By Brandon White
DuQUOIN, Ill. — Consistency has been a moniker of Carson Brown’s 2026 season on the ARCA Menards Series platform.
Across nine starts in the national ARCA Menards Series, Brown has finished worse than third on just one occasion. Yet a triumph at Phoenix Raceway was the only victory Brown possessed prior to Sunday’s Audubon Park 100 at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds.
Brown finally found his way back to Victory Lane on Sunday evening by applying his prior experience on dirt to the ARCA Menards Series chassis. The Audubon Park 100 unfolded in a near perfect manner for Brown, though he did have to work for his second national ARCA Menards Series triumph following a late charge from Gavan Boschele.
“[The win was] because of all my guys,” Brown said. “The dirt was really dry today until now. Now it’s really muddy on my suit. Just can’t thank these guys enough. There’s been a black cloud over us for the greater part of three months now. Hopefully we can keep this going.”
Ironically, the other dirt track event on the ARCA Menards Series calendar — at the Illinois State Fairgrounds last month — was Brown’s lone showing outside the top five. After running strong all day at the Springfield Mile, a late issue for Brown relegated him to 13th.
Brown wasted no time shaking off the frustration from Springfield. He set the quickest time in both practice and qualifying at DuQuoin, with that raw speed ultimately translating into a dominant first outing for Brown around the historic one-mile dirt oval.
Despite this, the penultimate restart of the Audubon Park 100 brought Brown his toughest challenge for the evening. A bad exit off Turn 4 for Brown with 15 laps remaining caused him to run wide through the next set of corners, opening the door for Boschele to take control of the race in the closing stages.
Chase Buscaglia’s spin a few laps later gave Brown a much-needed break; he was given clear shot at Boschele with restarts being single file inside of 10 laps to go. Brown did not waste the opportunity, as he knocked Boschele out of the bottom groove just enough to reassume the top spot and pull away with a comfortable win.
ARCA Menards Series points leader Jake Bollman was the closest to Brown when the checkered flag waved. The dirt venues of Springfield and DuQuoin presented a challenge for Bollman in his pursuit to hang onto his advantage in the standings, so he wanted to get through both in a clean but efficient manner.
With finishes of sixth and second at Springfield and DuQuoin, respectively, Bollman felt he accomplished that mission, especially after approaching the latter with a different mindset.
“I feel like I was way more aggressive tonight than I have been all year,” Bollman said. “It’s time to change, right? Everyone else is going to be aggressive, so I put it in my mind [on Sunday] that I wasn’t going to give an inch. I feel like we had something for [Brown] at one point in the race, but kind of lost it at the end.”
DuQuoin wrapped up a busy weekend for Bollman in general, as he took part in a Late Model Stock event at Florence Motor Speedway on Friday evening. Brown was also entered in that race and ended up finishing second, bringing his average finish to 1.5 for the Labor Day weekend events.
Known for his versatility, Brown is always searching for ways to log laps and gain experience. Along with his ARCA Menards Series and Late Model Stock commitments, Brown also finds himself in the middle of a stellar season in the ASA STARS National Tour, where he currently leads the points with four wins in seven races.
All the knowledge Brown has accumulated from several different disciplines manifested into a victory at DuQuoin on Sunday. The late-race duel with Boschele led to some brief trepidation for Brown, but he trusted himself and the equipment prepared by Pinnacle Racing Group to finish off a strong weekend and continue his consistent 2026.
“I knew we struggled in dirty air,” Brown said. “I felt like the track got really dirty there on the restarts. As everyone was piled together, the track just got really dirty, and our car lacked grip in those conditions. Once everything cleaned off on those longer green flag runs, we were very good. A big thank you to this crew for getting this thing back to Victory Lane.”
In his final ARCA Menards Series dirt race as a driver, Kelly Kovski brought home a third-place finish in his own No. 16 Brandt Professional Ag/Schluckebeir Farms/Allgaier Perf. Chevrolet. Kovski was followed in the running order by Boschele, with Thomas Annunziata, the driver who’s second in the ARCA Menards Series standings, rounding out the top five.
The rest of the top 10 consisted of Taylor Reimer, Jason Kitzmiller, Isaac Kitzmiller, Chase Howard and Ryan Vargas.
Next up for the ARCA Menards Series will be a trip to Salem Speedway for the Spruce 212 on Saturday evening. The green flag will wave at 8 p.m. ET with live flag-to-flag coverage airing on FOX.