Austin, Texas (March 24, 2019) – Dale Coyne Racing’s Santino Ferrucci was off to a strong start on Sunday at Circuit of the Americas in the second race of the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series. However, an off-track excursion forced by a competitor resulted in the car getting airborne and broken rear dampers. Despite continuing in the race, Ferrucci would end up 20th on the results sheet.
After starting 11th, the rookie gained a couple of positions on the first lap to take over ninth place. He would pick up one more position before entering pit lane on Lap 10 for his first stop of the race. With many cars on different fuel strategies, Ferrucci exited the pits in 15th but regained his ninth place on Lap 22 when all cars had completed at least one pit stop.
On Lap 26, the young American from Woodbury, CT, returned to pit lane for his second scheduled stop. While things had gone well for the rookie up to this point, bad luck came into play when he was forced off track and onto the curbing causing his #19 David Yurman Honda’s front wheels to lift off the ground and back down again. In doing so, the rear dampers broke making the car difficult to drive.
Ferrucci eventually entered pit lane to replace the broken dampers, but the damage was done, and the rookie would go on to take the checkered flag in 20th place.
Following the race, Ferrucci said: “We had a really good start and worked our way up to ninth. The first stint was really, really solid, the car was really good, and we were able to hold our ground. In the second stint, on Firestone Reds, there was a lot of fighting and I killed the tires a little bit too soon. I was just trying to hang on and survive but then once we put on the Black tires, unfortunately we got forced off track and hit one of the ‘baguette curbs’ in Turn 12 and we blew up both rear dampers and that was basically it for us. The guys did a good job replacing the broken dampers, so we could go back out and finish the race on the lead lap but now we’re looking forward to the next one.”
Next up for Dale Coyne Racing will be the Honda Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park in two weeks’ time on April 7, 2019.
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