Logano was the perfect case study for driver development. Following his ARCA victory at Rockingham for the Venturini clan, he quickly climbed the developmental ladder, winning constantly along the way.
His climb to the top culminated in the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship with Team Penske, a dream he could never have realized were it not for Venturini Motorsports.
“At the time I started in ARCA, I was running a lot of the K&N Pro Series races before that and you only got to run some of the bigger tracks,” Logano recalled. “Big tracks were considered Dover and New Hampshire. It is only a mile long and we consider those short tracks in today’s world, in the Cup world at least. ARCA was a great avenue to be able to get experience on mile-and- a-half tracks, superspeedways and things like that, and the Venturinis taught me a lot of skills about how to race those tracks.
“Pocono, when you go there the first time to a track that is so difficult and different, to have those laps and that experience was something that helped me as a driver quite a bit,” Logano added. “I was able to run a race here in Talladega and one in Daytona in the ARCA cars. It gives you the ability to kind of learn a little bit about the draft.
“ARCA is just something that is a good learning tool to get you to the next step, to get you a little experience before you get to the next level in the trucks and then Xfinity and Cup, and I’m really grateful I was able to spend part of that time with Venturini Motorsports,” Logano noted. “They’ve spent a lot of time working with younger drivers through the years and definitely taught me a lot that I’ve used as I’ve gone through my career.”
Fast-forward to this season and Venturini Motorsports looks a lot different than it did in 2008. The team is a full-fledged developmental team that works with Toyota to get up-and-coming racers seat time as the move up the ladder.
Venturini Motorsports has gotten off to one of its best starts this season, with the team capturing the first three ARCA Menards Series races. Harrison Burton won the opener in February at Daytona Int’l Speedway in Florida, while full-time Venturini competitor Michael Self won the next two events at Florida’s Five Flags Speedway and Indiana’s Salem Speedway.
Self, in his first full season with Venturini and third overall, says the Venturini program provides the best bang for his sponsors buck on and off the race track.
“I kind of look at Venturini as a complete package in the ARCA series,” Self said. “In terms of what they provide, it is comparable to a top tier Cup or Xfinity team. There is not a lot of ARCA teams that have the experience handling sponsors like Venturini does, because it has had so many successful large sponsors over the years.
“They actually have a team dedicated to hospitality and working with the sponsors and doing PR stuff, so for a guy like me that brings a sponsor, that is a really big deal,” Self continued.
“That’s something I kind of have to have. Then you pair that with I’d say arguably right now the best equipment in the series, obviously as a driver bringing money, you want to win races and you win races by having access to the best equipment.
“Everything comes together to provide a really top-notch professional program that gives a guy that is bringing family funding or a legitimate sponsor, I think, the best chance to excel.”
A little more than 10 years ago Venturini Motorsports was a struggling family team looking for a way to survive. Now, it’s a powerhouse ARCA Menards Series program with scores of successful alumni.
“You look at our alumni and there is no place that is any better. We help develop young drivers,” Venturini said.