Venturini Motorsports Off to Hot Start in 2019

Since the very first time the ARCA Menards Series cars took to the track at Daytona International Speedway for pre-season testing in January through the last lap of the series’ third race of the season at Salem Speedway one thing has been abundantly clear: Venturini Motorsports is the team to beat in 2019.

Led by the organization’s founders Bill and Cathy Venturini, and now their son Billy and his wife Emily, Venturini Motorsports swept the top four speeds in Daytona testing, won the pole with Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota) for the Daytona race, won the Lucas Oil 200 at Daytona with Harrison Burton (No. 20 DEX Imaging Toyota), won the pole at Five Flags Speedway with Chandler Smith (No. 20 Craftsman Toyota), won the Pensacola 200 with Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota), and then followed it with Self’s second win of the season at Salem.

All of this before the season has reached its one-quarter mark.

The win at Salem was the organization’s ninth dating back to April 2006 when Billy Venturini himself scored his only ARCA Menards Series victory as a driver. Since then, the team has taken Steve Arpin (April 2010), Brennan Poole (April 2011), Kyle Benjamin (September 2013), Christopher Bell (April and September 2016), Christian Eckes (April 2018), Chandler Smith (September 2018) and now Michael Self to victory lane at Salem.

Billy Venturini, who also serves as crew chief of the No. 20 team, was understandably excited after the organization’s third consecutive Salem win.

“I knew the 20 and the 25 would be pretty tough to beat, especially if it was cool and cloudy,” Venturini said. “The 25 car was awesome. I am happy for Sinclair and for Michael, he deserved to win. The 20 car was going to finish second and we actually just stayed out and tried to pull a little strategy. We weren’t going to let another team win this race. We stayed out (thinking) we were going to win this race or our teammate was going to win. One way or another Venturini Motorsports is winning tonight. That was our goal. And I was doing the opposite of the 25.”

Despite the win, the organization didn’t have an easy go of it throughout the weekend. Smith arrived at the track with a severely bruised pinky finger on his right hand, and Eckes fell ill after qualifying second on Saturday. The illness left him with an esophageal tear that required hospitalization, forcing him to miss the race. Harrison Burton finished eighth in substitution.

“Chandler sprained a finger playing basketball,” Venturini said. “That’s like the sixth injury he’s had at the twelve races he’s done for us. We just know when he shows up something will be bandaged up or taped up. That’s pretty standard for him.

“Christian was incredibly sick. There was no way he could have participated today. We just want to make sure he gets a speedy recovery. We love him and we hope this is quick and he’s healed up quick. The kid is awesome. He really wants this. Hopefully he can overcome this, missing one race, and still be able to contend for a championship.”

Venturini Motorsports and the rest of the ARCA Menards Series return to action on April 26 in the General Tire 200 at Talladega Superspeedway. The day starts with practice at 9:30 am ET/8:30 pm CT, followed by General Tire Pole Qualifying at 3:35 pm ET/2:35 pm CT, and concludes with the General Tire 200 at 6 pm ET/5 pm CT. The race will be televised live on FS1 while ARCA for Me members can follow with live timing & scoring, live track updates, and live chat at ARCARacing.com. New users can register for free with a valid e-mail address at ARCARacing.com/login.