Nitro Motorsports teammates Thomas Annunziata and Jake Bollman are still not speaking, three days after a Kansas Speedway crash flipped their ARCA Menards Series title fight upside down.
These two share a shop, a points chase and, as of Friday night, a grudge neither seems in a hurry to drop before the team has to figure out how to field them both again in 2027.
Bollman rolled into the Menards 150 with a 16-point lead and needed only a top-10 finish to lock up the championship. Instead, he tangled twice with Annunziata early, then got collected in a violent three-car wreck with Will Kimmel and Austin Vaughn past the race’s midpoint and limped home 21st, two separate collisions with his own teammate setting up the disaster, according to ARCA‘s Brandon White. Annunziata salvaged fifth. The two finished the season dead even at 947 points, and Annunziata’s July win at Lime Rock Park broke the tie to give him the championship.
Bollman wasn’t interested in a tidy handshake afterward. “I won’t ever talk to him again, I’ll tell you that. I think that is just a disrespectful kid, right?” he said, as quoted by EssentiallySports.
Annunziata, for his part, called the reaction “a bit silly.”
Annunziata, Bollman’s Season-Long Rivalry
Annunziata has said Bollman ran into him repeatedly over the year, usually while trying to hold off a teammate who out-qualified him roughly 13 weeks running, with a late-race scrape at DuQuoin as the clearest flashpoint. Kansas, he insists, marked the only time he retaliated all season.
Bollman tells it differently. He said the opening contact came from a lapped car crowding him into the corner, that he apologized over the radio immediately, and that dumping a teammate outright would have been unsportsmanlike. He’s also pointed out he could have wrecked Annunziata on the final restart to save the title and chose not to, saying he “wasn’t raised that way.”
The backgrounds explain some of the friction. Annunziata, 21, came up through Nitro’s karting program with team co-owner Joe Tovo’s family, then built his name on road courses and in the Mazda MX-5 Cup before leaning on mentor and 1990 Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope to learn ovals only three years ago. Bollman, 19, is the opposite profile. He’s a lifelong short-track prodigy with five INEX Legend Car state titles who joined Nitro’s full national program in January after an ARCA West breakout season. He led the points standings for 18 consecutive races this year without ever winning a race.
Annunziata and Bollman: When Will They Join NASCAR Cup Series?
Neither driver has a Cup ride, or even a full-time Xfinity or Truck Series deal, lined up. Both landed on Fox Sports‘ Bob Pockrass’ midseason list of 25 prospects to watch, well behind a top-20 group led by Brent Crews, meaning both still need funded rides more than a resume boost.
Annunziata has the fuller national profile, with part-time Xfinity and Truck starts and a modeling deal with Wilhelmina that helps with sponsorship. Bollman’s case rests on pure results, with a 5.9 average finish that was better than Annunziata’s all year despite going winless.
What happens inside Nitro’s shop before 2027 remains the open question. No team statement has addressed the fallout, and as of Monday, neither driver has walked anything back.
NASCAR ARCA’s Jake Bollman Gets Honest About Teammate After Wild Kansas Crash