Ferrucci went from “racing his couch” to top 10 at Texas IndyCar

Ferrucci – who said he expected to be “racing his couch” – stood in for Jack Harvey in the #45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan, who was ruled out of the first oval race of the season following a big crash in practice on Saturday. Ferrucci finished ninth and on the lead lap, despite making four pitstops compared to most of his rivals’ three.

Speaking to NBC after the race, Ferrucci explained: “I just came to the track [on Saturday] to hang out, see some friends, then I was out to dinner when Rico [Nault], our team manager, called and said, ‘Hey man, do you have stuff here?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah bro, I live just 35 minutes from the track in Dallas’.  

“He asked if I could make it to the track early, just in case, so I showed up at 9am and they were changing the car out and putting my pedals in. I had six laps of warm-up in a seat that wasn't mine – so I was floating around and I couldn't see over the steering wheel – that was fun!  

“I strapped in for the race and it was full send from there. I can't be more happy with how everything turned out, and it was a lot of fun. I can’t thank Rahal, Letterman and Lanigan enough for trusting me and allowing me to jump in this car and it’s a big deal to come out to a superspeedway like this without any practice, but we did it and I just hauled.” 

The result was Ferrucci’s ninth top-10 finish on an oval and he has already been confirmed at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing for the Indianapolis 500. 

“These guys built a brand new race car last night – they rolled out Jack’s Indy 500 car, which I’ll be competing against in the 500, and it was ‘take care of our baby, our pride and joy’ – and I respect that, I raced this car last year,” he added. 

“I wasn’t told to hold back much, I was being quite