Isabella Robusto recaps 'unreal' ARCA Menards Series debut after rain-shortened race at Phoenix

Last night in the rain-shortened General Tire 150 at Phoenix Raceway, Isabella Robusto made her ARCA Menards Series debut. It was both her national series debut and her ARCA West debut. She made the most of her NASCAR development series debut.

Although we didn’t get those last 35 laps in, this was a really good ARCA race. It was about all you could ask for from the development series. William Sawalich and Gio Ruggerio were the class of the field, with Sawalich leading the most laps and winning the race.

However, many eyes were on Isabella Robusto in her Venturini Motorsports No. 55 Toyota Camry. She ran as high up as P3, excelling in long runs. She would ultimately finish P6 after the red flag came out due to lightning and rain.

Robusto was more than happy with her debut.

“Yeah it’s unreal. I wish we had one less caution there or the race went about 15 laps longer,” Robusto said on FS1 after the race. “Car was definitely way better on the long runs and we saw that in the first half, was able to run up to the end of third place and was running down second there for a while. Had a really good car, can’t thank Venturini, Mobil 1, Toyota enough.

“My Toyota Camry was really fast. I think that I have a lot that I need to kind of go back and watch and learn from this, I think restarts and learning how the air works is going to be the main things I need to go and research before we go back for the next race.”

A very impressive run in her ARCA debut!@IsabellaRobusto ran top five for most of the race and finished 6th at @phoenixraceway. pic.twitter.com/ZNTslXKhqD

— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) March 9, 2024

Keep an eye on Isabella Robusto, she is the real deal, folks. With support from Toyota we could be seeing the start of something special.

Isabella Robusto leads field of four women in ARCA race

Of course, Robusto made her ARCA debut on International Women’s Day. It was a fitting occasion for her to introduce herself officially to the NASCAR world. By the sound of it, she is going to be back for the Irwindale ARCA West race.

Isabella Robusto was one of four women in the ARCA race. The others, Toni Breidinger, Amber Balcaen, and Danica Dart all had varying success. Breidinger pulled off a top-10 finish in her pursuit of a national series championship, and Balcaen was P15. Unfortunately, 16-year-old Dart was in a first lap incident and finished P40.

There is a new era coming in racing and it involves women in the driver’s seat. We are seeing more and more women in racing, in all facets of the industry, and that has begun to show in the cars themselves.

With talented drivers like Isabella Robusto, Toni Breidinger, Amber Balcaen, Hailie Deegan, and others coming up through the ranks, the future is bright for women in motorsports.