Mitch Calvert
Steve Arpin will be part of the lineup for this Saturday’s Pennsylvania ARCA 200 at Pocono Raceway—only with a different car and race uniform.
The Fort Frances native has signed on with the Venturini Motorsports Driver Development Program (affiliated with NASCAR’s Joe Gibbs Racing), and will take the driver’s seat of the No. 25 Toyota Camry that carried Joey Logano to an ARCA RE/MAX Series win earlier this season at Pocono.
“Just left the shop trying to get the seat fitted in the car we’re racing this weekend,” Arpin, 25, said by phone Monday night.
“They’ve been keeping an eye on me all year, seeing how I’ve been doing, and they were really impressed with everything they saw and wanted me to come on board with them for the remainder of the season,” he added.
Arpin said Venturini’s track record, including two wins and six top-10 finishes in 11 starts on tour this year, speaks for itself.
“It’s an incredible opportunity, and we’re looking forward to it,” he enthused.
“They have had incredible success this year with a lot of different drivers, and we’re going to go win it this weekend.”
The feeling is mutual.
“All of us at Venturini Motorsports are very excited to have Steve Arpin join our team,” Billy Venturini Jr. said in a release.
“Steve has shown extreme promise in his efforts this year and is well on his way to getting to victory lane.
“We feel that Venturini Motorsports is the team that will get him there.”
Arpin said it will be nice to strap into the driver’s seat of a reliable car from week-to-week.
“There’s a couple teams that have really raised the bar this year as far as technology goes with the set-ups in the cars and where we were [Eddie Sharp Racing], we kinda fell behind a little bit,” he noted.
“[But] these guys [Venturini] have really stepped up to the plate and made sure they haven’t fallen behind on anything,” he stressed.
“We’re really looking forward to the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a car that’s with the times, if you know what I mean.”
Arpin battled his way to an 11th-place showing in his last race with ESR at the Wolverine Power Systems 200 from Berlin Raceway in Marne, Mich. this past Saturday despite qualifying 19th.
“This past weekend we missed the set-up completely,” Arpin said. “It was the tightest race car I’ve ever driven.
“It was a struggle. A long, frustrating race.
“We adjusted on it and tried everything we could, but no matter what we did, it just wouldn’t react,” he added.
Arpin still sits in seventh place in the ARCA points standings through 12 races with 2,460.
Qualifying for the Pennsylvania ARCA 200 goes Friday, with the race set to begin Saturday at noon (CDT). It will be shown live on the SPEED Network.
