New Jersey’s Tom Hessert is making a return to the ARCA Menards Series, after four years away from the series, in 2022, as he’ll drive for Venturini Motorsports in three short track events this season.
Hessert’s three starts will come at Berlin Raceway, Elko Speedway and Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Hessert, a six-time ARCA Menards Series race winner explains that he stepped away from driving to focus on dad life.
“So yeah, It’s been a minute since I was in the seat,” said Hessert in a press release. “Our last full season was 2016 and after that we ran a couple of partial seasons. Since then, my focus has been on being a dad and growing my family with my amazing wife Meghan.”
Hessert says his three-race deal with Venturini Motorsports started being crafted last September.
“This whole idea kinda just came together back in September when I was talking with Billy (Venturini) about Lucas Oil being back on the ARCA schedule and how I’d love to go back one more time. Indianapolis is one of my favorite places. And after we made the decision to run, we started looking further up the schedule and found a few more races we thought would help knock off the rust,” added Hessert.
While the 35-year old driver, who has made 186 ARCA Menards Series starts in his career, has not run an ARCA event in the last four seasons, he missed the competitive nature of the series and is ready to get back to racing.
“I definitely miss the racing and being competitive, but getting back to the track and seeing everyone in the garage is going to be special,” Hessert explained. “As far as the racing, there are some unknowns after being away for so long, I just know were gonna make the most of it and have some fun.”
Hessert will look to add another victory to his career tally when he returns for the ARCA Menards Series event at Berlin Raceway on June 18th. That race will be available for live broadcast on MAVTV at 8:00 PM ET.