Talladega's Final Laps Ends in Chaotic Finish | 2026 NASCAR ARCA Menards Series

Green flag. Back in the air. It's an 11-lap shootout at talladega. Good restart again on the outside from Rogero in the 18. Cletus holding his own, though, on the bottom with a good push. Jake Bowman. Outside lane is super organized right now. Super tight. As you see, everybody is trying to get organized up for turn two. Trying to carry this right down the back. Both the bottom and the top are in a tandem draft. Geo starts to get away. I think Cletus has a good push here from Jake Bowman. When they got disconnected there, that messed Geo up pretty big. It worked out here for Cletus. Hopefully he can manage the runs now. Two cars clear on the bottom. Almost three. Bowman's got a lot of teammates in that outside as well. You see him fade up to the top of the racetrack. Cletus is starting to look in that mirror. You see Geo getting a nice, good push back into the tri-oval. He's going to start getting aggressive inside 10 to go. Probably the most experienced, as you mentioned, in the field, Gus Dean. With a big push on the 18 of Geo. Gus Dean in the 25. Second row outside. Big push on corner entry to Cletus. He did a good job of hanging on to it. For good reason. They're both tandem for both rows. You see Gus Dean thinking about leaving that 18 out to dry. That's a huge move for Gus Dean to try to make it forward. Geo doesn't like it. Gets a side draft. It's going to pull the whole field back to him. Cletus is going to have a big gap to the car behind him. I think I like that if I'm Gus Dean to try to shuck that 18 out of this draft. We know how strong that car is. He has teammates on the inside. He has a teammate right in front of him and a teammate right behind him. Bowman is going to jump to the outside line up in front of Geo. I can't believe it. I figured he was going to wait for Gus being teammates there. I think he felt like having Daniel and Geo up there pushing was his best shot. I thought Gus was going to be a really good pusher for him. Great cars. I don't think that thing is dead yet. We've already seen it die. The outside lane died. We see it make another charge. Bowman going to lead to the outside with a great push from Geo. Three wide. Further back in the field. Oh! It's the 20 of Bowman getting spun out of line. That's what happens, Austin. The pushes get harder and harder. We're still green right now, though. Stay green here in Talladega. Nine to go. Cletus out front. I'm not taking blame for that. I told Cletus, do whatever you got to do, but I didn't. I don't have a joystick up here. You know? I'm not taking blame for that. This is really disconnected. This pack. See Annunziata go with Geo. Leave Cletus out. Cletus is going to have to side draft here as they bump into the trial. It's hard to get a push through here. That's one way to side draft, I think. Trading paint between the 18 and the 30. Good battle at the front. Ruggiero. Huge push from Annunziata. I think it's both of them clear. Gus Dean, as well, with momentum as this pack gets reorganized after we had a spin-off of a two last lap. Annunziata finished second in his ARCA debut at Daytona a couple years ago. He knows how to get it done. He's top of the racetrack. Robusto, the first time today. She's up in the top five. Andy J, as well. That 71 gray and white car. Oh, there's Squirrel McNutt in the middle. Down the middle goes the zero of Squirrel McNutt. He said he was going to make something happen. He was trying right there. Annunziata got to the outside of Geo. Geo didn't throw the block on him. Kind of just let it happen naturally. It would be interesting to see if that was a good move or not. We've got a tight group of cars in both lanes. The whole outside lane is on top of each other. Will Kempel show up in the middle, taking advantage. He showed the very top of the show how a push goes bad at Daytona on the last lap earlier this year. We're getting in that time with only seven laps to go. Now it's Annunziata in the 70 at the point. The pay window is opening. His pushes are getting aggressive. Annunziata gets a huge lead. Get it all the way inside the top three. She drops down to the bottom. This is crazy racing right now. Pay window opening. Oh, no! The 70 is around. It's Thomas Annunziata. I think Will Kempel and the 70 got together. Squirrel. Caution out for the fifth time. With seven to go. A big one here at Talladega. I've been on the left for a quarter panel. Just a little bit. The middle opened up for just a second. Will Kempel was there. He made contact with the 70 of Bowman. One to go at Talladega. Geo with another great launch on the outside. Timed that line well. Both lanes are very equal. Will Kempel with another great push. Isabella is clear now before we get to turn two. Cleetus goes to the outside. Makes it three wide. Hangs that 18 car out. He's got one car behind him. Meanwhile, this is really helping this bottom lane get clear. Isabella has a really massive lead right now. a big push. He'll have a big run all the way to Isabella's back bumper. Does she have too big a lead, though? That's the key. Here comes Will Kempel getting squirrely but out front in the 69. It's Kempel with the push. Gustine's going to drop to the bottom. Cleetus. He's got Andy J. He's going to have the outside. This whole pack is really separated right now. It's going to take a lot of help for these drivers. Oh! Two to the bottom. Three wide. Into the tri-oval. Three wide here. Cleetus with the 71 coming along the outside. Andy J. In the 71. Takes the checkered flag. Wow. What a finish.