AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci in the No.14 Chevrolet had a fantastic opening day of practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as he ended the day in third place overall.
Speaking after setting a 228.977M0H he commented saying:
After the Open Test, I don’t think we were feeling too strong, so to roll out of the box here and after the first few laps in the car, I just got out and said hey, look, the car’s good. We just broke for lunch, went down for a couple of hours to get things sorted, but the raw speed of the car out of the box was phenomenal. To make two or three small changes, a couple of little aero or ride height things, you’re not looking at mind-blowing reinventing-the-wheel changes. By the time we were done, we went out with new tires and even passed some cars. We were just working on trying to follow closer, and the lap time was there. To be the fastest Chevy in the No. 14 is pretty cool. Start the month of May off, and we just have to carry the momentum.”
Talk about some of the passing and gains you feel like you made today…
“I’ve said this all year, and I feel Chevys have been really good on top-end. And I felt that not just on the ovals, but on the road courses as well. So, I think today to be in your fastest lap and then pass a car, and almost pass another into Turn 1, on the same second half of the track is pretty impressive and pretty stout. I feel really comfortable being in the Chevy for the top-end wise this year, especially in race trim. I’d like to see if we can obviously bring home the Borg Warner (trophy) for Chevy. That’d be pretty awesome and spectacular for our team.”