Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Santino Ferrucci was a super-sub at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.
The Connecticut native found out on Sunday morning at 9AM that he would be racing in place of the injured Jack Harvey and was given a handful of laps to acclimatize with the Texas Motor Speedway and the No.45 Hy-Vee Honda.
Ferrucci started the race from 27th place and came through the field to finish the race inside the top ten in ninth place and speaking following the action he said:
Alright guys, so there you have it. Considering I was going to be racing my couch today, I am pretty happy to be racing for RLL and the Hy-Vee Honda. I had six laps of warmup this morning in a seat that wasn’t mine – I couldn’t see over the steering wheel, that was fun! I strapped in for the race and it was full send from there. I can’t be more happy with how everything turned out, and it was a lot of fun.
Christian Lundgaard in the No.30 PeopleReady Honda was forced to retire from the race and speaking following the action he said:
The first oval race is done here in Texas. It was a tough one to swallow at the end, (I) had some contact with Colton. In the end I’m happy to have the car in one piece, but it was one hell of an experience. I think the car was great all day, dirty air definitely makes a difference, but the car was just awesome in clean air. By the end we were catching up to everyone pretty quickly. We were basically the fastest car on the track at that point for quite some time. So I think as a first experience I can be satisfied, be happy. I came back in again because the car just didn’t feel right afterwards. I wasn’t going to put the car on the line, we were 4 laps down anyway at that point so we will take the experience and look forward to Long Beach.
Graham Rahal in the No.15 Fleet Cost Care Honda was forced to retire from the race following an accident with Devlin DeFransceco and Helio Castroneves and speaking following the race he said:
It was a disappointing end to our day here in Texas. We had made quite a move forward. I thought things were shaping up pretty good to battle here at the end. These things happen, but I’m obviously frustrated to be in that scenario. I was being a little bit cautious on the start. But I thought we gave him room (DeFrancesco), but I need to see it. Third man in needs to be first man out. I was trying to give Helio room on top too and being stuck in the middle was a little tough. We’re going to soldier on here. I feel bad for the team, Fleet Cost & Care, and everyone that worked awfully hard to get us here. But it’s part of the game unfortunately. We dug ourselves quite the hole here in points so we are going to have to put our heads down and battle forward.