LEEDS, Ala. — Santino Ferrucci was quick to point out on Sunday (March 29) that the No. 14 from AJ Foyt Racing has had clean races all season long in the NTT IndyCar Series but had not yet had the results to show for it.
That is, until Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama IndyCar Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park, where the Connecticut hotshoe finished the day right around where he rolled off the grid on a sunny and chilly afternoon at the venue known as the “Augusta National of Racing Facilities.”
Ferucci started seventh and steadily wheeled his way around the track within the race’s top 10, going on to finish eighth. He spent five laps within the race’s top five early on before going on to move into eighth with 20 laps to go, where he’d remain.
“Strategy was good, pit stops were good, nothing really went wrong,” Ferrucci told Frontstretch. “We had a couple of good dog fights out there, but other than that, the car was good, and we finished right where we should have.”
It was his first top-10 result since last year’s season finale at Nashville Superspeedway and also marked Ferucci’s first road-course top 10 since last summer at Road America.
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Sunday’s result helped continue an overall strong day for the Foyt organization, which won for the first time in the Indy NXT Series on Sunday as Alessandro de Tullio captured the checkered flag.
But for Ferucci on Sunday, it was the next notch on what’s been a ladder of steady showings, an effort that accelerated at Barber. Coming into the weekend, Ferucci’s best finish this season had been 11th at Phoenix with a best qualifying effort of 12th at Arlington.
Both marks were bypassed at Barber Motorsports Park, even after Fercucci narrowly missed getting into Saturday’s Fast Six session. On Sunday, Ferucci showed his mettle, running around where he timed in the day before.
Ferucci now gets to build on the weekend’s step forward when the IndyCar Series resumes April 19 for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, a venue where he has two finishes of 11th or better in the last three races.
“We’ve had it all year, but this is the first race we have shown it,” Ferucci said. “So just to kind of get that momentum — we’re getting it in qualifying — and to get that started in the race, it’s a good deal for us.”
