Santino Ferrucci was the primary entertainment of Saturday night’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by Instacart. Among the total on-track passes in the 250-lap event at Iowa Speedway, Ferrucci accounted for 14.3 percent of them.
Ferrucci started the race from the eighth position among 27 drivers. By time the first lap was completed, albeit under caution, Ferrucci had already gained three spots. Unfortunately for him, on the ensuing restart on Lap 20, Ferrucci was penalized for ducking out of line.
Ferrucci incurred a second penalty for failure to follow the direction of INDYCAR by not serving the penalty which resulted to a stop-and-go infraction. That dropped him 17 positions to 22nd, but he also was a lap down to the leaders.
Ferrucci charged through the field to finish sixth in his No. 14 AJ FOYT RACING/SEXTON PROPERTIES Chevrolet.
“Should have been so much better than that,” Ferrucci said after scoring his seventh top-10 finish of the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season. “Let’s be honest, I should have been sitting P2 or P3 fighting for the lead with (Scott) McLaughlin for the win. Just a tough mistake on the restart. I feel bad for the team.”
Ferrucci admitted he was flustered by the penalty, but his mind was eased by team president Larry Foyt’s calming words on the radio to help Ferrucci make the climb back up in the order. He finished just behind Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay in fifth.
“I wanted that top five so bad,” Ferrucci said.
Ferrucci will be starting from 20th in Sunday’s Hy-Vee One Step 250 presented by Gatorade, and he said to expect the same kind of drive.
“We’re going to do it again,” he said. “We’re not doing much to it for tomorrow.”
Saturday Night Race Excitement
Saturday night’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by Instacart was met with eager anticipation in the paddock. The last time these machines were racing under the lights was in 2022 at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Last season, none of the 17 races were held in prime time.
Saturday’s race is the lone scheduled primetime race this season. The Aug. 17 race at World Wide Technology Raceway is a 5 p.m. local start, which means for the St. Louis-area oval, the race should run to completion under daytime skies.
“I love INDYCARs at night, and I really wish -- I've been saying to the Hy-Vee folks for years that I would have loved to see a night race,” Graham Rahal said. “I'm excited that they were able to pull it off.
“I've told them for years I'd love to see a Friday night, Saturday night, like late. Hell, that 3:00 a.m. race we had (at Iowa) once was probably the best race we've ever had there. We don't need to go that late, but I've always really enjoyed it.”
Among the Iowa Speedway races, eight occurred under the lights (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2019, both in 2020, tonight). The night races, ironically enough, produced winners from further back with an average starting spot of 9.3. The starting spots of the winners during night races were 17th, seventh, 13th, ninth, third, 23rd, first, and second, respectively.
The starting spots in the day races have been third, third, fourth, 15th, second, second, third, 11th, second, seventh, third and seventh, respectively. That’s an average of 5.1.
“There’s nothing like running under the lights,” said Ferrucci. “I wish we did it way more often than we do. I’m super stoked about it.”
Kirkwood Rebounds
Another driver relishing Saturday night with a rebound was Andretti Global driver Kyle Kirkwood. In the early portion of the 250-lap race, Kirkwood was on the verge of being lapped by teammate Colton Herta.
Kirkwood climbed from narrowly hanging on to a top-20 finish to finishing seventh in his No. 27 AutoNation Honda.
“We started off with a car I was not so happy with,” he said. “We tuned on it. We were actually pretty decent and even though I wasn’t happy in the beginning of the race, we made some adjustments and got us in a good window for the end of the race. I was quite happy with this.”
Difference Between Pair Of Races
Just because Scott McLaughlin was victorious in front of a near capacity Iowa Speedway crowd in his No. 3 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet, don’t think for a second Sunday’s Hy-Vee One Step 250 presented by Gatorade will look the same.
On the surface, aesthetics says the same race in two days. Same 27 drivers, competing in the same 27 cars, on the same 0.894-mile track for 250 laps.
The race winner is Sunday’s NTT P1 Award recipient.
That doesn’t paint the whole picture.
Saturday’s 10th round of the season began at sunset and completed under the lights. Sunday’s 11th round will be under the hot Iowa summer sun.
Andretti Global driver Marcus Ericsson noted the ambient temperatures are nearly identical at the 7:06 p.m. local green flag Saturday (89 degrees) compared to the forecasted 87 degrees at the 11:30 a.m. local green flag Sunday morning.
The difference is Saturday’s race saw temperatures drop as the race went along while Sunday’s will rise.
“That’s going to be interesting to see what that does to racing,” Ericsson said. “It’s definitely something you have to keep in mind because especially on ovals, track temperature can really change your car and your balance and tire wear. It changes everything. You have to definitely be on top of your tools in both races and ready to adjust for conditions.”
Pato O’Ward said historically the biggest difference between the first race and second at Iowa Speedway was Race 1 having the luxury of a full races’ worth of knowledge learning how to get through traffic the most efficient way.
This weekend, that isn’t worthwhile with the car going to be handling differently between the two events.
Plus, with a repaved track surface in the corners and a heavier hybrid unit in the back of all the cars, the drivers are going to be on fumes leading into Sunday’s race.
Iowa is a physical track, already. Mix those factors and strapped into the car about 12-hours later in 90-degree heat, mistakes via sore muscles could occur.
Odds and Ends
-- Will Power’s No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet pit crew won the Friday night Pit Stop Competition. Featuring six series teams battling head-to-head for $50,000 in prize money, the thrilling single-elimination Pit Stop Challenge showcased the exceptional speed and precision of the world-class pit crews whose performance is often the deciding factor in determining the outcome of NTT INDYCAR SERIES races.
-- Saturday night was O’Ward’s 12th career NTT INDYCAR SERIES runner-up finish. Seven of those 12 occurred on ovals. In 22 oval starts during his young NTT INDYCAR SERIES career, O’Ward has 17 top-five finishes.
-- Newgarden entered the race leading 1,847 laps in 14 previous Iowa Speedway starts. Despite charging from to finish third, Newgarden led no laps Saturday night.
-- Dixon is 0-for-20 at Iowa Speedway, one of four active tracks he has never won at. However, Dixon has 17 top-10 finishes and had crossed the finish line second, second, fifth, fourth, sixth, sixth and fourth, respectively, since 2019.
-- Palou’s mid-race crash was his first DNF since Road America on June 5, 2022 or 769 days ago. He has a quick rebound rolling off second alongside McLaughlin Sunday.