INDIANAPOLIS — Arrow McLaren Racing had all four cars in the Fast 12 Shootout. Chip Ganassi Racing also had all four of their cars in it too. Ed Carpenter Racing is back in the Shootout for the 11th straight year. Team Penske has Will Power. The final two spots?

Both to AJ Foyt Racing.

Santino Ferrucci qualified late in the opening line on Saturday with a four-lap average of 233.147 mph. That was solidly in. So was rookie teammate Benjamin Pedersen who went 232.739 mph as the 11th qualifier of the day. That stood the test of time and advanced both to Sunday’s Shootout.

“Yeah, I think it’s a pretty impressive feat for the team,” Ferrucci said. “To see the 14 up the front, my teammate right there as well who went earlier in the day, it’s been pretty awesome. To see us up there is pretty sick, man.”

In Pedersen’s case, his time is the second fastest ever for a rookie here.

On Sunday, Ferrucci put down the second fastest time (233.911 mph) in the Fast 12 Shootout. Pedersen was 232.671 mph which was good enough for 11th. Ferrucci would go 233.661 mph as the second to last qualifier in the Fast Six to qualify on the Inside of Row 2 in fourth.

As a result, Foyt cars remarkably outqualified all three Penske’s this weekend. The Foyt cars start P4-P11 while Penske will be P12-P14-P17.

“We fell short today,” Josef Newgarden told me yesterday. “There’s no hiding it. We did not do a good enough job. I can’t speak highly enough about Chevrolet. I think they’ve been tremendous this whole season, particularly tremendous today.

“You can see that by evidence of everybody that was up there. We weren’t missing anything from that side. They’ve been a great partner for us.

“We seem to be able to figure out most situations, but for whatever reason this cruel mistress, she’s just tricking us. I don’t understand how so. I think all of us don’t fully understand it.

“You don’t stop working. I think for us, we’ve just got to continue to put in the work and not have an ego about it. We weren’t good enough, let’s figure out why. Indy is not easy. This is not an easy place to just succeed. I don’t care how many Indy 500s you have, what team you are, there are no guarantees when you show up here.

“We don’t have an ego about it. We have to work hard, come back, do a better job.”

Newgarden says that they’ve not left a single stone unturned in the fight back to the top at Indy.

“Look, there’s no place to hide,” he says. “We’re just not fast enough. We really weren’t. It’s unfortunate. I feel terrible for our team because I’m front and center of being able to witness the amount of effort that has gone into this place. It is just not from a shortage of effort.

“We’re obviously just missing something else. I don’t know how we’re missing it. We’ve worked hard, all of us collectively. We’ve tried to have no ego about it. It’s just not enough.

“I think we’re still short. Unfortunately the weird thing was I think we were more in the mix yesterday. I think the wind plays a big factor into that. Maybe we’re missing something in these type of conditions that we saw today.

“Any way you want to slice it, we just weren’t good enough. We’ve got to go back and really assess again. Unfortunately we’ve been doing that every single year here. What’s most important now is we’re going to focus on the race. I do believe with how tight the field is, as Tony talked about, there’s opportunity anywhere. If you qualify for the race, there’s opportunity anywhere to win this event. We have to put our focus to that now and be able to collect ourselves after the 500 and see what we can do better. I have strong confidence we have great race cars and can be in the fight on Sunday.”

What’s shocking enough, for Ferrucci, it’s impressive that he was in the Shootout that in a sense for what he told me on Tuesday regarding him hating qualifying here.

“I’ve always hated qualifying,” Ferrucci admitted. “I was shaking after my first qualifying run. I was happy it was done. So I just I don’t know. It doesn’t matter me I’ve just I’ve never started well here. I’ve never qualified well here I’ve got a 23rd to 19th and a 15th in qualifying and all the top 10 finishes so yes, I would much rather start on the outside row five or six then have to manage being upfront. When we got up from the Dryer car, started 15th last year and we stayed up front all day till the very end, so it’s one of those things where we can definitely do it. My focus is always race car.

“I’m not afraid to pass people I’m not afraid to you know, be on the limits in the pits.”

Closing on race day is something he has almost always done. He went from 23rd to 7th as a rookie. A year later, he improved from 19th to 4th. In 2021, he qualified 23rd but finished sixth. Last year, he was running as high as fourth twice in the race and as late as Lap 158 but ended up 10th when it was all said and done.

What happens now that we know that he only has three cars in front of him on Sunday.

“I’m still never a fan of qualifying,” he admitted even after the fact that he’s in the Shootout. “I’m a racer through and through. Getting these four laps out of the way was amazing for us and the team to be as fast as we are. It’s incredible, a major feat. To have to go out and do it again tomorrow against once again the same super competitive top 12, obviously it’s something that I’m looking forward to as a team because it’s something new for everybody.

“Personally as a driver, yeah, it’s definitely something I’m happy to check off the list, happy I don’t have to pass as many cars come Sunday. But, yeah, I’m more looking forward to the race than anything else.”

What’s scary to the field is, Ferrucci admits that his actual “race” car is better than this qualifying setup.

 “I actually feel a lot more comfortable in the race car than I have been in the qualifying car. To be in the Fast 12 and have a shot at pole tomorrow I think is huge.

“Our car definitely has some more in it. It’s getting really tight up top there. Inches are going to make the difference. I’m excited to see what we can do tomorrow.”

Ferrucci also notes this year he can get back to taking more risks as a full-time driver. Last year with DRR, it was just a one-race deal. He babied the car because of that. This year, this is his ride and his ride only. He’s going to go back to the old Ferrucci approach of being overly aggressive.

“You know, last year the team did really save me a bit,” he said. “I didn’t have the greatest restarts which is kind of unusual. I was definitely taking more of a step back being on a you know, just a one ride time to deal because I really needed to finish. So, this year you know I can go a little bit more out ahead of my skis per se and really be aggressive but also just being comfortable. So starting in the back for me people make mistakes trying to push the frontier early and I just you know I’m more of the last 75 laps kind of guy.”

That’s music to the ears of his boss, AJ Foyt.

Ferrucci is just a younger version of AJ Foyt. Brash. Doesn’t care what people think about him. Fast. Races anything. Makes everything that he does race in competitive. He’s raced sprints, he’s raced midgets, he’s raced an INDYCAR a NASCAR, you name it. He also likes to work on his own cars just as his new boss.

Foyt sees a lot of himself in this young racer too and now the 24-year-old is back in Indy Car with a potential to bring AJ Foyt Racing back from the ashes and into the national limelight again.

Ferrucci lives in Texas. That’s where Foyt lives. That’s where this 14 car resides. Ferrucci’s lucky number?

14.

Ferrucci’s favorite driver he idolized growing up?

Tony Stewart.

Now, he’s in the 14 car at Indy.

“Yeah, it’s cool. I mean, I idolized Tony (Stewart) growing up,” Ferrucci says of driving the 14 car here this month. AJ is a bit before my time so it’s kind of cool to see it come full circle and I’m really good buddies with Chase Briscoe who’s also in the 14 car in NASCAR. So for us, it’s kind of cool, at least for me. It’s really cool.

“I saw Tony, actually right after I had signed with AJ. And he was really happy and I was really happy . Yeah, it’s definitely a full circle aha moment for me in my lifetime but ya know, I’m it’s I definitely want to get that that sixth win for him and my first in this in this car be so freakin special.”

The last two years, he’s done so in a part-time role. Now, he’s racing all the races in a season again.

“It’s definitely less stressful,” Ferrucci told me on Tuesday morning of opening day for 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 practice. “Put it this way, you know, the checks consistent.”

Ferrucci this year joins AJ Foyt Racing. That comes after running for Dale Coyne Racing in 2019, then shifting to the Coyne with Vasser Sullivan entry in 2020, then over to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in their third car for 2021 and finally with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing last year. The last two years were one-off efforts. Ferrucci says that being with Foyt is more a work in progress feel in comparison to the past.

“It’s a lot of work,” he told me. “It’s a lot of work, you know, and I really like that, because, you know, going back with our RLL car, you know, the car was really good. All I really had to do every weekend was show up and finish in the top 10. Nothing to it. But here, you know, it’s continuous work, you know, trying to figure out where to go with the dampers, what to do with the car, how to, you know, roll everything into the weekend with the team because we’ve started every weekend, a couple of seconds off the pace, and we managed to get it within a couple of times. I mean, the GP was no different. We started in no man’s land and by the time we did race day, minus the hiccup we were running 13th from dead last so you know, we are finding the speed. We’re hoping that the GP for us was kind of our tipping point of you know rolling out of the trailer better a lot easier.”