Newton, Iowa (July 21, 2019) – Dale Coyne Racing’s rookie Santino Ferrucci was making his first start on a short oval on Saturday night at Iowa Speedway, but his lack of experience didn’t show with the driver of the #19 Cly-Del Manufacturing entry putting in an impressive run before finally taking the checkered flag in 12th position.
Once the race finally got underway after a lengthy rain delay, Ferrucci impressed right from the drop of the green flag by passing six cars at the start to move into sixth place.
Once the race settled into its pace, the rookie battled with Alexander Rossi to take over fifth place on Lap 75. He then continued to fight with the former Indy 500 winner and defended his position while then passing veteran Takuma Sato for fourth place on Lap 101.
Unfortunately for Ferrucci, his car got loose as the race went on. While he still had good battles with his competitors, made up positions on the restarts and ran in the top 10 for the majority of the night, he would end up 12th when all was said done.
“I think for my first short oval it was definitely a tough one for us. I do believe that we had some of the best moves of the race, especially on some of the restarts,” expressed the rookie. “We had a super solid car in the first stint. But for the rest of the stints, towards the end of them, the #19 Cly-Del Manufacturing car was just really loose and really hard to drive. From there I kind of struggled to keep it on the track in Turns 3 and 4 so we just managed what we could until the end.
“(About the start of the race) At the start, Pancho (Carter, spotter) said that it was possible to pass three rows here and he wasn’t telling lies! Everybody went low and checked up and no one was in that third lane and I wasn’t afraid of possible weepers, probably because I’m too new. I just kept my foot in it, passed a lot of cars and made my way forward.”
Next up for the Dale Coyne Racing team will be the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio next weekend July 26 to 28, 2019.
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