Catchfence.com is reporting that 42-year old Milka Duno, most recently of the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, has signed a contract that will see her drive in a limited schedule of races in the Nationwide Series in RAB Racing’s No. 29 Toyota. When she qualifies for her first race, Duno would be the first South American female racer in the history of the Nationwide Series.
Duno is very excited to make her move up to the Nationwide Series.
“I’m really very excited and honored to enter into NASCAR and the Nationwide Series,” Duno said in a press release. “It has always been a dream of mine to compete in NASCAR and I worked very hard in ARCA to turn this goal into a reality. I always strive to challenge myself as a driver and I’ve been fortunate to compete in many types of racing – and while the competition is always my number one focus – I am very proud of the history I have made as a female driver, and the Hispanic sports history as well, that has been made along the way.”
No sponsorship was announced in the press release
When she makes her Nationwide Series debut, Duno will bring one of the most varied racing resumes to the series. Duno raced for many years in sports cars, achieving her greatest successes in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. Sharing a Pontiac-powered Crawford with Andy Wallace, Duno won three races, including two in 2004. In the American Le Mans Series, Duno won five races in the LMP675/LMP2 class. However, those victories were nowhere near as competitive as the Rolex Series races.
Duno has 43 career starts in what is now the Verizon IndyCar Series for a couple of teams (Dale Coyne Racing, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, SAMAX). Her best career finish is an 11th at Texas Motor Speedway in 2007. Duno also has 47 career starts in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards. Duno has earned three top-10 finishes with a best finish of eighth last year at Salem. She also won the pole for last year’s International Motorsports Hall of Fame 250 at Talladega Superspeedway. Duno’s performances in Venturini Motorsports’ No. 35 last year were good enough for her to finish seventh in ARCA points.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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Oh good lord, I think every fabricator in the Nationwide Series just shivered a bit when that new came out. Look up moving chicane in the dictionary and you get a picture of Milka Duno.
Oh, I would love to hear what Robin Miller has to say! He used to call her Milk-and-Donuts. I would also love to see her and Danica in a Nationwide race together.