A few hours before the start of Saturday night’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250, A.J. Foyt Racing PR veteran Anne Fornoro brought her team some new tribute stickers made in honor of the recently departed racing legend Parnelli Jones, who died in June at the age of 90.
Pit crews for the team’s No. 14 Chevy driven by Santino Ferrucci and the No. 41 Chevy piloted by Stint Ray Robb applied the stickers to both cars, just below the car numbers on the roll hoop (below), and when Ferrucci returned 250 laps later, he’d earned the team’s best finish of the season after starting eighth, being penalized to restarting out of line, serving a penalty and losing a lap, and charging back to sixth at the checkered flag.
Teammate Robb also registered his best finish of 2024 after starting 24th and finishing 15th. It was a banner day for both Foyt cars, racing with the 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner along for the ride, where Ferrucci once again showed his oval prowess, and Robb demonstrated his capabilities while others faltered or crashed, brought a lot of smiles and pride on pit lane.
“I don’t think anyone’s got my racecraft on these short ovals,” Ferrucci told RACER. “The closest and best driver out here is probably Josef Newgarden. He also moved from the back to the front, but I think it’s us just for race pure racecraft to go back to front and yeah, we did it with Parnelli Jones on board. I wondered who the hell is driving the car! Makes a lot more sense now.
“But I think between the two of us, on short oval racecraft, we’re unmatched. I think we just proved that again tonight.”
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It took a stern radio message from team president and race strategist Larry Foyt to get Ferrucci’s head back in the game after he was ordered to perform a stop-and-go on lap 43 for the restart violation, followed by a second penalty for failing to follow IndyCar’s directions.
Plummeting from fifth to 22nd, Ferrucci had to dig deep, get back on the lead lap, and salvage a decent result for the No. 14 Chevy. From there, he put on a show, passing cars high and low, and got to sixth in the end.
“I think we threw away a podium tonight early on, then it kind of just got worse, and Larry just came on the radio and basically said, ‘Grow up and get on with it.’”
Ferrucci’s seventh top 10 result from 11 events moved him from 13th in the drivers’ championship to being tied for 11th with Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson, and entering Sunday’s Race 2 at Iowa, the Connecticut native is just seven points away from breaking into the top 10.