Isabella Robusto’s breakthrough 2025 campaign has earned her the ARCA Menards Series Rookie of the Year honours. The 21-year-old fought her way back from four DNFs in the opening five races to a fourth-place finish in the final standings. Robusto was supposed to make her ARCA Menards debut back in 2023, but was sidelined for most of the year due to a concussion she suffered in a Pro Late Model race at Hickory Motor Speedway. The following year, she ran part-time ARCA races with Venturini Motorsports, notching up multiple top-10 results and a pole start at Kansas Speedway. Notably, she had three runner-up finishes throughout the three ARCA series. Thanks for the submission! 2025 marked her full-fledged participation in the series. Her best result comes from a third-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway, making it the best result by a female at the track. Definitely had some good races, but [there were] also lots of mechanical issues and wrecks that I got caught up in. It was a good ending to the year for the team to show that we did have some good races. I’m looking forward to the future [so I can show] what I can do.” After a disastrous start to the season, Isabella Robusto finished outside the top-10 in only two races, which were DNFs as well. Adding to the DNFs, an 18-point penalty from a technical infraction contributed to her fourth-place standing. If not for the penalty, the South Carolina native would’ve finished the season third. Isabella Robusto reflects on her early-season challenges Isabella Robusto’s misfortunes began when she was involved in a wreck at Daytona International Speedway. Robusto wrecked out in three more races, with her only respite being a third-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway. In total, she’d accumulated four DNFs in five races. However, the young driver regrouped with her team and bounced back. She opened up about overcoming the initial slump, saying, “We sat down and talked to the team. We walked through what we thought were the issues throughout the first five races and came up with a plan together of things I was going to work on, along with the team. We worked through things internally, and I think we found solutions.” 2025 was the final year for Venturini Motorsports. While Isabella Robusto is looking for a new seat in 2026, Nitro Motorsports could be her landing spot. The team operates out of VMS’s premises and will have Billy Venturini as its GM for 2026. Most of the VMS employees are also expected to make the transition to Nitro Motorsports. Robusto also drove for RAFA Racing Team in the Phoenix West Series finale. It was also the team’s debut race in the series.
https://www.sportskeeda.com/nascar/news-21-year-old-isabella-robusto-rises-pitfalls-secure-major-arca-menards-accolade
21-year-old Isabella Robusto rises through pitfalls to secure major ARCA Menards accolade
