Ferrucci Bullish on Foyt’s Chances for Championship Charge

As is Santino Ferrucci’s style, he is coming in hot with optimism for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season that begins next month.

Last year, the driver of AJ Foyt Racing’s No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet scored his first NTT P1 Award for being the quickest qualifier at Portland International Raceway, again led key laps in the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge and finished a career-best ninth in the final standings.

So, what does he project for the upcoming season? More than that.

“Toward the end of (last season) we definitely picked up the pole, two top-five (finishes), had a really strong run in Nashville — I think we qualified in the top five if it wasn’t for the engine penalty,” Ferrucci said. “All of that is just building on the success that we had throughout the year, building setups, building books (of information).”

Ferrucci added that a second year working with Team Penske in the technical alliance between the two organizations should be beneficial, along with the No. 14 team’s recent move from the Houston area to Indianapolis to bring AJ Foyt Racing’s two-car organization under one roof.

“It’s going to be game-changing, and I think we can just expect more success, just more top-fives, hopefully some more poles and that maiden win,” he said.

That optimism is what led Ferrucci to recently say his car could be in contention for the series championship, a bold statement by a 26-year-old Connecticut driver who has a history of backing up words often are perceived as brash.

“I think when I said that (about contending for the championship), I think a lot of people kind of laughed at me,” he said, smiling. “But you look at where we would have finished in oval points and then you look at how we did at the end of the year for the last leg of the season. I wasn’t messing around when I said I think we can run for a championship.

“Yeah, there’s a lot that goes into it, but the biggest part is consistency, and that’s one thing that I know we have, and that’s something that you can’t teach.

“Finishing all but two races last year, (having) just one mechanical (failure) and one that I’m not sure about (in) Toronto, I think that shows. I think if we (repeat) that this year and what we had going at the end of last year plus the development all winter long being under one roof, we’re going to be a force.”

Ferrucci and the No. 14 crew indeed had a strong season in 2024. He was one of eight series drivers to win a pole, was third in laps completed, and he tied former series champions Scott Dixon and Will Power for fifth in top-10 finishes. His car also was running at the finish in 15 of the 17 races (tied for fifth).

Ferrucci’s 11 top-10 finishes were the most for one of A.J. Foyt’s drivers in more than 20 years, and he finished the season with four of them in succession. The eighth-place finish in the “500” was his sixth consecutive top-10 finish in the event, a year after he finished third. He has never finished lower than 10th at Indy, leading five of the six races.

Ferrucci also was the team’s highest-finishing driver in a season standing since Airton Dare in 2002.

This season, Ferrucci will be paired with David Malukas, who will drive the team’s No. 4 Chevrolet. Malukas has been, along with Ferrucci, one of the sport’s best drivers on the short ovals, and the pairing should be fun to watch on all tracks this season. Ferrucci’s average finish in last year’s seven oval races was 7.3, a figure bested only by Scott McLaughlin.

If Ferrucci and his group can avoid poor finishes – they had three in the 20s last season – they might truly have a chance to vault into the series’ upper echelon.

“Honestly, our next step is just going to be finding that rhythm like we did last year,” Ferrucci said. “That’s the biggest key. We have our setups in our books. It’ll just be really breaking into that top-five rhythm. We’ve got the top-10 rhythm down pretty good, I’m sure of that.

“So, it’s just taking that next piece of armor off, and to do that, everything has to go right. Every weekend you can’t be missing time on tests, you can’t be missing practice time. Every second out there will count for us, especially when you want to make a championship run.”

A championship run. Foyt fans like the sound of that.