Billy Venturini

Billy Venturini
Born	William Venturini (1976-04-07) April 7, 1976 (age 48) Chicago, Illinois
ARCA Menards Series career
161 races run over 14 years
Best finish	3rd (2006)
First race	1994 Louisville 250 (Louisville)
Last race	2007 ARCA Re/Max 250 (Talladega)
First win	2006 Kentuckiana Ford Dealers ARCA 200 (Salem)
Wins Top tens Poles 1 75 1
ARCA Menards Series East career
1 race run over 1 year
ARCA East no., team	No. 25 (Venturini Motorsports)
First race	2023 Dutch Boy 150 (Flat Rock)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 1 0
Statistics current as of May 20, 2023.

William "Billy" Venturini (born April 7, 1976) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He currently co-owns Venturini Motorsports, a racing team that competes in the ARCA Menards Series, along with his father, Bill. As a driver, he competes part-time in the ARCA Menards Series East, driving the No. 20 Toyota Camry for Venturini Motorsports. He previously competed in the series either full-time or part-time from 1994 through 2007, mainly driving for the same team.

Racing career

ARCA

Venturini made his ARCA Series debut at Louisville Motor Speedway in 1994, when he was only 18-years old. His race would end early after oil pressure issues on lap 41. He ran four more races that year, earning his first top five at Toledo Speedway in September. He drove a race for Bill Egbert in the season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway, finishing 32nd due to a driveshaft issue. In 1997, he joined Ed Rensi Racing to run a nine-race schedule, earning his best finish of 5th at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He returned next season, earning a top ten at Daytona. He returned to his family team, and continued running part-time in the series from 1999 through 2001. In 2002, he ran for the full season, earning one top five and nine top tens, finishing 6th in the final standings. He would respectively finish inside the top five in point standings for the next two years, along with earning a pole at Lake Erie Speedway in 2003. He went back to a part-time schedule in 2005, before returning full-time in 2006. He would capture his only win that year at Salem Speedway, after dominating the race by leading 95 laps. He would finish a career best 3rd in points. 2007 would end up being his final year as a driver. He ran eight races that year, earning a top five at Talladega Superspeedway, which would also be his final race. After the 2007 season, Venturini decided to retire as a driver, and focus on operating his racing team with his father. On May 6, 2023, during an interview with motorsport news website Frontstretch, Venturini revealed that he would return to the driver's seat for the first time in 16 years, running the ARCA Menards Series East race at Flat Rock Speedway. He would team with fellow driver and former driver for Venturini Brennan Poole as a spotter, and the pairing wound up earning a 4th place finish.^[1] It was his first start in the East Series.

NASCAR Truck Series

Venturini attempted to make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut in 1999, racing at Martinsville Speedway for his family team, but would fail to qualify for the event. He would attempt to run the next race, but would once again fail to qualify.^[2] He attempted a race at Martinsville a year later, but also failed to qualify. He has not made a start in the series since then.^[3]

Post-racing career

After retiring from driving in 2007, Venturini decided to turn his family team into a driver development program. Venturini would later be known for helping his team become one of the most premier driver development programs in the ARCA circuit, collecting over 50 wins in the series, including a championship in 2019.^[4][5][6] That same year, Venturini won the Cometic Crew Chief of the Year award.^[7] In 2012, Venturini, along with his family, were inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame (NIASHF). In 2022, Venturini received media attention during the ARCA race at Kansas in May. Venturini was serving as the crew chief for Corey Heim in the race, since the original crew chief, Shannon Rursch, was attending his daughter's college graduation that weekend. On lap 57 of the race, Drew Dollar made contact with Heim exiting turn 4, causing both of them to hit the outside wall, and spin through the infield grass. During an interview with FS1 reporter Kate Osborne, Venturini showed his displeasure with Dollar, stating that "Drew wrecks all your shit when he's driving for you, and then he wrecks it all when he's racing against you." He would also state that Dollar was a "pure lack of talent."^[8] Dollar reacted to the interview a day later, by tweeting out Venturini's racing stats on Racing-Reference, with the caption saying "Guess it took this guy about 14 years to figure out he didn't need to be a race car driver."^[9]

Personal life

Venturini is married to Emily, and they have twin sons, Luke and Max.^[10] His younger sister, Wendy Venturini, is currently a pit reporter for Performance Racing Network (PRN).

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Craftsman Truck Series

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	NCTC	Pts	Ref
1999	Venturini Motorsports	35	Chevy	HOM	PHO	EVG	MMR	MAR DNQ	MEM DNQ	PPR	I70	BRI	TEX	PIR	GLN	MLW	NSV	NZH	MCH	NHA	IRP	GTY	HPT	RCH	LVS	LVL	TEX	CAL	98th	–	[2]
2000		83		DAY	HOM	PHO	MMR	MAR DNQ	PIR	GTY	MEM	PPR	EVG	TEX	KEN	GLN	MLW	NHA	NZH	MCH	IRP	NSV	CIC	RCH	DOV	TEX	CAL		118th	–	[3]

ARCA Re/Max Series

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

ARCA Re/Max Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	ARSC	Pts	Ref
1994	Venturini Motorsports	35	Chevy	DAY	TAL	FIF	LVL 26	KIL	TOL 14	FRS	MCH	DMS	POC	POC	KIL	FRS	INF	I70 14	ISF	DSF	TOL 4	SLM	WIN						NA	0	[11]
	Bill Egbert	62	Chevy																					ATL 32
1995	Venturini Motorsports	25	Chevy	DAY	ATL	TAL	FIF 5	KIL 26	FRS	MCH	I80	MCS	FRS	POC 31	POC	KIL	FRS	SBS	LVL 18	ISF	DSF	SLM	WIN	ATL DNQ					NA	0	[12]
1996				DAY	ATL	SLM	TAL	FIF	LVL	CLT 28	CLT	KIL	FRS	POC	MCH	FRS	TOL	POC	MCH	IND	SBS	ISF	DQN	KIL	SLM	WIN	CLT 31	ATL	NA	0	[13]
1997				DAY	ATL	SLM	CLT 38																						20th	1640	[14]
	Ed Rensi Racing	83	Chevy					CLT	POC	MCH	SBS 6	TOL 13	KIL 22	FRS	WVS	POC	MCH 15	DQN	GTW 29	SLM 20	WIN	CLT 5	TAL	ISF 10	ATL 29
1998				DAY 9	ATL 26	SLM 25	CLT 16	MEM	MCH	POC	SBS	TOL	PIK	POC	KIL	FRS	ISF	ATL	DQN	SLM	TEX	WIN							NA	0	[15]
	Venturini Motorsports	25	Chevy																				CLT DNQ	TAL	ATL
1999				DAY	ATL 21	SLM	AND	CLT 10	MCH 36	POC 35	TOL	SBS	BER	POC 34	KIL	FRS	FLM	ISF	WIN	DQN	SLM	CLT 37	TAL	ATL 6					43rd	715	[16]
2000				DAY	SLM	AND	CLT 11	KIL	FRS	MCH 10	POC 16	TOL	KEN 11	BER	POC 7	WIN	ISF	KEN 4	DQN	SLM	CLT 36	TAL	ATL 9						28th	1320	[17]
2001				DAY 23	NSH 26	WIN 4	SLM 23	GTW 8	KEN 13	CLT 23	KAN	MCH	POC	MEM 30	GLN	KEN 3	MCH	POC 20	NSH 7	ISF	CHI 4	DQN	SLM	TOL	BER	CLT 4	TAL 33	ATL 36	18th	2445	[18]
2002			Pontiac	DAY 29																				TAL 10					6th	4685	[19]
			Chevy		ATL 7	NSH 26	SLM 20	KEN 10	CLT 31	KAN 11	POC 6	MCH 19	TOL 7	SBO 3	KEN 12	BER 11	POC 25	NSH 8	ISF 9	WIN 24	DQN 13	CHI 8	SLM 26		CLT 22
2003			Pontiac	DAY 3			SLM 3				BER 4*			LER 2*					WIN 9			SLM 20	TAL 2		SBO 29				5th	4945	[20]
			Chevy		ATL 9	NSH 16		TOL 5	KEN 10	CLT 17		KAN 23	MCH 38		POC 10	POC 8	NSH 27	ISF 8		DQN 16	TOL 26			CLT 9
2004			Pontiac	DAY 3																					TAL 24				4th	5015	[21]
			Chevy		NSH 12	SLM 3	KEN 2	TOL 12	CLT 20	KAN 6	POC 4	MCH 30	SBO 3	BER 7	KEN 23	GTW 6	POC 8	LER 4	NSH 29	ISF 8	TOL 28	DQN 13	CHI 6	SLM 20
2005				DAY 14	NSH	SLM	KEN	TOL	LNS	MLW	POC	MCH	KAN						NSH	MCH	ISF	TOL 3	DQN 8	CHI 8	SLM 4	TAL 28			28th	1700	[22]
		15												KEN 32	BER 27	POC	GTW	LER 2
2006		25		DAY 7	NSH 12	SLM 1*	WIN 28	KEN 9	TOL 11	POC 34	MCH 12	KAN 35	KEN 25	BER 30	POC 7	GTW 17	NSH 4	MCH 7	ISF 9	MLW 9	TOL 9	DQN 9	CHI 6	SLM 5	TAL 30	IOW 9			3rd	4950	[23]
2007				DAY 28	USA 14	NSH 19	SLM 9	KAN	WIN	KEN	TOL 10	IOW	POC	MCH	BER	KEN	POC	NSH	ISF	MLW	GTW	DQN 8	CHI 10	SLM					31st	1355	[24]
		15																							TAL 5	TOL

ARCA Menards Series East

ARCA Menards Series East results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	AMSEC	Pts	Ref
2023	Venturini Motorsports	25	Toyota	FIF	DOV	NSV	FRS 4	IOW	IRP	MLW	BRI	30th	40	[25]

^* Season still in progress

References

1. Tomlinson, Joy (May 6, 2023). "Billy Venturini Running ARCA East Race at Flat Rock". Frontstretch.com. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
2. "Billy Venturini – 1999 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
3. "Billy Venturini – 2000 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
4. "History - Venturini Motorsports". Venturini Motorsports. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
5. "Christian Eckes Clinches ARCA Menards Series Championship with Victory in Season Finale at Kansas Speedway". ARCA. October 19, 2019. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
6. "Dominant Season Leads to Owner's Championship for Billy Venturini". ARCA. October 24, 2019. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
7. "Cometic Crew Chief of the Year Award Among Billy Venturini's 2019 Accolades". ARCA. November 4, 2019. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
8. Srigley, Joseph (May 14, 2022). "'Great Kid, Does Not Need to Be a Racecar Driver," Billy Venturini Upset After Dollar, Heim Wreck for Lead at Kansas". TobyChristie.com. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
9. Dollar, Drew (May 16, 2022). "(Twitter post)". Twitter. Retrieved May 6, 2023. Talk about a "pure lack of talent!" Guess it took this guy about 14 years to figure out he didn't need to be a race car driver.
10. Venturini, Billy (February 22, 2022). "(Twitter post)". Twitter. Retrieved May 9, 2023. 2-22-22 my 2 turn 14. Happy birthday boys. I love you every day...... and I like you most days too
11. "Billy Venturini - 1994 ARCA Hooters SuperCar Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
12. "Billy Venturini - 1995 ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
13. "Billy Venturini - 1996 ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
14. "Billy Venturini - 1997 ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
15. "Billy Venturini - 1998 ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
16. "Billy Venturini - 1999 ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
17. "Billy Venturini - 2000 ARCA Re/Max Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
18. "Billy Venturini - 2001 ARCA Re/Max Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
19. "Billy Venturini - 2002 ARCA Re/Max Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
20. "Billy Venturini - 2003 ARCA Re/Max Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
21. "Billy Venturini - 2004 ARCA Re/Max Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
22. "Billy Venturini - 2005 ARCA Re/Max Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
23. "Billy Venturini - 2006 ARCA Re/Max Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
24. "Billy Venturini - 2007 ARCA Re/Max Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
25. "Billy Venturini - 2023 ARCA Menards Series East Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved May 20, 2023.

External links

• Billy Venturini driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Billy Venturini owner statistics at Racing-Reference
• Billy Venturini crew chief statistics at Racing-Reference