway | Oval — with the East | 16 May |
| 7 | Michigan International Speedway | Oval | 5 June |
| 8 | Pocono Raceway | Oval | 12 June |
| 9 | Berlin Raceway | Oval | 20 June |
| 10 | Elko Speedway | Oval | 27 June |
| 11 | Chicagoland Speedway | Oval | 3 July |
| 12 | Lime Rock Park | Road course | 10 July |
| 13 | Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park | Oval — with the East | 24 July |
| 14 | Iowa Speedway | Oval — with the East | 7 August |
| 15 | Illinois State Fairgrounds | Dirt | 23 August |
| 16 | Madison International Speedway | Oval | 28 August |
| 17 | DuQuoin State Fairgrounds | Dirt | 6 September |
| 18 | Salem Speedway | Oval | 12 September |
| 19 | Bristol Motor Speedway | Oval — with the East | 17 September |
| 20 | Kansas Speedway | Oval | 25 September |
Twenty races: Daytona and Talladega at one end, quarter-mile short tracks at the other, two road courses and two dirt miles in between. Chicagoland returns for the first time since 2019 and Pocono for the first time since 2023; Charlotte and Dover came off the schedule.
John Marcum founds the Midwest Association for Race Cars in Toledo, Ohio. The name changes to the Automobile Racing Club of America within the year, on a suggestion from Bill France that a national name would bring national exposure.
Iggy Katona wins the first of six championships — 1955, 1956, 1957, 1962, 1966 and 1967 — a record that stood until Frank Kimmel passed it in 2005.
Benny Parsons takes the first of two consecutive ARCA titles. He would win the NASCAR Winston Cup championship in 1973 and enter the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2017.
A prize is inaugurated for the driver scoring most across four specific events, combining dirt ovals, short ovals, superspeedways and road courses. Kimmel would win it seven times.
Frank Kimmel wins his first title, then eight consecutively from 2000 to 2007, and a tenth in 2013. His 80 race wins are also the series record.
The ARCA Ilmor 396, announced by ARCA president Ron Drager in August 2014, becomes an option. It split the paddock.
Announced on 27 April. The 2018 and 2019 seasons run as planned, and composite bodies become mandatory at Daytona and Talladega.
The first season NASCAR sanctions itself. Composite bodies are mandatory everywhere, the Gen-4 steel bodies race for the last time at the Daytona road course, and a new points system brings in the five-race attendance bonus.
Twenty races — and the 2025 champion Brenden Queen is not defending, having moved up to a full-time Truck Series seat with Kaulig Racing.
ARCA ran veteran steel-bodied Generation 4 Cup cars, often for more than a decade. Bobby Gerhart's 1999 Daytona winner used a chassis Hendrick Motorsports built in 1989, and it was still racing at Talladega in 2004. When Cup moved to the Car of Tomorrow in 2007, ARCA simply kept the 2007-style Monte Carlo, Fusion, Camry and Charger.
A sealed spec engine, alternately the ARCA Control Engine: Chevrolet LS architecture, Holley electronic injection, about 700 hp and 530 lb-ft, $35,000 to build. It debuted in Daytona testing in December 2014 at 188.478 mph in Sean Corr's hands.
Five Star Race Car Bodies built it and NASCAR president Mike Helton unveiled it at SEMA in November 2014. Short tracks in 2015, Pocono in June 2016, Daytona and Talladega in 2018, above three-quarters of a mile in 2019, everywhere in 2020.
Ford's body changed for 2022 but was not widely adopted by Ford teams until 2023, and the Fusion stayed legal for smaller teams.
Nineteen years old, in the No. 20 Toyota for Nitro Motorsports, and leading the 2026 championship on 794 points with three races left — without winning one of the first seventeen. He has taken every five-race attendance bonus awarded so far, and his margin over Thomas Annunziata is eight points.
Ten titles — 1998, then 2000 through 2007, then 2013 — and 80 race wins, both series records, plus seven Bill France Four Crowns. He is now the crew chief for Jason Kitzmiller at CR7 Motorsports, third in the 2026 championship.
Champion in 1955, 1956, 1957, 1962, 1966 and 1967, with 79 wins — one behind Kimmel. His six titles were the record for nearly forty years.
Swept the 2025 championship, Rookie of the Year and the Bill France Four Crown, then left rather than defend it: he races a Kaulig Racing truck full-time in 2026.
Won four of the first seventeen races of 2026 for Joe Gibbs Racing, Daytona included — while running the Truck Series full-time for Tricon Garage.
ARCA champion in 1968 and 1969, NASCAR Winston Cup champion in 1973, and a NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee in 2017.
Took the 2021 title and has 18 ARCA race wins, level with Ken Schrader. He has since won a NASCAR Cup championship.
Full-time in Nitro Motorsports' No. 55 Toyota Camry. She spent 2016 to 2021 with Rev Racing in NASCAR's Drive for Diversity programme — the longest-serving member it has had.
ARCA champion and Rookie of the Year in 2023, and later a champion of NASCAR's second national division.
A car owner once put an ARCA budget at "10 percent of what a NASCAR Cup Series budget is". That is why chassis and bodies the Cup Series had finished with went on racing for a decade or more, and why a teenager could get seen in one. The series' whole purpose depends on it.
The Ilmor 396 cut costs and levelled performance, and it was not popular with everyone. Teams on the old package expected their engines to be made obsolete and conversion to be too expensive. Teams and outside builders are barred from working on the new units, tuning is minimal and the lubricant is specified. Marque identity went too: the engine is Chevrolet-based and Ilmor-branded whatever the bodywork says.
NASCAR announced the purchase of ARCA on 27 April 2018 and began sanctioning the series in 2020. The independent feeder became the official one, with the regional ARCA Menards Series East and West under the same name — and in 2026 the champion of one is a Truck Series rookie in the other direction.
Seven of the first seventeen races of 2026, with Gio Ruggiero taking four and Max Reaves three. Pinnacle Racing Group has six — Carson Brown, Tristan McKee and Connor Mosack — and won the 2025 teams' championship with Brenden Queen. By marque it is Toyota ten, Chevrolet seven, Ford none.
The premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America and the main feeder series into NASCAR's three national divisions. 2026 is its 74th season, with twenty races.
Yes, now. NASCAR announced it had bought ARCA on 27 April 2018 and began sanctioning the series in 2020. Before that it was independent for sixty-five years.
In Toledo, Ohio in 1953, founded by John Marcum as the Midwest Association for Race Cars. The name changed to ARCA the same year on a suggestion from Bill France. Marcum's grandson Ron Drager still runs it.
Composite-bodied stock cars built with Five Star Race Car Bodies on Chevrolet, Ford Mustang and Toyota Camry shells. For decades before that it ran hand-me-down steel-bodied Generation 4 cars from the Cup Series.
The series' spec engine, also called the ARCA Control Engine: Chevrolet LS architecture with Holley electronic fuel injection, about 700 hp, $35,000 to build and $15,000 to rebuild, and good for 1,500 miles between rebuilds at any track. Engines outside the package take intake and rev restrictions.
Yes. The 2026 calendar has two dirt miles, at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield on 23 August and DuQuoin State Fairgrounds on 6 September.
Twenty, from the General Tire 200 at Daytona on 14 February to the Kansas finale on 25 September.
No. It is a straight points championship with no Chase, no elimination and no reset.
Two rules set it apart from NASCAR: pole position pays a bonus point, and after each block of five races every driver who started all five gets fifty extra points.
Jake Bollman, nineteen, on 794 points for Nitro Motorsports — without a win, and eight points clear of Thomas Annunziata.
Brenden Queen, who swept the 2025 title, Rookie of the Year and the Bill France Four Crown. He is not defending it; he moved up to the Truck Series with Kaulig Racing.
Frank Kimmel, with ten — 1998, then 2000 to 2007, then 2013. He also holds the record for race wins with 80, and is now a crew chief in the series.
An award inaugurated in 1984 for the driver scoring most across four specific events combining dirt ovals, short ovals, superspeedways and road courses. Kimmel won it seven times.
Rounds run jointly with a regional series, scoring for both championships. In 2026 there are five: Phoenix with the ARCA Menards Series West, and Toledo, Indianapolis Raceway Park, Iowa and Bristol with the East.
Young drivers enter the Daytona opener to earn NASCAR approval to race superspeedways in the Truck or O'Reilly Auto Parts series, and current NASCAR drivers come back down for individual races — Gio Ruggiero won four of the first seventeen in 2026 while racing the Truck Series full-time.
Independent fan guide: ARCA revises its technical and sporting rules often, and its calendar mixes surfaces that change from season to season. Verify current sporting information with ARCA or NASCAR directly. Series, team and driver names belong to their respective rights holders.
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