Russo was born in 1914 and began his motorsport career in 1934 racing midget cars. That winter he traveled with a group of midget-car drivers to Hawaii, foreshadowing the itinerant lifestyle that would define his early career. He became the 1938 AAA Eastern Midget Champion and won the first-ever race held at the Nutley Velodrome in New Jersey that same year.
He was a member of midget racing's "Chicago Gang," an informal circuit of drivers including Emil Andres, Tony Bettenhausen, Duke Nalon, Cowboy O'Rourke, Jimmy Snyder, and Wally Zale. This group regularly toured tracks across the Midwest and East Coast, and their collective presence at events gave midget racing much of its character during the late 1930s and into the 1940s.
Russo's open-wheel career at the national championship level spanned an exceptionally long period. He raced in the AAA and USAC Championship Car series across the 1940–1941, 1946–1954, 1956–1959, and 1962 seasons, accumulating 81 starts in total. He finished in the top ten 49 times, a remarkably consistent record across such a lengthy career.
He recorded two Championship Car victories: at Springfield in 1950 and at Detroit in 1951. He also won a non-points race at Williams Grove in 1952. In 1955 he co-drove with Tony Bettenhausen to a second-place finish in a shared effort, demonstrating the cooperative nature of racing at the time.
The Indianapolis 500 was the centerpiece of Russo's Championship Car career. He entered the race every year with the exceptions of 1951 and 1952. His best result at Indianapolis was a fourth-place finish in 1957, achieved at the wheel of the Novi Special — a car powered by the legendary supercharged Novi engine, one of the most evocative machines in Indy history.
The Novi Special was known for its speed and unreliability in equal measure, making Russo's fourth-place in 1957 a significant achievement. He continued competing at Indianapolis into the early 1960s, finishing his final entry in 1962.
Because the Indianapolis 500 was included in the FIA World Drivers' Championship from 1950 through 1960, Russo's Indy appearances during that period earned him championship participation credits. He started eight World Drivers' Championship races at Indianapolis, finishing in the top three on one occasion and setting one fastest leader lap. He accumulated eight and a half World Drivers' Championship points over that span — a modest total, but one that places him among the broader roster of American drivers who intersected with the post-war world championship in its early AAA-inclusive era.
Racing was a family tradition for the Russos. His brother Joe and nephew Eddie also competed in Championship Car racing, making the family one of the extended racing dynasties of mid-century American open-wheel competition.
Russo died on February 13, 1976, while in Florida for the Daytona 500. He passed away off the coast of Clearwater and is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery and Arboretum in Indianapolis, Indiana — the city most closely associated with his career. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame, an honor recognizing his championship-level contribution to that discipline earlier in his career.