Heading into the doubleheader for the NTT IndyCar Series at The Milwaukee Mile in Wisconsin, Santino Ferrucci and A.J. Foyt Racing were riding a wave of success.
Last week at Portland (Ore.) Int’l Raceway, Ferrucci snagged his first pole and the team’s first in 10 years. He finished eighth at the permanent road course.
Milwaukee was another opportunity for the team to capitalize, especially after reeling off sixth- and 11th-place finishes during the Iowa Speedway doubleheader — also a short oval.
Ferrucci one-upped his performances in Iowa, with a pair of fourth-place results at the one-mile oval at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds.
Both finishes were the Connecticut-native’s best career IndyCar results outside the Indianapolis 500 last year (third).
He now boasts a career-high 10 top-10 finishes this season.
Ferrucci commended his pit crew for keeping him in the hunt for podium finishes in both races, despite the amount of pit stops throughout the twin 250-lap events.
“The crew’s done a great job all weekend,” Ferrucci said. “It’s really, really tough, especially in these quite tight turnarounds. Great job on stops all day.
“We only had one bobble, I think, all weekend. But considering we did probably 10 or so pit stops under pressure, they did a great job. And Engineering did a great job, all around. Hard to beat.”
Notably, Ferrucci executed 63 passes during Sunday’s race, which was the most by any driver in a race this season.
In both Milwaukee events, regardless of track conditions, Ferrucci thrilled with daring slide-job moves that resulted in valuable positions on-track.
He credited that to his dirt experience, specifically racing the famed Chili Bowl midget event in Tulsa, Okla., the last handful of years.
“I just really trusted the right rear,” Ferrucci said. “I knew I could throw it down into (turn) three flat out, turn it in, and set it, and the thing would not just slide out from under me or push up into the car above me.”
Entering the season finale at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway, Ferrucci is 10th in the standings, 11 points behind 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi for ninth.