Santino Ferrucci Race Summary:
Santino Ferrucci drove the No. 18 Team SealMaster-Dale Coyne Vasser-Sullivan Honda to a sixth place finish today in the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America Race 1.

Ferrucci had a brilliant qualifying effort earlier in the day on the 4.014-mile, 14-turn Road America permanent road course. His fast time, 1:45.7696, was turned on the last lap of is qualifying run, putting him third in his group and sixth on the starting grid. The sixth place starting position is Ferrucci’s best on an Indy car road/street course in 17 races and ties his best overall Indy car qualifying position set last year at WWT Raceway at Gateway.

In the race, Ferrucci had a phenomenal first lap moving from sixth to fourth. He then executed a difficult pass on Ryan Hunter-Reay to take third, and assumed second place during the first round of pit stops. He held second for the entire second stint, then pitted and rejoined the race in third. Ferrucci was running in third when he pitted for final time, but while coming down pit lane was forced to check up when another car came from the fast (outside) lane straight across pit lane. The team fought back from the incident and finished sixth. 

Santino Ferrucci Race Quote:

“We had a fantastic opening lap moving up from sixth to fourth. I then made a really tough pass on Ryan Hunter-Reay and got around him for third. From there we moved into second and held our own, didn’t make any mistakes. Coming out of the pits after the last stop we lost a lot of track position when another car turned straight from the fast lane across to his pit box and I was forced to check up. We fought back from there to finish sixth. It was a blast to drive the SealMaster-Coyne Vasser-Sullivan car today and I’m  ready to take on tomorrow.”

Santino Ferrucci Fast Facts:

Ferrucci earned 28 points today and is now 11^th in the IndyCar championship standings with 59 points on the strength of two top-9 finishes in the first three races of the season (Road America – sixth, GMR Grand Prix – ninth).

This is Ferrucci’s best finish in two starts at Road America. In his Road America debut last year he qualified finished 19^th.

Ferrucci is contesting his second full NTT IndyCar Series season and first with Dale Coyne Racing w/ Vasser-Sullivan.

The 2020 REV Group Grand Prix at Road America Race 1 was Ferrucci’s 24^th career NTT IndyCar Series start and second at Road America.

In 24 career IndyCar starts, Ferrucci has three top-five finishes (Fourth at: Texas Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway and World Wide Technology Raceway, all in 2019)

Ferrucci was the 2019 Indianapolis 500 “Rookie of the Year” finishing seventh.

He finished third in 2019 “Rookie of the Year” standings, third in laps completed (2037 of 2092), fourth among all drivers on ovals with 170 points and eighth in laps led with 118. Ferrucci placed 13^th in championship standings with 351 points.

Ferrucci, 22, is a native of Woodbury, Connecticut but resides in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Next Race:

Round 4 of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season will be the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America Race 2, tomorrow July 12, on the Road America permanent road course.