Gio Ruggiero, an emerging top short track prospect, will move to the ARCA ranks in 2024 with a 16 race slate with Venturini Motorsports.
Ruggiero, who most recently finished second to Ty Majeski in the Snowball Derby, also won the prestigious Winchester 400 and a Southern Super Series championship driving Super Late Models for Donnie Wilson Motorsports under a Toyota development program.
Ruggiero, a 17-year-old from Seekonk, Massachusetts also won a ASA STARS national Super Late Model Series race at Hickory Motor Speedway in dramatic fashion against Cup Series veteran William Byron.
His 2024 schedule includes the full ARCA East schedule with a sporadic appearances in the ARCA Racing Series and ARCA West divisions. There, he will be paired with veteran NASCAR crew chief Shannon Rusch.
“I’m really looking forward to next year with Shannon as my crew chief,” Ruggiero said. “[Venturini Motorsports] is a great organization with a great group of people. They’ve won a ton of races in the ARCA Menards Series, so I’m definitely excited to be with them.”
Ruggiero made his ARCA East debut last summer at Nashville Fairgrounds and finished sixth in a substitute role for the injured Isabella Robusto.
“It was definitely a great experience to get some seat time with the Venturini guys,” Ruggiero said. “I was trying to introduce myself to them, and I thought I learned a ton about the ARCA car as well with the way it drives on a long run. I also learned how that series operates and how things are going to go when I’m at ARCA races.”
Team owner Billy Venturini, now over a decade into his role as a vital Toyota driver development program operator, said he was impressed by Ruggiero’s debut with the team.
“He showed an incredible amount of car control,” Venturini said. “There were a couple of little things he needed to learn, but with that race, I feel like if we could have re-run it, he probably could have contended for the win.
“There’s a very high ceiling with him, and it’s a pleasure to have him with the program.”
The biggest change for Ruggiero will be learning more about these heavier and more aerodynamically sound cars travel at high speed tracks like Nashville, Dover, Bristol and Pensacola.
“Running races on the bigger tracks will be something new for me,” Ruggiero said. “I’ll have to learn a lot about aero for sure. I’m not very familiar with that, but I’m looking forward to learning as much as I can and hopefully chase some wins on the bigger tracks.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.