A.J. FOYT RACING
No. 14 Chevy: Santino Ferrucci (19th in 2023 championship)
No. 41 Chevy: Sting Ray Robb (23rd in 2023 championship with Dale Coyne Racing)
THINGS TO KNOW
A rarity for Ferrucci
Santino Ferrucci enters his seventh season of IndyCar racing but only three of those were of the full-season variety, and only once has he done back-to-back seasons with the same team. Constant change has been the 25-year-old’s IndyCar reality, which hasn’t helped his development. It makes returning to the Foyt team for a second tour a welcome opportunity.
Being able to build upon the positives he’s developed with the No. 14 entry is a big deal, and while most of 2023 was underwhelming for the team, there’s been solid improvement throughout the program for Ferrucci to take advantage of and move up a few spots in the final standings.
Full-season influence from technical alliance
Michael Cannon returns as the team’s technical director, which is important for a few reasons. He’s been in the middle of the technical alliance struck last summer between Foyt and Team Penske, and with a full offseason to further develop the relationship and their shared action plan, there’s every reason to believe the Foyt cars will be faster at most tracks due to the chassis setup info and dampers being shared by Penske.
Cannon’s ongoing mentorship of the team’s race engineering group is also something to keep in mind, as Foyt has undergone a complete change in engineering leadership with both cars. New to the team on Ferrucci’s No. 14 is first-time IndyCar race engineer James Schnabel, who comes from Team Penske where he’s served as a performance engineer and worked with Ernie Francis on the Penske/Force Indy/HMD Motorsports Indy NXT program.
For Robb’s No. 41, the team acquired former Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing race engineer Michael Armbrester, who brings valuable experience to the program. Having access to Penske’s info won’t make the Foyt cars magically faster at every round; a driver and engineer will make decisions that could lead to big speed or take the car out of the setup window, but there’s a much better chance for the team to start race weekends in the window than it’s had in at least a decade.
Redemption opportunity for Robb
The 22-year-old had a rough introduction to IndyCar last season with Dale Coyne’s team. He weathered the team-based issues like having the wheels fall off his car at both Iowa races and cut down on his driving errors as the year went along, which is exactly what you’d hope to see from a rookie. He also recorded a couple of solid runs before closing 2023 with a 12th