Becca Monopoli started her ARCA Menards Series career in 2024, and she was hooked — even if the results weren’t stellar.
The 35-year-old from Lakeland, Fla., tested in the series’ preseason test at Daytona International Speedway and then attempted her debut in the season opener.
Unfortunately, she failed to qualify. She then teamed up with fellow Floridian Stuart Weiss to compete at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park for City Garage Motorsports in the No. 85.
She started 19th, ahead of a few series regulars, but on lap 126, she wrecked out to a 27th-place DNF.
CGM repaired the car and Monopoli joined the field in the season finale at Toledo Speedway. There, she ran a clean race and came home with an 11th-place finish, albeit eight laps down.
“It was very fun the majority of the time,” she told Frontstretch. “Of course, IRP did not end on a fun note. But the experience and the getting to be there and learning a new car and new track and just learning about ARCA in general — then it was fun.”
Consider this: before running the Daytona test, ARCA racing was not on Monopoli’s radar.
“We hadn’t talked about or discussed it,” she said. “I got a phone call in January that said, ‘Hey, would you be interested in going to test an ARCA car at Daytona?’ ‘Yeah, of course, let’s go try it out.’ And it’s just kind of gone from there.
“We’ve never tried to run the Snowball Derby because the biggest thing is its expenses. It’s a great race to watch, but to go into it as an okay super late model driver, it’s not the best thing. But it’s about the same to run the Snowball Derby as it would be to run an ARCA race. And it’s easier on your equipment, and there’s more coverage and exposure too.”
After a DNQ and DNF to begin her ARCA career, simply running all the laps, staying out of trouble and outlasting some of her competition to finish 11th at Toledo was quite rewarding.
“After not having what we hoped for at IRP, our goal was to finish the race and get experience,” Monopoli said. “So we weren’t trying to push it too hard, but still wanted to be competitive and keep the nose clean. We were successful in that. Yes, I was laps down, but I got an 11th-place finish. It was cool. I got the lucky dog at one point in the race as well, and I liked the track. I learned the line in the groove and what to do. I feel like when we go back next year, we’ll be even better for our…
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