Fort Worth, Texas (June 8, 2019) – Rookie Santino Ferrucci continued to impress with his on-track performances aboard his #19 Cly-Del Manufacturing Dale Coyne Racing entry on Saturday night as he scored his best NTT IndyCar Series finish with a fourth place at Texas Motor Speedway, in what was only his second oval event of his career.
Ferrucci, who was starting from the 18th position, gained a couple of spots at the start and sat 14th for the majority of his first stint. Upon exiting the pits following his first stop on lap 60, Ferrucci returned to the track in the same position before climbing up to 12th by Lap 100.
About 15 laps after making his second stop on Lap 119, Ferrucci climbed to eighth place, gaining a few positions following a full course caution in which he avoided a spinning car in front of him. He would then fall back to 13th on Lap 186 after his last scheduled pit stop. From there, the 2019 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year continuously moved up the field, making it to seventh by the time a yellow flag fell on Lap 219 of the 248-lap event.
The rookie then made it up to fifth with less than 20 laps remaining when a final caution period came out. He would then make his way to fourth on the final restart, getting by Ryan Hunter-Reay with 12 laps remaining. Ferrucci then held off the veteran driver to hang on to his first top-five finish in the NTT IndyCar Series and his fifth top-ten of the season.
“I can’t thank my crew enough. We had a stellar crew in the pits, they did fantastic stops, and we just made our way to the front while avoiding a couple of incidents in front of us.,” said Ferrucci. “I can’t thank my spotter Pancho (Carter) enough to get me to push my limits in the car, coaching me throughout the race. To bring home a top five with our Cly-Del Manufacturing Honda, my first one in the IndyCar Series feels pretty good. For someone who had no experience on ovals, I’m starting to say I love them. I’m happy with a fourth place. After Indy, knowing what kind of car we had, how hard our crew has been working and how much power we have from Honda as well, I knew we could do something special here, regardless of what happened in qualifying, and we did.”
Ferrucci now sits ninth in points with 193 points and leads the rookie of the year standings by 12 points.
The Dale Coyne Racing team will now have one weekend off from racing before heading to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America June 23.
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