ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Feb. 28, 2025) -- Good news/bad news today for AJ Foyt Racing in qualifying for the season opener of the NTT INDYCAR Series on the streets of St. Petersburg.
The good news is that drivers Santino Ferrucci and David Malukas really liked their cars in qualifying. The bad news is that a couple of hiccups, including the No. 14's unforeseen electrical issue on Ferrucci's optimal lap, resulted in mid-pack starting spots on the grid. However, both drivers are pumped for the race.
Malukas, who will start P-17 in his No. 4 Chevrolet, explained, "Looking at qualifying from a positive
standpoint, we did a really good job making the car where it needed to be for qualifying. I think that's something very hard. Looking at it from a team perspective and chemistry, we've done a very good job connecting and figuring out what I need from the team and what we need from the car. The car was very strong. Now the things to take away, I did a really bad job from my side. I think that was one of the worst drives I've done. I think I just asked too much out of myself to not do any laps on the alternates and kind of just guessed going into qualifying there. It's the first race of the season so a lot to take from it, and it's not over yet. We have a race tomorrow so we'll work on it then."
Santino Ferrucci, driving the No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet, will start directly behind Malukas on the grid in P-19.
"Honestly, I'm really proud of our engineering team to give me a car that was capable today," said Ferrucci. "It was just unfortunate circumstances. Going down the front straight the car got stuck in sixth gear starting what would have been my fast lap. The lap before was really good but it was in my head that was my banker lap, so it just shows we have pace and we'll just see what we can do tomorrow. We have a really good car."
Not experiencing any hiccups on his optimal lap was Scott McLaughlin whose lap of 59.4624 seconds around the 14-turn, 1.8 mile street circuit earned him the NTT P-1 award. Rounding out the Firestone Fast Six were: Colton Herta, Felix Rosenqvist, Marcus Armstrong, Christian Lundgaard, and Scott Dixon.
The 100 lap Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will be broadcast on FOX Sunday afternoon starting at 12 noon ET.
