Ferrucci Wins Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year Award
Santino Ferrucci |
Dale Coyne Racing’s Santino Ferrucci won Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honors and was presented with the award at the Victory Celebration last night at the J.W. Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.
Rookie Ferrucci impressed with an outstanding run to seventh in his oval debut at the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. The driver of the #19 Cly-Del Manufacturing car climbed from his 23rd spot on the starting grid and was the highest-finishing rookie among the six drivers making their first Indianapolis 500 starts this year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Additionally, the 20-year-old, who celebrates his 21st birthday later this week on May 31, led his first NTT IndyCar Series lap and made the largest number of passes of any driver on track with 30 while on his way to registering his best NTT IndyCar Series career finish.
Ferrucci earned $50,000 for being named Rookie of the Year.
“To be honest, it’s finally sinking in," expressed Ferrucci. “You can only win Indy 500 Rookie of the Year once. That hadn’t occurred to me until now. It’s quite an honor. I can’t thank the team enough for giving me such a fantastic car the whole month. I was comfortable in the car all month and I think as a rookie that’s really important. Thank you to Honda, Firestone, and Cly-Del Manufacturing who has been behind me through everything that’s happened in the last few years."
Ferrucci now leads the NTT IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year standings with 129 points and sits 10th in the Series Championship standings.
We spoke to Ferrucci at Pocono last year before he entered IndyCar full-time