INDYCAR: Rare solo spin knocks Ferrucci out at Portland
by William Soquet / LASTCAR.info Staff Writer
Ferrucci climbs from his car. (SCREENCAP: Fox Sports)
Santino Ferrucci finished last for the 4th time in his NTT IndyCar Series career in Sunday’s Bitnile.com Grand Prix at Portland International Raceway when his #14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet crashed after completing 1 of the race’s 110 laps.
The finish came in Ferrucci’s 90th series start and was his first since a did not start at Toronto this year, two races ago. Across NTT IndyCar Series history, it was the 24th for the #14, the 126th for Chevrolet, and the 243rd for damage-related reasons.
Following his morning warmup crash and his hand/wrist area injury that resulted from it, Ferrucci was cleared to compete in the series’ next race, at Laguna Seca. However, that was a bit of a lackluster contest, as Ferrucci fell a lap down during the race and finished 22nd. Combined with a 15th-place finish at the second Iowa race, the driver slid down to 13th in the standings entering Portland, a ways off the 9th that he ended last season.
The Portland weekend did not start much better. Ferrucci was 23rd in first practice, less than a second faster than last-place Callum Ilott and and several tenths off session leader Christian Lundgaard. There was no reprieve in second practice, as Ferrucci was 24th, ten spots behind teammate David Malukas. Ferrucci was only three-tenths ahead of Jacob Abel, who was the bottom driver on the charts. The team’s fortunes improved a bit in qualifying, where Ferrucci was eighth in Group 1, only two spots away from transferring. However, even that was tinged with shades of gray, as the team was assessed a six-spot starting grid penalty due to an engine change, dropping their starting spot to 21st.
Jacob Abel’s was the slowest car in Group 2, missing out on beating Conor Daly by mere thousandths of a second. As such, he inherited the 27th position at the start of the race. At the drop of the green, Abel was four seconds back of the lead. Surprisingly, the field got through the first chicane cleanly - a rarity for races at Portland.
That’s where the last-place action with Ferrucci gets started. In the middle of the first lap, there was an incident between he and 20th-place starter Sting Ray Robb, causing Ferrucci to take runoff and both to drop to the rear of the field. Robb was scored in last after one lap, but both cars had their eyes set on passing Abel and moving back up through the field.
Ferrucci dispatched Abel during Lap 2, and Robb attempted to make the pass on Abel in the final corner. Ferrucci, clear of the two cars, got on the gas early in corner exit, got loose and spun the car, making contact with the pit retaining wall with the rear left wheel. The impact tore up the rear wing and suspension, leaving Ferrucci unable to continue.
The only other driver that did not finish the race was Conor Daly. Daly and Christian Rasmussen traded blows for a lap and a half in Laps 12 and 13, a situation that ended with Rasmussen sending Daly hard into the tire barriers off Turn 7. Polesitter Pato O’Ward was 10 laps off the pace in 25th, victim of wiring issues during the race. Josef Newgarden was 24th, a lap down after being spun by Scott Dixon in the later stages of the race. Abel, also one lap down, rounded out the Bottom Five.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Of the seven races contested at Portland since 2018, six of them (including this one) had a last-place finisher knocked out by a crash.
*Ferrucci is the first last-place finisher to complete a lap since Jacob Abel in the first Iowa race, four races ago.
*Chevrolet has clinched the 2025 LASTCAR IndyCar Series manufacturers championship. They have a three-race gap on Honda with only two races to go.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
27) #14-Santino Ferrucci / 1 lap / crash
26) #76-Conor Daly / 13 laps / crash
25) #5-Pato O’Ward / 100 laps / running
24) #2-Josef Newgarden / 109 laps / running
23) #51-Jacob Abel / 109 laps / running
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (9)
2nd) Honda (6)
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Team Penske (4)
2nd) Dale Coyne Racing (3)
3rd) A.J. Foyt Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, Prema Racing (2)
4th) Arrow McLaren, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (1)
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
