INDYCAR: Santino Ferrucci records first last-place finish since the 2010s

Written By William Soquet

By William Soquet, LASTCAR.info Staff Writer

PHOTO: Motorsport Images

Santino Ferrucci finished last for the 2nd time in his NTT IndyCar Series career during Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course when his #14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet retired as a precautionary measure due to data irregularities after completing 55 of the race’s 85 laps.

The finish came in Ferrucci’s 64th career start and was his first since Laguna Seca in the 2019 season finale, 68 races ago. Across IndyCar Series history, it was the 113th for Chevrolet, the 22nd for Chevrolet, and the first for data-related reasons.

At age 25, the events of Santino Ferrucci’s racing career would already more than suffice for a lifetime of racing in most careers. He competed in a vast array of karting events from 2005 to 2012, from ages seven to 14. Following a 2013 season in the American open-wheel ladder system driving F2000 cars, it was off to Europe for the Connecticut driver. There, Ferrucci ran Formula 3 in 2014 with EuroInternational, then in 2015 with Mucke Motorsport. In 2016, he moved to the direct Formula 1 feeder ladder, running GP3 with DAMS and serving as a Haas test driver alongside Charles Leclerc. Following a season-and-a-half of that, Ferrucci moved up to Formula 2 midway through the 2017 season, finishing ninth on debut. He continued in that same drive in 2018, notching three top-ten finishes in the first twelve races.

Then, everything unraveled. In mid-July, he was handed a four-race ban for deliberate contact with teammate Arjun Maini, then was fined for holding his cell phone while driving the racecar in between garages during a race weekend, and soon became delinquent on payments. This escalating situation led Trident to terminate Ferrucci’s contract with the team, instantly ending any hopes of a Formula 1 career.

Part of the reason Trident fired Ferrucci would ultimately deterine the next step in his career. He was in default on payments to them while able to pay Dale Coyne Racing to drive its car in the IndyCar duals at Detroit in place of an injured Pietro Fittipaldi. While those races ended in results of 22nd and 20th, Ferrucci returned to the team for the final two races of the 2018 calendar, finishing 11th at Sonoma. That led to a pair of full seasons in 2019 and 2020 with Coyne. During that time, Ferrucci made noise on ovals, scoring top-five finishes at Texas, Pocono, Gateway and Indianapolis. He then made a brief foray into NASCAR, running seven races for Sam Hunt Racing during the 2021 XFINITY Series season. Back in open wheels, he was also a driver for Rahal Letterman Lanigan, where an initial one-off drive for the Indianapolis 500 turned into five races in the team’s third car. He was ultimately passed over for Christian Lundgaard in advance of 2022. Ferrucci was IndyCar’s super sub that year, driving for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in the 500 and subbing for Jack Harvey at Rahal and Callum Ilott at Juncos Hollinger. He was also on standby for Team Penske should Josef Newgarden be unable to race at the summer Indy Grand Prix after a crash and fall at Iowa.

It was the Penske gig that propelled Ferrucci to A.J. Foyt Racing’s #14 car for 2023, an opportunity that came about after Kyle Kirkwood’s one-year tenure in the car ended. While five of the first six races resulted in finishes of 20th or worse, Ferrucci showed speed all month long in May and was a player in the Indianapolis 500 until the very end, finishing third. Despite a best finish of 13th the rest of the season and an overall points finish of 19th, 2023 was still considered mostly a success on the sole basis of a good run at Indianapolis.

Heading into the current 2024 campaign, Foyt found itself in flux once again. The team wanted to bring back Ferrucci, but lacked the necessary budget to do so. The driver with funding who drove for Foyt, Benjamin Pedersen, was quietly shuffled out of the team lineup following the signing of the funded Sting Ray Robb. It took until after the new year, but Ferrucci was finally confirmed for a 2024 return.

The sophomore season with Foyt started much better than the freshman season. Car and driver were impressive at the season opener, finishing ninth. In a loosely-officiated Barber Motorsports Park race, Ferrucci liberally used his front wing and side pod and bumped his way to seventh. He also led his first IndyCar restart in the latter portion of that race. He sat tenth in series standings entering the Indianapolis Grand Prix.

One big IndyCar personnel matter was resolved in the days leading up to the race: Arrow McLaren’s #6 car is no longer driverless. Last season’s Formula 2 champion was running Super Formula, but with David Malukas no longer on the roster, McLaren wrapped up Theo Pourchaire for the remainder of the season (minus the Indianapolis 500) after a successful oval test.

Ferrucci was again impressive in practice, ringing up tenth on the speed charts. Marcus Armstrong was 27th, with a best lap of six minutes flat following a mechanical issue that severely impacted performance. He rebounded to ninth in second practice, while Ferrucci slid to 21st. Sting Ray Robb, who was 26th in first practice, dropped one spot down to end second practice at the bottom of the charts. It was he who would take the final provisional grid position in qualifying. Robb was the only driver in the 1:10 lap time range during qualifying, four-tenths behind Tom Blomqvist in Group 2. Ferrucci was eighth in Group 2, missing the cut for the Fast Twelve by a tenth of a second.

Morning warmup is usually a pretty dull event full of drivers practicing pit stops and shaking out the car, but this weekend’s morning warmup was quite the spectacle. Pato O’Ward, mired in a miserable stretch of the season, blew an engine. That also prompted an engine change for McLaren teammate Alexander Rossi. While the engine changes did not bring grid penalties, it was not a good sign for Chevrolet. The bigger incident involved Ferrucci. During an install lap for both drivers, Ferrucci went to make a pass on Romain Grosjean in the right-hand turn that funnels back onto the oval. Grosjean squeezed Ferrucci, and Ferrucci responded by pushing Grosjean way high towards the oval wall. Following that sequence, Ferrucci flashed an obscene hand gesture at Grosjean down the front straightaway. That incident followed a run-in at Barber last weekend and a run-in during practice on Saturday as well.

At the start of the race, Robb remained a car length back of the field entering the first turn. However, some overshoots at the front of the field stacked up the entire outside lane, leaving several cars in the grass at the start of the race. While Robb was a big winner, moving up to 19th by the end of the opening lap, the big loser was Meyer Shank Racing. Felix Rosenqvist was shuffled back from tenth to 26th and Blomqvist dropped to the final spot in the field.

Ferrucci mostly avoided the outside lane carnage, dropping from 16th to 17th. However, on Lap 2, Grosjean caught Ferrucci in the esses section. After going side-by-side for a few turns, Ferrucci pushed Grosjean wide in a right-hander between the oval short chute and straightaway. Ferrucci lost two spots and Grosjean six in the incident.

The next lap, Rosenqvist ran into the grass, putting the #60 car in last place. It was a disappointing spot to find himself, as Rosenqvist and Meyer Shank Racing are the early surprise pairing of the season. Two circuits later, on Lap 5, the broadcast reported a brake bias issue for Ferrucci as he continued to slowly fall down the leaderboard.

Blomqvist pitted from 26th on Lap 7, the first car in the field to do so. Teammate Rosenqvist followed him three laps later, again inheriting last place. Pourchaire, who was running 25th before the pit cycle, pitted on Lap 13 and stayed there for most of the cycle as cars made their way through. One of the last holdouts, however, was Luca Ghiotto. The Italian went for the overcut in the opening stint of his second IndyCar contest and advanced to as high as sixth before pitting. However, he then fell to the bottom of the board following his pit stop.

It would only be a few laps before last changed hands again, as Ghiotto worked his way around Robb. In only a few more short laps, on Lap 29, Rinus VeeKay pitted for a tire issue. As the race had been green up to that point in time, the unscheduled stop left the #21 in last, one lap behind the field. The very next lap, however, Blomqvist made a stop to kick off the second round of pit stops. A penalty and subsequent drive-through left him at the tail of the field. Following Agustin Canapino’s stop on Lap 37, it was the Argentinian who picked up the last-place mantle. However, as the stops cycled through, he passed Blomqvist and unlapped himself. At the conclusion of the cycle, Blomqvist was the only car one lap down, alone in 27th.

Still fighting the brake bias issue, Ferrucci settled in 24th following the opening round of stops and advanced to 22nd following the second round. VeeKay made another stop on Lap 53, this one scheduled, to drop him to last. However, two laps later, the #14 pulled off the track and retired.

The team did not elaborate further in a post-race press release, meaning that the exact cause of Ferrucci’s retirement will likely remain unknown to those outside the A.J. Foyt Racing organization.

VeeKay was 26th at race’s end, never recovering from the unscheduled stop. Ghiotto was 25th after a spin that brought out the race’s only caution on lap 66. Linus Lundqvist, Blomqvist, and Robb rounded out the Bottom Five.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*Ferrucci was the first American driver to finish last since Graham Rahal crashed out of last season’s finale at Laguna Seca.

*This was the first last-place finish for the #14 since August 8, 2021, when Sebastien Bourdais crashed out on the streets of Nashville.

*These 55 laps were the most completed by a last-place finisher in the spring Indy Grand Prix since Jordan King completed 83, finishing under power, in 2018.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
27) #14-Santino Ferrucci / 55 laps / data

26) #21-Rinus VeeKay / 84 laps / running

25) #8-Linus Lundqvist / 84 laps / running

24) #66-Tom Blomqvist / 84 laps / running

23) #41-Sting Ray Robb / 84 laps / running

2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) A.J. Foyt Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Team Penske (1)

2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (3)

2nd) Honda (1)

2024 LASTCAR NTT INDYCAR SERIES DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP

William Soquet
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