Santino Ferrucci, driver of the No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet, has raced at Barber Motorsports Park only once – in 2019 – when he qualified 10th and finished 15th. He was working with his teammate Sebastian Bourdais who qualified fifth and finished third. This race will be Ferrucci’s 15th start on a permanent road course.
“Super excited to head to Barber to carry the momentum from Long Beach. Haven’t been back for a little while now, so we will see how it goes for the team, but I know that Benjamin’s (Pedersen) rookie test proved successful, so I’m very excited to see what they learned and apply it to this weekend.”
Ferrucci Fast Facts: Age 24…Born in Woodbury, CT…Lives in Dallas, Texas…Began racing karts at age 5, moved to cars in 2013…Competed in Formula 2000, British Formula 3, GP3 finishing third at Spa Francorchamps as a rookie, was development driver for Haas F1 team for three years (2016-2018), moved to Formula 2 in 2018…moved to NTT INDYCAR Series in 2019 finishing 13th in standings for Dale Coyne and won Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year after finishing seventh…13th in standings again with fourth place finish in the 500…drove part-time in 2021-22 but maintained top-10 streak in Indy 500 with finishes of sixth (RLL Racing) and 10th (Dreyer Reinbold Racing)…Competed part-time in NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2021-22.
Benjamin Pedersen, driver of the No. 55 Sexton Properties Chevrolet, has competed at Barber Motorsports Park in F-3 and the INDY NXT by Firestone. At Barber, he has three starts in the INDY NXT by Firestone, and finished second twice. In his last start there, he qualified and finished second.
“I am really looking forward to being back at Barber this week. This is a track I have experience with and have found success at from F3 to Indy Lights. It will be nice to be back on a track that I am familiar with and it happens to be one of my favorite tracks on the schedule. We had a great test here last month in the No. 55 Sexton Properties Chevrolet, so I am excited to see what we can build on and accomplish as a team when we are on track beginning this Friday.”
Pedersen Fast Facts: Age 23…Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, moved to Seattle at age 4 and is now living in Indianapolis…Began racing karts at a young age and has competed and won races in the INDY NXT by Firestone, British Formula 3, FR Americas Championship, F4 US Championship…Enjoys golf, pickleball, skiing, soccer, snowmobiling, mountain biking, dirt biking.
Past Performance at Barber Motorsports Park: AJ Foyt Racing’s best start is fourth in 2012 with Mike Conway and its best finish is fifth with Sebastien Bourdais in 2021.
Last Race: Ferrucci scored the team’s best finish of the season to date in Long Beach, Calif. where he qualified 18th and finished 11th, aided by great pit stops by the No. 14 Sexton Properties crew. After qualifying 23rd, Pedersen’s first race ever on the streets of Long Beach had multiple issues causing him to lose several laps; he finished 24th.
The Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix will be broadcast live on NBC at 3 p.m. ET. Practices (Friday at 3:40 p.m. ET and Saturday at 12 p.m. ET) and qualifying (3 p.m. ET on Saturday) The final warm up starts Sunday at 12 p.m. ET. All practices, qualifying and the race will also be broadcast on INDYCAR Radio and SiriusXM Channel 160.
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
