Ryan Roulette returning for Phoenix in the #12 for Fast Track Racing

Ryan Roulette returning for Phoenix in the #12 for Fast Track Racing

PC: ryanrouletteracing.com

A member of the United States Air Force from Minot, North Dakota, Ryan Roulette will be making his 2nd start of the 2024 ARCA Menards Series season for Fast Track Racing at Phoenix Raceway in the #12 Ford Fusion. This will also be his 4th start at Phoenix Raceway across both the main ARCA series and ARCA west series. Roulette has bought a new car for the upcoming race next weekend (running it under the FTR banner) and is hoping to surprise a lot of people for this season. Roulette will be competing in more races this year than he has before and the rest of his schedule will be released race by race. Like at Daytona, Roulette will be carrying primary sponsorship from Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Jeremy Petty will also be reprising his role as crew chief.

PC: Fast Track Racing- Facebook

Roulette got his start in dirt racing and has competed in sprint cars and legend cars for nearly 20 years and has competed in series’ such as the Dakota Legends Tour and the Western Renegades Non-Wing Sprint Car Series. He made his ARCA West debut at Phoenix in November of 2021 driving for Joe Nava’s Performance P-1 Motorsports in the #77, he finished 28th. He then returned to Phoenix in March driving for Andrew Tuttle’s Last Chance Racing in the #85. He would finish 22nd. Roulette was originally suppose to enter 9 races that year for Tuttle but the deal fell through and he ran only one more race that season but for Fast Track Racing. He was entered in the #11 at the Nashville Fairgrounds where he got his first top 10 finish. For 2023, he was originally suppose to run the full ARCA West schedule for his own team (Ryan Roulette Racing) in the #22 Ford. He was going to partner with Tuttle again but that deal fell through again.

Ryan Roulette goes from the Air Force to the race track in ARCA Menards Series - ARCA

PC: Austin Anthony/ARCA Racing

Roulette opted to partner with Andy Hillenburg and brought his only car (BMR-79, now a showcar) down to the FTR shop in North Carolina. He ran 4 races in 2023 with a best finish of 12th at both Flat Rock and Elko. Roulette made his first ever start at the world center of racing, Daytona International Speedway last month driving in a full Fast Track entry, not in his own car. Reflecting on the race Roulette had this to say, “Yeah we were doing real good there. We elected to stay out when a bunch of people pitted which drove us to 6th. We raced 5th and 6th for a little while, went 3 wide and once we went 3 wide we slowly fell back.” Roulette later had a tire go down after another car ran into him when the #68 of Gil Linster spun out. They slowed down anticipating a caution but the car behind him slammed into him. Roulette did finish the race in 23rd albeit 4 laps down after having to go into the infield without a caution. “We were between 13th and 18th I would say for a majority of the race we were in that spot, and I think we had a great finish coming if we just didnt get tangled there.”

PC: Fast Track Racing- Facebook

Reflecting on going to Phoenix again, Roulette had this to say, “we’re definetly looking forward to Phoenix. It’s somewhere we’re very familiar with, we’re familiar with either the March race which is a combo event we’re familiar with and the season ending race there and the different dynamics that show up to that. It’s a track that’s definetly dynamic, the turns are very different and I know where I struggle on that track. We’ve been putting a ton of effort into that particular corner to really perfect that. If we can fix that you’ll see us moving up the ranks real quick.” Roulette at FTR will be joined by rookie Michael Maples in the #99, who is also letting Fast Track field his own equipment. Maples is competing full time in the main ARCA schedule so both drivers will compete against each other in every race Roulette runs. The #10 and #11 are currently TBA for Phoenix but the #11 will be the same car Darrell Basham ran at Toledo last year, aka Abe. Roulette is hoping to impress people at Phoenix this year and in the many more races that he’ll be running this year. Those will be announced race by race. The ARCA Menards Series/ARCA Menards Series West combo event at Phoenix will be taking place on Friday, March 8th at 8 PM ET/6 PM MT on FS1.