THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up today's Detroit Chevrolet Grand Prix presented by LEAR. Kyle Kirkwood and Colton Herta will be here momentarily. Joined now by the second-place finishing driver in Santino Ferrucci, giving AJ Foyt their best road or street course finish in a decade. Takuma Sato at Belle Isle --
SANTINO FERRUCCI: Long Beach. I know, trust me, because I keep getting reminded. I'm trying to become the next winner for us.
THE MODERATOR: Driver of the No. 14 Sexton Properties AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, best finish this year, best finish of his career, best finish -- go on and on and on. How good does this feel?
SANTINO FERRUCCI: It feels great. Honestly, the strategy plays into everything that we do, especially at road and street courses it's very tough, and I can't thank the team enough. This is more deserving of them than it is even of me. We probably drove to 11th minus the strategy just running our race.
Mike and Adam, C.J., they all made great calls on the stand to pit us when they did and got lucky with the yellow when it came out, cycled us to the front action. I had no idea I was the leader because there was cars going around the pace car in front of me, and then they stopped me, and I was like, oh, well, this is a pleasant surprise. So it was pretty cool.
But yeah, no, I just couldn't hold off Kyle in the end. I don't know what I did with the tires, but I couldn't hold off Will, and I definitely didn't think I was going to hold off Colton. The red flag really saved us. Just happy that Felix is okay after that one. Yeah, was able to get back around Will and come home second.
Q. Santino, very late in the race, shortly before the finish, I think it was lap 95, Colton launched an attack on you. Did you expect it?
SANTINO FERRUCCI: Yeah, I was managing my overtake intentionally, only using it in bursts coming out of 2. We were trimmed, which was quite interesting, so we were obviously expecting to be fighting in traffic all day, not fighting for the podium or the win.
I was just struggling to get through 2. He was getting there a little bit better. But the Chevrolet power with the overtake obviously kept me pretty far ahead on the straights and he broke deep, and I just told him after it was great racing. I had to turn in, and I knew he was going to hit me because I could see he was locked up. I was just hoping he wasn't going to bump me too hard.
But rubbing is racing, so I truly believe in that, and I would have done the same thing if I was him.
Q. It's the first American U.S. born podium since 2020 Mid-Ohio. Is that important? Does that matter?
SANTINO FERRUCCI: No. I think it's really cool. I think it's cool it happened in Detroit. I think it's cool to be on the podium. I think there's a lot of really good talented Americans in the sport, but a big part of the sport is having all these different drivers from different countries that make it so great, make it so talented, make the depth of the grid so powerful. But it is really cool to be on the podium with who kids that I -- not kids, I guess. Two fellow race car drivers that I grew up racing against from go-karts all the way to INDYCAR. I think obviously me and Kyle's history go back to when we were probably six or seven years old. I think that's really cool, and I think that's something that is unique.
Q. Probably your team told you that Kyle had a wing problem. At any point did you think maybe you had a shot?
SANTINO FERRUCCI: Oh, I didn't know. Honestly, he was so fast. He probably would have ended up on pole regardless of his stuff in qualifying and just trying to defend him, the rate that I could see him coming, when you're a driver in that situation and you know that you're struggling a little bit, you're obviously going to defend for the win as much as you can, but at the end of the day, if you force him to make an error and it wrecks you, it wrecks your day, too.
I did just defend my position. He drove straight past me down the straight, cleared me before the brake zone. It was a really good move. Like I said, I didn't want to waste any more of our time and our tires where I was already struggling to defend more than I needed to, and I didn't want to ruin a good day for both of us.
Q. Back-to-back really big race weekends for AJ Foyt Racing. I know you guys were having a little bit of a slow start to 2025. As we get into this segment of the season where we're racing almost every single weekend, what do results like this for you guys, what do you feel like it can do for AJ Foyt Racing?
SANTINO FERRUCCI: Man, this is a big deal for us, especially in the championship, just finding our stride. Obviously I think I've struggled a little bit more than David has last couple of races just trying to be consistent with the car and consistent with changes. We had a ton of changes going into this weekend, and we finally unloaded the car for warmup and I felt really, really happy, and we didn't change anything going into the race.
Had we started there -- obviously David started the weekend with something like that and the same with Indy for him. It really goes to show. But I'm hoping that we can finally catch that stride and move forward.
Going to Gateway, it's the first time we come back with the hybrid, so hopefully all the references that I've built last year will still be there.
Q. (Indiscernible.)
SANTINO FERRUCCI: Honestly, I was just super thankful, I mean, really congratulating the boys. All I did was push the pedals and turn the steering wheel. We weren't going to finish on the podium today without them and without their help. Like I said, it was more their podium finish than it is mine. Just congratulating them on an amazing job and pit lane on the stand, and a lot of screaming, a lot of yelling. It was pretty cool.
Q. We spoke on Friday about how there's been a few races this season where strategy hasn't worked in your favor. I was curious, how does it feel to be on the opposite side of that today and be on the podium in a city you enjoy so much such as Detroit?
SANTINO FERRUCCI: I'd say strategy in a general sense. Obviously it's always little things that make a big difference, but I had a race like today that I've probably had only like twice in my career in INDYCAR. You get that lucky with a yellow flag, any driver will tell you, that is like perfect positioning, perfect timing, perfect everything. The racing gods are looking down on you in your favor for that. Having something like that, and obviously there's more that goes into it and there's calculations and a lot of background of when exactly to pit.
We were down telemetry, so I was the one that was making the call when to pit, too, which was honestly incredibly nerve-racking because I was saving a ton of fuel because the fuel light had been on for a lap and a half, and I was just watching the tank and I was just like, well, this would be embarrassing if I ran us out of gas now.
Yeah, so stuff like that, it makes it all better.
Q. (Indiscernible.)
SANTINO FERRUCCI: Yeah, obviously restarting this race, as well, it's just super stressful. I had a massive mistake into 1 on my second restart, just locked outside front. At that point you're just trying not to hit the wall, which would be embarrassing since you're the leader. I'm not going to lie.
But yeah, it's been a minute since I've been out front restarting one of these on a street course. I've led actually Belle Isle quite a bit, and I've really loved that track, so to be back out front in Detroit was really special, especially for Chevrolet.
Q. Listening to the broadcast while watching, the announcers all said that they noticed the difference this year from last year, there was more drama. This year you absolutely settled in, you were dialed in and focused. Do you think that's made a huge difference in your driving this year and your finish today?
SANTINO FERRUCCI: Yeah, honestly, I feel very settled inside the team at AJ Foyt Racing. Also, dealing with a lot of stressful months, having a good sports psychologist on my side the past couple of -- well, I'd say almost the last year now has been a big help for me and just trying to stay calm in situations like that and honestly more enjoy it. It's really cool. We're very fortunate to do what we do and to be out there. So yeah, it was a lot of fun.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports