Bollman Scores Best-Career Finish with Podium at Tucson
Jake Bollman captured his best-career ARCA Menards Series West (AMSW) finish with a third-place result at Tucson Speedway on Saturday night. The driver of the No. 19 NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet SS came close to his first-career win after leading laps late and took part in a three-way battle for the lead. His first top-five finish comes in just his sixth-career AMSW start.
Bollman notched his first-career pole award with a lap of 15.977 seconds after setting the pace in practice. After leading the field to green, Bollman employed an aggressive tire conservation strategy to preserve his tires for the final laps. Though he ran as low as seventh, Bollman took advantage of a restart on lap 84 to rocket back towards the front.
He immediately advanced from sixth to fourth and made a run towards the lead. Bollman tracked down the leaders with 21 laps to go to claim the top spot in the waning laps. With less than five laps to go, Bollman found himself in a compelling three-wide tilt for the win. Bollman took the checkered flag in third for the best result of the season for the NAPA Auto Care team.
“I don’t know if we could have done anything really different,” Bollman said following the race. “I just feel like we lacked a little drive there and were free there at the end. It happens. This is only my (sixth) ARCA race, and second one with these guys. It’s still a learning experience for me too. I think we could have saved (tires) maybe a little bit longer. I don’t know if it would have changed, but still overall a good finish for the team. Third, of course we would have wanted to win, but we have all year. I want to thank everyone that supports me, NAPA , Bill McAnally, everyone on this racecar. It takes everybody to be here. We had a great car here tonight and we’re going to move on to Colorado.”
Start / Finish: 1 / 3
Points Standing / Total: 9th / 63 pts. (-57)
Next Race: Saturday, May 24, Colorado National Speedway
How to Watch or Listen: Floracing.com
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Bill McAnally Racing / McAnally-Hilgemann Racing: @BMR_NASCAR
Bill McAnally Racing View All
Bill McAnally Racing (BMR) holds the ARCA Menards Series West (AMSW) record with 11 championships and eclipsed the 100-win mark in 2022. The team has piled on six titles in the last eight seasons with four different drivers since 2015. BMR will campaign the NAPA Auto Care entry with a newly renumbered No. 19 Chevrolet SS. Daniel Hemric will begin the 2025 AMSW behind the wheel at Kern County Raceway on Saturday, January 25th.