AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci in the No.14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet is aiming to build on the team’s solid momentum from Barber Motorsports Park last time out.
Ferrucci ended the race in seventh place and is inside the top ten in the championship standings heading into the Month of May.
Why are you looking forward to the Indy GP?
SF: “It’s always nice to start May off with a road course and to get settled staying in the coach over the GP weekend. It’s also nice that we have a Saturday race to free up our Sunday to relax and maybe play golf at Brickyard Crossing.”
What did you learn from the race at Barber that will help at Indy?
SF: “I think from all the testing we learned more so when we came into Barber we knew we had a good package. Hopefully the same goes for the Indy GP since we tested at the IMS road course with the hybrid engine last month.
“Is qualifying well imperative at the IMS road course or are there enough passing zones to overcome a position deep in the starting grid?
SF: “I think qualifying is very important everywhere we go this year because the field is so competitive. But you can most definitely pass here at the GP and hopefully we have a good strategy race as well.
“Can differing fuel strategies come into play in the GP like it did at Barber?
SF: “There is definitely potential for that. I feel the Indy GP has been more of a tire race than fuel but it changes every year because the Firestone tires change.”
Sting Ray Robb in the No.41 Pray.com Chevrolet is also looking forward to this weekend’s race and the Indy 500 having had a tough race in Barber.
How do you bounce back from an incident at Barber where you had a mechanical issue that ended your race?
SRR: “You bounce back like nothing ever happened. A great lesson I learned growing up playing other sports was to have a short memory. Sometimes you strike out swinging. Things happen and you have to move on. There’s often times we learn what we can from an incident like this, chalk it up to a lesson and forget the rest. There were some good things that came from the weekend we can move forward with that. Even though the result was not great and severely hurt us in points, we can’t dwell on that and can only focus on what is in front of us.”
You were running well at Barber before the mechanical issue so does that give you confidence going to IMS?
SRR: “Absolutely. The contact on the start caused a little bit of damage but we were still able to fight with some competitive drivers that finished well on the day. We just need to qualify better and put ourselves out of the chaos zone in the future and back into the fight. We race well with good strategy and good pitstops. The rest will come.”
What do you like about the road course at IMS?
Is it one that allows for racing wheel to wheel in some of the passing zones?
SRR: “It is a great track for racing. There are a lot of passing zones. There are places where you have to think about momentum more than other tracks when making a pass, because the straightaways are so long. There are often times where you have to think multiple corners ahead to figure out where you can make a high percentage move without compromising the rest of the lap.”
Does having this race before the 500 help get you in the rhythm for the big event?
SRR: “It’s obviously a very different event, but momentum weekend to weekend is a very real thing. The month of May I think could be a turning point for us. With some good results, rolling into the rest of the season and with that confidence as a more cohesive team could be crucially important.”