After A Decade, Ferrucci Puts Foyt’s Team On Pole Again

Santino Ferrucci celebrates the NTT P1 Award Saturday at Portland Int'l Raceway. (Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment photo)

PORTLAND, Ore. – For the first time in a decade, an Indy car owned by the discipline’s all-time greatest driver will lead the field to green in an NTT IndyCar Series race.

AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci turned in a brilliant qualifying drive Saturday at Portland Int’l Raceway to capture his first NTT P1 Award in his 74th career Indy car start.

The 26-year-old from Woodbury, Conn., posted a best lap of 58.2046 seconds (121.475 mph) in the Firestone Fast Six to land the top starting spot at the 1.967-mile, 12-turn natural terrain road course.

It marked the first pole for the team owned by four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Foyt since June of 2014, when Takuma Sato qualified first for the second race of a twinbill at Belle Isle Park in Detroit.

“We just felt it,” Ferrucci said of his pole-winning speed. “We just rolled off the truck amazing. It’s been a year of hard work and progression, and we’ve shown some real speed at some times. It’s just great to put it together, man. Oh, my God.”

Saturday’s effort came in Ferrucci’s maiden Firestone Fast Six appearance, and the No. 14 Phoenix Investors Chevrolet turned the fastest lap of the weekend in topping qualifying.

His previous best Indy car start was second in 2020, at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for Dale Coyne Racing in a format that didn’t include the Fast Six due to COVID-19 pandemic-related changes.

With one task complete, Ferrucci turns his focus to the 110-lap race Sunday, where he’ll seek his first career victory – as well as try to build his resume, considering he’ll be a free agent at the end of the year.

A pole might just be the first step on Ferrucci’s path to renewing his contract with AJ Foyt Racing.

“I think it’s no secret how hard we’ve been working this year, how hard I’ve been working, Larry (team president Larry Foyt), our entire staff,” said Ferrucci. “Hell, I’ve got some more bargaining power for next year. I love it.

“What Larry and I have been building here at this team, I’m so proud of him, so proud of what we’ve accomplished. I just can’t wait for the future. This is just a glimpse of what we’ve got.”

Sharing the front row with Ferrucci will be two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Will Power, who timed in at 58.3120 seconds (121.251 mph) with the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet.

Considering that AJ Foyt Racing began a technical alliance with Team Penske this season, in an effort to improve the organization’s overall performance, it was an effective front-row lockout for Penske Technologies.

Two-time and defending series champion Alex Palou starts third in his continued march toward a third series crown. Palou’s best lap in the No. 10 DHL Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing was 58.4316 seconds (121.003 mph).

Palou leads Colton Herta by 59 points – more than a full race – with four rounds in the season.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard, Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood, and Lundgaard’s teammate Graham Rahal filled out the top six qualifiers, though Kirkwood will start 11th Sunday and Rahal 12th after six-place grid penalties for unapproved engine changes following the series’ last race at World Wide Technology Raceway.

In relative shockers, both Herta and six-time series champion Scott Dixon failed to make the Fast Six, qualifying 10th and 11th for Andretti Global and Chip Ganassi Racing, respectively.

After factoring in the grid penalties for Kirkwood and Rahal, Herta will line up eighth, while Dixon will roll from ninth Sunday in search of his first Portland victory and third win of the season.

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, who enters Portland fifth in the IndyCar Series standings, qualified a disappointing 14th after leading both Friday practice sessions.

“I just didn’t find the gap where I should have,” McLaughlin said of judging traffic in the first round of time trials. “Pretty disappointed. You just can’t afford to … even if the car is a second in front of you, it (turbulence) disturbs it enough to slow it down.”

Making just his third NTT IndyCar Series start in a fourth entry for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 24-year-old Estonian Jüri Vips was the fastest rookie driver in qualifications Saturday.

Vips is a former Red Bull Junior who competed in Formula 2 for three seasons with the DAMS (2020) and Hitech Grand Prix (2021-’22) teams.

Broadcast coverage of Sunday’s BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland is slated for 3 p.m. ET, live on USA and the IndyCar Radio Network, as well as streaming on Peacock.