Paddock Buzz: Santino Ferrucci Continues Foyt's Recent Resurgence

Fox Sports

01-06-2025

INDYCAR
Santino Ferrucci made his NTT INDYCAR SERIES debut in 2018 at Belle Isle Park in Detroit with Dale Coyne Racing.
Fast-forward to Sunday's Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear, and Ferrucci delivered the best result of his INDYCAR SERIES career, finishing second in the No. 14 Sexton Properties/AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet.
'Huge shoutout to this whole team,' Ferrucci said.
This is the second consecutive week an A.J. Foyt Enterprises entry has finished runner-up. David Malukas secured second place in the No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet in the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on May 25.
Ferrucci's podium finish on the nine-turn, 1.645-mile Detroit street circuit also represents the team's best road or street course result since Takuma Sato finished second in 2015 at Belle Isle.
But Ferrucci admitted frustration that his task to reach the front was made more difficult because he qualified 21st Saturday.
'I struggled in qualifying,' Ferrucci said. 'I made a lot of mistakes. I was really hard on myself yesterday. I thought it was all on me.'
Ferrucci steadily worked his way through the field during Sunday's race, but a pivotal moment came on Lap 67 when Callum Ilott crashed in Turn 1, bringing out a caution. Ferrucci had just made his final pit stop on Lap 65, and with many of the leaders still needing to stop, the caution allowed him to cycle to the front when they pitted under yellow on Lap 69.
He held the lead until Lap 78 when Kyle Kirkwood made the race-defining move to take over the top spot. Kirkwood went on to secure his fourth career victory and second of the 2025 season, both coming on street circuits after also winning the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 13.
'The pit stops were phenomenal,' Ferrucci said. 'The stand was amazing. Perfect strategy. I just got lucky with that yellow.'
The result capped off a historic two-week stretch for A.J. Foyt Enterprises, marking the first time since 2013 the team has finished on the podium in back-to-back races. That year, Takuma Sato won at Long Beach and followed with a runner-up finish in Brazil.
Frustrated O'Ward Still Gains Points
Pato O'Ward turned a challenging weekend into a solid result by climbing 11 positions from 18th to finish seventh Sunday in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
'We survived it,' O'Ward said. 'It's been the worst performance weekend I've probably ever had in INDYCAR, really. We legit qualified 18th on just pure pace. We've had other times where we've been back there, but it's always been because of an issue, or I made a mistake here and there. This one was truly where we deserved to be.'
Despite his frustrations, O'Ward made the most of the race through smart strategy and tire management. He and Josef Newgarden were the only two drivers in the 27-car field to start the race on Firestone Firehawk primary tires, then follow with another stint on the same compound, opting for durability over early pace.
O'Ward pitted on Lap 53 to switch to the softer alternate tires, but when the caution came on Lap 67 due to Ilott's crash, it allowed him to pit again with the leaders and return to the more durable primary tire. That strategic move kept him in the top 10 mix during the closing laps.
The seventh-place finish gave O'Ward a much-needed 22-point gain on championship leader Alex Palou, who crashed in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda on Lap 72.
O'Ward heads into the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline on June 15 at World Wide Technology Raceway second in the standings, trailing Palou by 90 points.
'That's a positive considering where we were starting,' O'Ward said. 'There's plenty of racing to go. There's more championship left than what we've done. I think that there's a lot of points on the table, and you can't expect (Alex) Palou to be making a lot of mistakes.'
Late Caution Costs Power Potential Podium
Will Power was on track for a runner-up finish in Sunday's race, but late-race cautions and a challenging restart dropped him to fourth in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.
Power was running second on the primary pit strategy before the Lap 67 caution triggered by Ilott's crash.
That yellow shuffled the field, as Ferrucci, Kyffin Simpson and Marcus Armstrong had already pit and cycled ahead. Power exited pit lane behind Kirkwood but rejoined the race in fifth.
By Lap 77, the running order was Ferrucci, Kirkwood, Simpson, Power and Colton Herta. Power made swift moves to get around Simpson and Ferrucci just before another major incident on Lap 83 when Louis Foster suffered a mechanical failure entering Turn 3, colliding with Felix Rosenqvist in a frightening crash. Foster walked away uninjured, and Rosenqvist was seen and released from the infield care center following evaluation.
The race was red-flagged with Power sitting in second, but that moment turned out to be his undoing. On the restart with 11 laps to go, his car struggled on cold tires, and he lost positions, first to Ferrucci, then to Herta – ultimately settling for fourth.
'My car was very tough on the restart,' Power said. 'We were as good as them once our tires were warmed up but struggled before. It was almost like I'm driving on snow.'
While Power acknowledged he likely didn't have the pace to challenge Kirkwood for the win, he believes he could have held second without the late cautions.
Still, the result marked a significant personal milestone, earning his 140th career top-five finish, moving him past Michael Andretti (139) and tying him with Al Unser for sixth on the all-time INDYCAR SERIES list.
'A little disappointed I didn't get a podium, but obviously results really matter for me at the moment,' Power said.
Simpson Earns Career-Best Fifth
Simpson is establishing himself on street courses in his second season in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. After earning a then career-best 10th-place finish at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 13, the young driver took another leap forward by finishing fifth in Sunday's race, his best result in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
The turning point came during Sunday morning's final practice session, where Simpson and his Chip Ganassi Racing team discovered Firestone alternate tires dramatically improved the performance of his No. 8 Ridgeline Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
'We found that the alternate tire really made the car come alive,' Simpson said.
Capitalizing on that knowledge, the team opted for two mid-race stints on the alternates, giving Simpson the grip and speed to move up the order. He made his final pit stop two laps before the Lap 67 caution brought out by Ilott's crash, which handed him crucial track position as others pitted under yellow.
The strategy paid off, and Simpson stayed in the mix with the frontrunners for the remainder of the race, ultimately delivering a strong top-five result and building momentum as the series heads toward the summer stretch.
Odds and Ends The last time prior to Sunday that three American-born drivers swept the podium in Detroit came in 1995 with Robby Gordon, Jimmy Vasser and Scott Pruett. The last time three Americans stood on the podium in any INDYCAR SERIES race was the second race in 2020 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, when Andretti teammates drivers Herta, Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay were in the respective podium spots. Graham Rahal finished fourth that day, too, giving Americans a lockout of the top four spots. Scott Dixon finished 11th, extending his winless streak to 19 races with his last victory coming here in 2024. This is the fourth-longest winless drought of his career, trailing 39 races between 2003 and 2005, 36 races between 2001 and 2002 and 22 races between 2021 and 2022. Kirkwood delivered Andretti Global its 76th career INDYCAR SERIES victory. Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Global have three podium finishes each since the series returned downtown in Detroit in 2023. Team Penske, A.J. Foyt Enterprises and Arrow McLaren each have one. Kirkwood has a 2.33 average finish on street courses this season. The race featured 261 on-track passes, a record for this downtown circuit and the second-highest total in the history of the event, including races on Belle Isle. The race also featured an event record 181 on-track passes for position.
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