AJ Foyt Racing drivers Santino Ferrucci in the No.14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet and Sting Ray Robb in the No.41 Goodheart Chevrolet are looking forward to this weekend’s 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season-ending Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Super Speedway.
Ferrucci heads into the weekend aiming to consolidate his tenth place in the championship in what has been a remarkable season for him.
Since you didn’t test at Nashville or do any simulator work (other than I-Racing), when you ran NASCAR, did you run any tracks like Nashville?
SF: “Phoenix, but I’ve never run a concrete track before.”
SF: “I feel like turn one of Phoenix is very similar to Nashville, but it’s gonna be weird being on a concrete track for us, as well as a series. So, I am excited about that.”
How would the concrete change things?
SF: “It can be more abrasive on the tires. Should have less grip. We’re also going with the kind of like a road course package instead of the speedway wings which I found quite interesting. It’s the same package as Iowa. A little different from Gateway and Milwaukee where we ran the full road course package. At Nashville we won’t run the upper element on the rear wing so it’s a little less downforce than what we had at Milwaukee or Gateway.”
Looking back over the year, what factors contributed to your going from 19th in the series standings to potentially finishing in the top 10 this year?
SF: “Yeah, I think a lot has to do with our consistency this year. Obviously, having as many top 10s as we’ve had, plus now a pair of top five has been huge. You know, the car has been really, really good this year to drive and so has the team as a whole. We really just stepped it up, everything from engineering to mechanics, even myself. You know, we’ve all kind of taken a massive step forward.”
How has your driving improved?
SF: “Well I think coming back for a second year has really helped me. The only back to back seasons I thought were ’19 and ’20. I made drastic improvements from ’19 to ’20 as well. It’s just one of the things where, once you get to know the people on the engineering staff that are setting up the car every weekend, you’re still searching the car, learning the different dynamics. And when you come back for a second year, you have a much better understanding of the direction you were going and you continue to build off of that.”
What are you most looking forward to in the off season?
SF: “Going on my honeymoon with Renay. We’re going to Paris and south of France for ten days. We’ll be enjoying the wine, some shopping and museum tours, I like history. Although I’ve been to Paris, it’ll be my first time to the south of France so I can’t wait. That’ll be a lot of fun.
Sting Ray Robb heads into what could be his last race for Foyt.
Did you do any simulator work for Nashville Superspeedway?
I did a little bit of at home simulator using iRacing, Other than that, the experience is very limited. There are some trends and nuances that you can learn from this but it only gets you to about 90%. The last 10% (always the hardest to find) has to be done at the track; we are trying our best ahead of time to shorten the learning curve once we arrive in person.”
Nashville Superspeedway is a 1.33-mile D-shaped track with 14 degrees of banking. Is there any track in your past experience that compares to it or will this be a totally new experience for you?
SRR: “The closest experience I have is running at Texas Motor Speedway in 2023.”
Final race of the year, your car is currently in the entrants’ Leaders Circle Program but the margin is extremely close. How will you deal with the pressure?
SRR: “The pressure is the same as it has been every other race. Our goal remains the same, and the preparation does not change. Our job is the same as it has been, it just so happens that it is the last one on the schedule.”
Looking back over the year, what was the most valuable lesson you learned?
SRR: “Trusting my instincts. It’s easy to overthink details sometimes but keeping it simple and trusting my experience and the team around me has gotten us a lot further at times than digging too deep in search for answers that sometimes reveal themselves.”
What has been your favorite moment or highlight of the 2024 season so far?
SRR: “Absolutely, leading the Indy 500. Having a view from the front of that race for multiple laps, and seeing the hope of winning it, it’s inspiring. But that’s the beauty of that race, it picks the winners. Our job is just to put ourselves at the door of victory and wait to see if she’s willing to open it.”
What are you most looking forward to in the off-season?
SRR: “Getting married! Molly and I are very excited to be entering the off season with plans to start our forever lives together. It’ll be a great time to celebrate with friends and family.”