by William Soquet, LASTCAR.info Staff Writer

Luca Ghiotto finished last for the 1st time in his NTT IndyCar Series career in Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix at Laguna Seca when his #51 GAV Air Technology Honda crashed out after completing 34 of the race’s 95 laps.

The finish came in Ghiotto’s fourth career start. Across NTT IndyCar Series history, it was the seventh for the #51, the 114th for Honda and the 229th for damage-related reasons.

At this point in the craziness that is IndyCar, Luca Ghiotto is exactly the driver one would peg to be in his situation. The 29-year-old Italian made his karting debut at age 13 in 2008 and then progressed up the European ladder. He started formula racing in 2011, linking with soon-to-be IndyCar team Prema for a regional formula drive, and made all the right moves, attaching himself to European junior series powerhouse Trident for stints in GP3 and GP2 (now Formula 2). His Formula 2 career was an eventful one, spanning five teams in as many years, plus a stint as a reserve driver for the Williams team. After failing to secure a Formula 1 drive, he became a GT sports car driver in Italy for 2021 and 2022. He served as Nissan’s Formula E simulator driver in 2023 before moving into another sports car gig in 2024, this time with Inter Europol in the European Le Mans Series.

Looking to supplement this with some single-seater action, Giotto signed with Dale Coyne Racing on April 25 for the Barber Motorsports Park race that weekend and the Indianapolis road course race in early May. Those two races yielded two finishes in the 20s and a memorable moment where he drove over Georgina the mannequin. The art piece fell onto the track after hanging on a bridge and Ghiotto’s car chopped an arm off as he drove past. On June 6, driver and team agreed to another two races in the #51, this time at Road America and Laguna Seca. He had high expectations to live up to, as interim driver Tristan Vautier rose to the top of the field at Detroit on a strategy call and gave the #51 the most attention it had all season. In the first race of the extended tenure, Ghiotto was the last car on the lead lap, finishing 22nd in a spread-out Road America race.

The IndyCar in-season driver carousel continues to spin. It seems “silly season” has been abolished, and the new normal is just a constant state of change. Between Road America and Laguna Seca, the changes once again focused on Arrow McLaren. On June 18, the Tuesday before Laguna, McLaren announced that Nolan Siegel had joined the team effective immediately to pilot the #6 car. He displaced Theo Pourchaire, who McLaren had previously negotiated out of a Super Formula drive and signed for the remainder of the 2024 season in the #6. The move was unexpected by most before rumors started flying on Monday. In Pourchaire, McLaren seemed to have found its next diamond in the rough – a prospect who conquered the European ladder as a Formula 2 champion but then couldn’t find a home. The team even arranged a rookie oval test after signing the driver, ensuring that he could run the entirety of the remaining schedule. However, it was not to be. The team cited a confluence of Pourchaire’s continued control by Stake F1 Team (formerly Sauber) and Siegel’s rising IndyCar stock as reasons to get Siegel signed to a contract for multiple years. While not technically a new face on the grid, seeing as how Siegel has run IndyCar before, it left another team and driver at square one for an upcoming race weekend.

Ghiotto was 26th in opening practice, sandwiched in between Siegel in 27th and the returning-from-injury David Malukas in 25th. Malukas, making his debut for Meyer Shank Racing in the car that was supposed to be piloted by Tom Blomqvist for this whole season, rose to 20th in second practice. Ghiotto slid to last on the charts, just a tenth behind Siegel. Qualifying was much the same. Ghiotto drew Group 2 of first-round qualifying and was last, only .03 seconds behind teammate Jack Harvey. Since Group 2 was the group with 14 of the 27 cars, Ghiotto’s 14th-place time in the group equated to the 27th and last starting spot on the grid.

Starts and restarts were an area of increased emphasis for IndyCar at Laguna Seca this year after last year’s debacle coming to a few restarts. For the initial start, the field bunched up nicely, with Ghiotto alone at the tail of the field behind Harvey and Sting Ray Robb in Row 13. At the end of the long opening straight, Ghiotto got a nose under Harvey’s car in the Turn 2 hairpin, but was unable to make the pass. It was still an eventful opening lap, as Will Power got in the gravel trying to avoid a dustup between Christian Rasmussen and Santino Ferrucci and dropped to last at the end of the lap.

The second lap also saw several shakeups. Power climbed to 25th, Ghiotto dropped to 27th, and Siegel dropped from 23rd to 26th. Siegel and Ghiotto ran in close proximity roughly 13 seconds back of the leaders on Lap 2 as the field sorted itself out.

Rinus VeeKay was the next driver to briefly hold last place. He was running in 17th on Lap 5, right behind teammate Rasmussen, before running wide in the left-hand Turn 5 and dropping his right-rear tire into the sand. The car did a 180-degree spin into the track to driver’s left and stopped facing oncoming traffic. VeeKay did not stall and got going the right direction, although he dropped to last in the process.

VeeKay passed Ghiotto for 26th on Lap 7 as the two ran 23 seconds back of the leaders. From there, the last-place battle calmed down considerably. The pair of Ghiotto and Siegel ran together at the tail of the field, running lap times not too far from those of the leaders. The pair only lost about five seconds in ten laps, going from 23 seconds back on lap seven to 28 seconds back on lap 16, when the first green-flag pit cycle started.

During the pit cycle, Marcus Ericsson, VeeKay, and Siegel all took turns cycling to the back before Ghiotto pitted on Lap 22 and cycled to last. Two laps later, the Italian passed Robb. Robb lost radio communication with his team early in the race, and his pace and pit stops were impacted. It was a double whammy, as a crash in morning warmup meant that Robb was racing with a hastily-repaired machine on Sunday.

Robb generally drifted back of the leaders in the aftermath of the pit cycle. On Lap 32, he was 42 seconds back of the race lead, seven seconds back of Ghiotto and falling.

On Lap 35, Ghiotto’s adventure in Northern California came to a sudden end. He was running by himself when he overshot the right-hand Turn 4. Driver chased car through the sand and gravel on driver’s left before careening into the barrier. The impact severely damaged both the front and back left areas on the car, rendering it undriveable. Shortly after crashing, Ghiotto asked his team over the radio whether he could get out of the car right away or if he had to wait until the safety team got there. Should this be the end of Ghiotto’s IndyCar career, it’s a rather unsatisfactory end to a four-race tenure that did not yield a single finish of 20th or better. With Katherine Legge poised to do all of the remaining ovals in the #51, Ghiotto’s opportunities for 2024 are dwindling.

Ironicaly, VeeKay was the next car out of the race. He was hampered with gearbox issues in the second half of the race, running with it for a while before retiring the car with a little over 20 laps to go. Ghiotto’s Dale Coyne Racing teammate Jack Harvey was 25th, victim of an engine failure. Graham Rahal and Kyffin Simpson rounded out the Bottom Five, both out after a crash that started with Agustin Canapino getting in to Simpson’s tire.

LASTCAR FACTS

*Ghiotto is the third Italian driver to finish last in the current iteration of IndyCar. Alessandro Zampedri failed to complete a lap in the 1997 Indy 500 with an oil leak and Francesco Dracone (also running a Coyne car) was last on pace at Barber in 2015.

*Of IndyCar’s five races at Laguna Seca in the 21st century, Honda has now finished last in four of them.

*It was Dale Coyne Racing’s first last-place finish at Laguna Seca since Santino Ferrucci crashed out after 48 laps in 2019.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

27) #51-Luca Ghiotto / 34 laps / crash

26) #21-Rinus VeeKay / 72 laps / gearbox

25) #18-Jack Harvey / 82 laps  / engine

24) #15-Graham Rahal / 86 laps / crash

23) #4-Kyffin Simpson / 86 laps / crash

2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet, Honda (4)

2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Ed Carpenter Racing (2)

2nd) A.J. Foyt Racing, Andretti Global, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Team Penske (1)

2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP