Jake Bollman
(Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

Leading the charge at halfway, Jake Bollman is putting in the work to become an ARCA winner

www.arcaracing.com July 1, 2026

Nothing — not even a pinch — can wake Jake Bollman from the dream he’s living.

The 19-year-old from Huntington Beach, California is halfway through his first ARCA Menards Series season with Nitro Motorsports, and things are going better than he could have imagined.

Entering Friday’s Ashley Furniture 150 at Chicagoland Speedway (7 p.m. CT / 8 p.m. ET on FS1), Bollman leads the ARCA Menards Series standings by 21 points. He hasn’t yet visited Victory Lane, but he has more top-five and top-10 finishes than any other driver and has an average finish of 5.4.

“It was like a dream for me, really,” Bollman said. “I never thought I’d be in this situation. I’ve just been working hard for it. It doesn’t ever end, and I love it. The season has been going great so far.”

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Perhaps the most incredible part is that Bollman never planned on pursuing the ARCA Menards Series championship this year, at least not until an opportunity presented itself a few weeks before the annual pre-season practice at Daytona International Speedway in January.

“A year and a half ago, I had a meeting with Nick Tucker, the owner of Nitro Motorsports. It was about ARCA, but it was more about the (Trans Am) TA2 deal,” said Bollman. “We were going to do half and half and just kind of do 15 total races. I just didn’t have the budget for that at the time.

“The 20 team deal kind of fell apart at the last minute. Nick gave me and my dad a call and was like, ‘Do you wanna come drive for me?’”

Jake Bollman
Jake Bollman (20) has more top fives and top 10s than any other driver in ARCA Menards Series competition this season. (Photo: Mike Lawrence/ARCA Racing)

Bollman signed with Nitro Motorsports two weeks before the pre-race practice at Daytona. He went on to finish second in the General Tire 200 at Daytona on Feb. 14 after his pole-winning qualifying time was disallowed due to an issue in post-qualifying inspection.

That result and Bollman’s ability to overcome adversity has set the tone for his season; his worst result is an 18th-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway in late April.

“After running second (at Daytona), it was like, ‘OK, this is happening,’” Bollman said. “I wasn’t too far off from winning it. It’s just crazy to me, right? How far I’ve come and what I’ve worked for. I feel like that’s why I’ve been really consistent this season.

“I’m trying to be the best I can and do everything I can to be there.”

Bollman gives a lot of the credit for his performance to his Nitro Motorsports team, which is led by Doug George, a veteran crew chief who spent the last 25 years working with a variety of teams in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

George’s experience, which includes two Truck Series wins while working with Kyle Busch, has proven pivotal as Bollman continues to learn and adapt at each new track he visits.

Jake Bollman
Jake Bollman has three runner-up finishes through the first half of the 2026 ARCA Menards Series season. (Photo: Ed Zurga/ARCA Racing)

“I wouldn’t be doing this without Doug George. He is an OCD perfectionist,” Bollman said. “If something’s not right and it’s going to take two hours to fix it, he’s going to take an hour and a half to fix it. He makes sure everything is perfect.

“I do feel like we’re lacking just that little extra speed. We’ve had two or three seconds now, and we really want that win. It’s coming, right? If we keep being consistent like this, it’s going to happen.”

With half the season still ahead of him, Bollman doesn’t want to spend too much time focusing on the ARCA Menards Series championship just yet.

Instead, his focus at Chicagoland this weekend and every other remaining event on the schedule is to kick down the door to Victory Lane.

After all, if you win enough races, then the championship will take care of itself.

“Truthfully in my heart and my head, of course I want to win the championship, but I want to win a race,” Bollman said. “We fight for that every single week. I feel like if you get too far wrapped up in the points, you can almost hurt yourself as a driver by worrying about that too much and being safe and not running hard.

“If there is a chance I could either win or get wrecked, I’m going for it. If we lose the points lead or end up five (points) back, then we still have a fighting chance.”