“Arrivederci! End of an Era,” Venturini Motorsports posted on its Facebook page when the team announced its closure following the 2025 ARCA Menards Series season.
With four driver championships and 107 victories, the most successful organization in series history will exit the garage. In 2026, newcomer organization Nitro Motorsports will take over as the flagship Toyota Gazoo Racing ARCA program. Billy Venturini will serve as Nitro GM in 2026, though only for one year.
Afterward? He wants to take a summer vacation.
While no driver lineup or number of Nitro entries were revealed in the press conference, expect Nitro to look like the VMS structure over the past few years. Up-and-coming TRD prospects such as Isabella Robusto, Taylor Reimer and Ty Fredrickson will drive for the team. The team will likely split its lineup between a full-time driver or two and the other entries will be All-Star cars with a rotation of drivers.
For ARCA, this news is enormous. Venturini has successfully launched the careers of countless drivers who have raced in NASCAR. For Billy Venturini, that’s his proudest accomplishment of the team.
“The most important thing is the amount of drivers we have racing on Sunday and the ones who are racing on Saturday, also,” he said during the announcement press conference at Rockingham Speedway. “Because there were times that I feel like, developing the driver, we were committed to that and it might’ve cost us wins at certain times. But it still really balanced out really darn well to win 107 so far. Maybe we can add another handful of those before the end of the year.”
VMS is also the vestige to the annals of ARCA. Founded in 1982 by Bill and Cathy Venturini, the team has competed in ARCA since.
The first win for VMS came in 1983 when Bill Venturini, affectionately known as Big Bill, won at Flat Rock Speedway. Bill captured 12 victories and two drivers championships in 1987 and 1991. Forty-plus years of racing in ARCA have seen Venturini drivers race against both past and present successful NASCAR stars.
The ’87 title was also special for Venturini because Bill had an all-female pit crew, including Cathy.
When Billy became the driver, he did not match his father’s success as he only scored one win at Salem Speedway in 2006 and three top-five and four top-10 points finishes. The team soon became tight on funds, and a change was needed.
As a result, Billy moved out of the driver’s seat into ownership, and the 2008 race at Rockingham was the one that sinched Venturini’s relationship with Toyota, and the rest, they say, is ARCA history.
In the press conference on April 18 at Rockingham, Billy agreed that the announcement had come full circle. Driving the No. 25, Joey Logano piloted it to the pole, led 257 of the 312 laps and lapped up to fifth place en route to the win. For Billy, that victory is arguably the most special.
“Man, I don’t know if I would trace it to a single win,” he said. “The championship with Jesse [Love] and Christian [Eckes] were really special. But if I tracked it to one win, it was here in 2008. ‘Cause it was the matter in which it went down, the how dominant of a day it was and there’s a huge story.
“Joe Gibbs Racing actually, even though they’d become our fierce rival, JD Gibbs is really what gave me the opportunity to do this. And I remember going into his office, and me and JD had raced Legend cars. And, I go into his office trying to get him to let me take Joey down to Rockingham. And Joey was like the holy grail of driver development at that point. And he asked me who was the best in the series. We talked about Eddie Sharp. And he said, ‘Well what do you need to be able to go beat Eddie Sharp and to be able to contend for the win?’ And I looked at him and told him, ‘All I need is an opportunity. Give me Joey and I will go and win that race.’
“And this is the boldest, damndest thing I’ve ever said in my life. And I remember my dad looking at me as we walked out like, ‘What the hell did you just say?’ But I had nothing so really making a bold statement like that wasn’t cocky, it was someone who had nothing to lose. And we came down here and it happened. And the way it did happen was like, damn, it was just the perfect day.”
VMS became a driver development program, which ultimately led to it becoming the behemoth that has launched the careers of current NASCAR drivers Logano, Love, Eckes and many more.
Eckes’ 2019 championship was a special one for VMS as he won the driver’s title ahead of teammate Michael Self, and the duo won eight races. The No. 20 entry won the ’19 owners title, with Billy Venturini the championship-winning crew chief of that car.
Four years later, the No. 20 won both the driver and owners title, with Love nabbing 10 wins.
Additionally, Venturini is largely responsible for Sean Hingorani’s ARCA successes. He won the 2023 ARCA Menards Series West championship driving full time for the organization along with piloting a part-time VMS entry last year en route to claiming that title as well.
VMS’ overall driver development record is stout and leaves behind quite a legacy for Nitro to succeed.
“That’s a tough one to even put into words, right?” Nitro team owner Nick Tucker said. “The legacy and the history that they’ve built with championships and over 100 race wins, that’s really unfathomable. So, the importance for us to carry on what the organization has been what it’s meant to the series. You know, if you think ARCA, you think Venturini Motorsports in the same sentence. So, yeah, that’s a heavy weight. I don’t feel any pressure of doing the job or doing it well. But yeah, there’s something sentimental about making sure we carry on with that legacy and the history of the Venturini name and what they mean to ARCA.”
In the press conference, Billy emphasized that Nitro and Venturini is “basically a one-team effort.” So while I fully expect Nitro to soon become a regular contender, it will be tough losing four competitive cars on the grid as Nitro fields one full-time and one part-time entry with four full-time VMS ones, barring a big expansion for Nitro in 2026.
Billy also revealed that there have been a few folks interested in purchasing VMS, but Nitro was the right one. Tucker, by the way, finished 11 laps down in 16th place in that ’08 Rockingham race.
“Well, that’s actually why Nick was the choice for this,” Billy said. “There were other outside sources that had interest in the team, but Nick is the perfect choice because he’s the only one I feel can really embody driver development and understood it. Like myself, he drove, he’s worked on them, he’s crew chiefed. He’s done everything; he’s played every position on the field just exactly like I had. So that’s a rare combination.”
Now, every race, every oh-so-close to victory moment and especially every win by a VMS driver will become even that more special. Akin to other sports when athletes have a farewell last-season tour, every racetrack will be the last time for those fans to see a VMS Toyota on track.
Could we see an old VMS driver climb back behind the wheel? Billy said it is possible, and he’s open to a throwback paint scheme, too.
Just don’t expect him to climb back into the racecar. He already completed his last race in the ARCA Menards Series East 2023 race at Flat Rock, where he finished fourth.
When Venturini departs the series, it’s sad for the series. Yes, ARCA will continue — it just re-signed its TV deal and entitlement sponsor — but no other team has the vested success as VMS. Fast Track Racing has competed in ARCA for many years, but it does not boast the success. Otherwise top teams Joe Gibbs Racing, Rev Racing and Pinnacle Racing Group combined lack the history Venturini has in ARCA.
Lastly, let’s not overlook Robusto and Lawless Alan. As full-time VMS drivers, the pressure is on them to perform well. Alan is fourth in points with Robusto in 19th. Both could win races this season.
Venturini’s next chance at victory will be at Talladega Superspeedway. It has won four of the last five ARCA races there. Here’s hoping for some fun VMS storylines until the season finale at Toledo Speedway, which will likely be quite an emotional day for the Venturini family.
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.