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The Dale Jr. Download
Santino Ferrucci: IndyCar's Most Polarizing Driver?
01:23:07
Dale Earnhardt Jr. welcomes in one of the more polarizing stars of IndyCar, Santino Ferrucci. The two discuss his upbringing, path to IndyCar, making waves & how he is rewriting his reputation.
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- [00:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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Santino Ferrucci
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Santino Ferrucci
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- [00:41]
Santino Ferrucci
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- [00:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I will just go ahead and get out of the way. You had a run in with Josh Berry at Phoenix, an IndyCar.
- [00:58]
Santino Ferrucci
If you're passing someone, you just take the preferred line. Oh, I totally passed him and took the PJ1 on the top on the preferred line and put him out in the marbles. I had no idea. And I got the double bird.
- [01:13]
Connor Daly
Yes.
- [01:13]
Santino Ferrucci
And I was like, wait, that was for me. And I was like, what did I do?
- [01:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode episode of the Dale Jr. Download. We got a great guest for you today. Santino Ferrucci is going to be our guest. And so Santino is a driver full time in the IndyCar series for A.J. foyt. And I've been a big fan of this guys since he came into the IndyCar scene probably back in 19 8, 2018, 2019. He run his first Indy 500 and yeah, he's got a checkered past. I think a lot of people have him misunderstood and I'm yeah, we're going to learn about him today. I don't know everything about Santino, but he's pretty cool guy. So let's get started and let's have some fun. All right. So Santino Ferrucci on the Dale Jr. Download. This is something I've been looking forward to. How you doing, bud?
- [02:24]
Santino Ferrucci
Dude, I'm doing great. This is like kind of surreal.
- [02:27]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So is it?
- [02:28]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah, man. I had wallpaper view in my room. Bull, dude. Yes, there was the. When you drove the 8 car, I had the wallpaper going around my room.
- [02:40]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh wow. I had no idea. I mean I think, I think you've told me that before, but I, I, it's always, it's always crazy to hear like that because I don't think of myself as a really old person. But it does put things into perspective as. No, no, it's fine, it's fine. I just never, you know, I don't know, I just never think about things like that. But it's pretty cool to think, you know, you're in the middle of your career. You're competing in full time in IndyCar and have been for a couple years now, and that you grew up with. I just, you know, I don't realize how long ago that was. Right. The old bud stuff and all those days. But this day is about you, man. I'm, I'm a big fan of yours. I got the chance to go to the Indy 500 for the first time. Working with NBC back from 1819. You ran your first year at Indy and ended up in the top 10. You had this really cool wreck avoidance a couple times throughout today. Drove a really good race, had good speed, and you've done that ever since at Indy. But I just, I thought you had a cool name. I also knew that you had a little bit of, you'd cause you'd caused some drama and some, stirred some up in the past. And you're trying. And I always, I'll say that I always, I like an underdog or a comeback or a redemption story. And I felt like that that rookie year at Indy was kind of your, your road back to like getting where you wanted to be as a professional race car driver. And I've had a chance to talk to you since then. Ran into you at the damn Kentucky Derby one year. So, I mean, I see you out and about. You're always awesome, always excited to say hello. I love the attitude. And so, so let's, let's chop it up, man. I, I want to know everything about you. Where were you born, man?
- [04:36]
Santino Ferrucci
I was born in Woodbury, Connecticut, so real small town, 6,7000 people. Spent my summers in upstate New York at a go kart track called OVRP. Just went to public school, missed 80 days a year, which was not great.
- [04:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, racing.
- [04:58]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah, a lot of racing, a lot of traveling, going across the country with my dad.
- [05:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What's the history of your family? Like, where are the Ferruccis from? What's the story behind that?
- [05:11]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah, so I'm, I'm a third generation American, so my grandma and my parents were all born here. My great grandparents were born in Italy. My dad's Side from Sicily. And so that's. My name is not from the Godfather. It's actually a. My great grandfather's name was Santo, and so that's the derivative is Santino. Yeah, that's how I have my not very American name.
- [05:40]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, it's a good racing name. I mean, I would have never. I would.
- [05:44]
Connor Daly
If.
- [05:44]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
When I first saw you on an entry blank, I would have never assumed you were from Connecticut. But I. Why racing? What was. Why were you connected to racing? Why did your dad want to be involved in that? Is that something that had been part of your family for a while?
- [05:59]
Santino Ferrucci
No. So my dad, of all things, he grew up and did a little bit of drag racing. And so he worked for a guy named Grumpy Jenkins at one one point. And who's that? He. I. I still don't know exactly who he is, but I guess he was a pro stock driver back in the late 70s, 80s, I'm gonna guess. And my dad was a kid and, you know, his. One of his best friends had a team and they built a 70s Chevelle to run in pro stock. And when he passed away, my dad had kind of stopped racing. So it, you know, he took me to a local go kart track when I was five and I just fell in love with the speed of the go kart. Like, I had the opposite problem most kids have. They were trying to figure out how to slow me down so I'd stop driving off the track. Yeah, I just. All I wanted to do was go fast, you know, dirt bikes, quads. To be honest with, I don't know how I didn't break more bones growing up. As a kid, I never broke anything. Yeah, how crazy I was. I was a total leash kid. So, yeah, I was so bad, but I destroyed everything. So growing up in Connecticut, my parents eventually bought a little go kart track. We owned it for about four years.
- [07:15]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Really?
- [07:16]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah, we owned OVRP for about four years. And I would spend my entire summer up there living in a little cottage. And then all my weekends in season, basically kind of when school was starting or finishing at the go kart track. And my dad ran a team for a couple years and we drove across the country a bunch. I remember going to Blockbuster Video and like renting like 10 DVDs, setting up my PlayStation 2 in the back of the Silverado and towing a 50, you know, having him tow a 53 foot trailer across the state, across the country. And I just play video games and watch movies.
- [07:51]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [07:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So you were featured in GQ magazine at 11 years old as a karting prodigy. How does that happen?
- [07:59]
Santino Ferrucci
You know, some of the kids that grew up in going to the go kart track, one of them I believe had a connection to the publisher. And I was just about starting my European karting career and I'd won about every accolade he could and up to my age in go karts across the country. And I guess they thought it was a cool story. And I, it was one of the strangest of things that have happened in my career. I think that one goes in the top five of most, like wild look back moments of like, I don't even understand how that happened. So it wasn't like a small article too, which was crazy.
- [08:44]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So when you're racing as a kid, are you competing against people that would, you know, make it to the top level as well? Are you, do you remember racing against some of the guys that you compete against today in your, in your amateur career?
- [09:02]
Santino Ferrucci
Some of when I was a kid racing in Europe, yes. So like I grew up against Lando Norris, George Russell, leclerc Albon. So a bunch of kids that you actually see over in the Formula one side of our sport. There's a few kids that I definitely raced against that ended up in stock cars.
- [09:22]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, who.
- [09:23]
Santino Ferrucci
So I believe Dalton Sargent ended up in stock cars at one point. Oh my gosh. I'd actually have to go back and look. Zach Skolnick.
- [09:34]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [09:35]
Santino Ferrucci
So if you remember him. So there's just few and far between. Making it into Cup, I think was a different story. So I think it's a lot of people that I don't remember racing against or if I did, it was a very long time ago and it was at the same weekend.
- [09:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So you're very successful, you're winning races. And I always kind of find this fascinating, this, this part because I've, I've had a lot of guys that took the, took their career to Europe and I'm, and I mean, that's foreign as hell to me, you know, because I, when I, you know, of course I'm in circle track, stock cars, ovals and all that stuff. I didn't grow up racing on road courses or go karting on road courses. And that wasn't really ever a direction I was going to go. So it's so foreign to me to hear, you know, 11, 12, 14, 15 year old kids going, yep, that's when I went to Europe and I raced in Europe forever, you know, for four or five years. So explain to me like how that decision Comes about, you know, you and your father, y' all are traveling, you're winning, you're racing, you're, you're, you're conquering everything you're trying to do here in the United States. So when do you remember the first mention of, well, we need to go to Europe, man.
- [11:02]
Santino Ferrucci
You know, I actually probably remember the track and it was Newcastle, Indiana, and I just finished in like the top three of two of the three classes. I was running in WKA for the championship. And a guy named Jay Howard actually brought it up to my dad about potentially racing overseas. And you know, to me and my dad, that was also. It's a lot of money.
- [11:30]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [11:30]
Santino Ferrucci
So it's not something that we could have afforded to do. We had, they had like this foreign exchange program for racers at one point for one of the series in England and I was able to become a part of it. And I ran three races and in, it's called FKS over there. It was a British karting series and I actually had to go down two classes. So I was in juniors running like a 35 horsepower go kart here. And I had to switch back to basically almost a kid cart. And yeah, my first weekend, I, you know, I just thought I'd show up and just absolutely destroy all these kids. I finished dead last.
- [12:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh no.
- [12:22]
Santino Ferrucci
Dead last at PF International. That was the most like heart wrenching thing that I've ever done. And you know, it's just kind of like I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm like over driving everything. And so, you know, went back home, spent a, spent a winter just kind of like trying to figure out what to do. We had some local sponsorship from Lime Rock park to go, you know, hey, why don't you try this out for a year? It took about a year before I won my first race. Yeah. In Europe.
- [13:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What kind of. When you go back, when you go back to run for a year, what do you, what are you competing in?
- [13:07]
Santino Ferrucci
So I was competing in, I believe it's called Mini 60. So the front tires, I kid you not, are about 2 inches wide. And the rears are like what you'd have like for your normal go kart, front tires on like a junior or senior.
- [13:22]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So it didn't turn very good.
- [13:24]
Santino Ferrucci
No. And the momentum was everything. So I mean you had to learn how to not move the steering wheel at all and not have a little slide or. I mean it was perfect precision carding. It's the slowest go kart that I'd ever run. Because even comer 80 when I was growing up was way quicker than this.
- [13:43]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [13:43]
Santino Ferrucci
So it just was like a reset. And, you know, once I won a race and I started competing every weekend in the top five, in the top 10, I eventually stayed with it, and I had sponsorship to stay. Moved up into the junior level there, and I was ranked at 1.5th in the world at CIK FIA Finals. And then my career kind of took a stop because I was. Wasn't quite old enough for cars, but I wasn't. I was getting a bit too old for go karts if I ever wanted to transition.
- [14:20]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [14:22]
Santino Ferrucci
So I kind of paused for. I had like a gap, almost a gap year and a half. So that. And sponsorship was tough.
- [14:31]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So where did you do go? Back home?
- [14:33]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah, I went back to Connecticut. I actually went back to high school for a year and a half.
- [14:37]
Connor Daly
Bam. Yeah.
- [14:39]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And you didn't race anything?
- [14:41]
Santino Ferrucci
No, I wasn't even running carts back at home. How old were you then, man? First year high school would have been 2012. I had run. I came home and finished my first. My last karting event. I was. Oh, My gosh, I'm 27 now. I might have been 13 and.
- [15:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But you ended up going back to Europe.
- [15:07]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah. So I had. Same sponsor came back, wanted to help me with my first year and a half of cars. So instead of. I went. Had to get my license. Went to good old Skip Barber. Yeah, did actually, of all things, I did Skip Barber with Colton Herta. We did the winter series together.
- [15:26]
Connor Daly
Oh.
- [15:27]
Santino Ferrucci
Which was pretty awesome. It was fun. It was like four or five races. We got to run Sebring Laguna. I had a reverse gear blowout at Sebring and he flipped over me. Oh, no oil on the track. And. Yeah, that was like the scariest car accident. I mean, you come in from go karts, where everything happens so slow, and you have that happen. You're just kind of like, okay, it's a little real.
- [15:51]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [15:52]
Santino Ferrucci
Then I did formula for 2000 from S. Did four races there, and I jumped into F3 over in Europe with wherever Stoppen was at the time. And. Yep, Alvin Ocon and a bunch of these other guys.
- [16:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But you're downplaying, like, F3 is not very. That's not many steps from the top.
- [16:14]
Santino Ferrucci
No.
- [16:15]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So how do you get. How did you. Where you. I mean, are you winning? Are you successful? Are you. Are you performing how you want to perform to be able to get to those opportunities?
- [16:28]
Santino Ferrucci
I was in a go kart. It took me a while to become Very good in a car. I was a lot quicker to understand it because everything happens so much slower. So when I jumped into Skip Arbor or jumped into the Formula Ford, I was instantly competing against guys that had been there. So I just thought, why not go run some F. I did a bunch of testing in F3. I did four or five days of testing. Well, a bunch.
- [16:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Who is the teams that are giving who are the teams that are giving you these opportunities?
- [17:00]
Santino Ferrucci
So the first one was Euro International. It was an Italian based team. I had met them from my karting. Just I had a good reputation from go karts and looked like I could have been one of the rising stars to come up into cars. Yeah, so like same where you have some of your dirt kids that come.
- [17:16]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Up like, is your dad over there with you?
- [17:20]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah, so my dad was traveling over there with me because I was 15. Yeah, I was essentially I was starting to run in a local F3 series at 15 and then I was going to switch to the FIA F3 series when I turned 16.
- [17:34]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And he's helping you with these relationships, but you're also. So I'm just kind of trying to understand how you're developing relationships, partnerships, getting, you know, what was the experience like for you? I guess creating relationships with these teams.
- [17:52]
Santino Ferrucci
So when I had just before I'd started to European cars with say, Euro International, a couple others, I had been introduced to an agent and he was from England and he had all the connections to a couple of different teams and was helping open some doors for my dad and for myself. So I eventually was able to get opportunities to test in F3. I did well in the testing and I thought that I'd be fine just jumping into the F3 series. There is a series below it called. There was at the time was called Formula Renault 2.0 and with sponsorship and funding, I had more of a limited time to progress because it was really expensive. So they just figured if, you know, you're comfortable with it, why not just jump into the big series and see what happens. And my, my first full time year was with. Was in 2015 for Muke Racing, which is a German team out of Berlin. And it was, I think the entry grid was 36 cars.
- [19:04]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Jeez.
- [19:06]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah, so it was, it was a pretty massive grid. It was awesome. I had a couple of podiums in my first year being part time. Yeah, had a couple of podiums. I had a couple of wins as well my first year in 2014. And then in 2015 I just had a bunch of podiums And I did pretty reasonable in the championship. I didn't quite beat one of my teammates, but we were a four car team, so it was, it was a good year for me. I progressed, I thought, really well. And so did the team. And we decided to jump into GP3 the following year, which is what runs with Formula 1 in 2016.
- [19:52]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Hey, TJ, you know that I got my own Chevy dealership down in Tallahassee, Florida. We're part of the Hendrick Automotive Group.
- [19:58]
Santino Ferrucci
Yes, I have heard of Darren Hurt Jr. Chevrolet.
- [20:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I bet you'd be surprised on what type of Chevrolet vehicles we specialize in.
- [20:04]
Santino Ferrucci
If I had to guess, I'm going.
- [20:05]
TJ
To say it would probably be Chevy trucks.
- [20:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, we definitely sell plenty of those, but actually we're really big in commercial vehicles. We actually sell a lot of crane trucks. We're the number one seller actually, in crane trucks.
- [20:19]
Santino Ferrucci
Okay, I definitely did not see that coming.
- [20:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, pretty neat, huh? So, for any of our listeners shopping for commercial vehicles, here's some things you need to know about us at Dalenhardt Jr. Chevrolet. We have hundreds of trucks in stock, so you can find what you need fast. And we have people there that can help you with custom orders. So if you want to build the exact vehicle you need, we can do it. We offer complimentary delivery anywhere in the continental U.S. plus, Hendrick Automotive Group is the nation's top rated dealer group for online reputation. Visit dalejrchevy.com and click Commercial to explore the wide range of available commercial vehicles. Our team at Dillon Hart Jr. Chevrolet will give you a world class experience. Chevrolet together, let's drive.
- [21:07]
TJ
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- [21:18]
Travis
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- [21:27]
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- [21:34]
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- [21:55]
TJ
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- [22:18]
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- [22:33]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So you were the youngest winner in Formula 3 at 16. You won two races and three starts in British Formula 3.
- [22:42]
Santino Ferrucci
Yes.
- [22:43]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All that stuff's going really well. You traveled to New Zealand in 2015 to compete the Toyota racing series. What was that like?
- [22:52]
Santino Ferrucci
Dude, that was wild. I actually totally forgot about that. It was a winter series, so it's the only way to practice and get testing. You're not allowed to test in open wheel cars ever for it's super restricted. I think just to keep, you know, budgets down and.
- [23:12]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Sure.
- [23:12]
Santino Ferrucci
Really, really rich kids from running all day long.
- [23:15]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [23:16]
Santino Ferrucci
Which is great for me. So since I couldn't afford to test and it was six weeks over in New Zealand, we bas, me and my dad actually, you know, you just travel hotel to hotel. We brought our golf clubs. So between traveling the island every weekend to racing, you didn't really do anything Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. So. And the teams were traveling track to track. So we went and also kind of made a little vacation out of it because how often do you think that we would go to New Zealand?
- [23:50]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [23:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So it was, you know, amazing. I hear it's beautiful. I've been to Australia, but never would it been to New Zealand and hear some amazing things about it.
- [23:58]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah, I think Queenstown was by far my favorite experience of. Of places that I'd been. It's on the list of places I want to go back to.
- [24:07]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [24:07]
Santino Ferrucci
So at some point in my lifetime.
- [24:09]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, for sure. So what kind of cars were they?
- [24:14]
Santino Ferrucci
They were a. So the F3 that they were running there was called a Tatis F3. It was a little bit slower than the FIA F3 I was going to step into for the 2015 season. But it was a really good learning car. Similar tire. A couple of the competitors that were there were going to be similar competitors to who I was going to run against in FIA 3. So it was, you know, getting a good idea of Racecraft and what to expect. FIF three was just way more competitive.
- [24:47]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [24:47]
Santino Ferrucci
So FIF three for. Also it doesn't exist anymore. It's now a regional series in Europe. F3 is now what I raced at the time would have been GP3. So they kind of rearranged some stuff.
- [25:02]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [25:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So GP3 is what you got into in 2006 and 2016.
- [25:07]
Santino Ferrucci
Yes.
- [25:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Are you in your mind. I know you're still young and you're probably not really thinking too far ahead, but are you. Is it your. I mean, your intention is to go to F1, right. And that's.
- [25:20]
Santino Ferrucci
Yes.
- [25:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The path you're on.
- [25:23]
Santino Ferrucci
That had been my. Yeah, that had been my path since I started in Europe. And, you know, growing up as a kid, I idolized Michael Schumacher. Yeah. So I was always watching the F1 races. I was always following that. It's was my dream to go there. And it. You know, once I got to GP3, it became a lot more realistic because I was signed as a development driver for Haas as the only American.
- [25:50]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Right.
- [25:50]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah.
- [25:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was going to ask you if you felt like throughout your entire experience in Europe with Formula 3 and did you ever feel like you're. You had to try harder, you had to do. You had to do more, prove yourself more. You were you discounted because you were an American?
- [26:13]
Santino Ferrucci
I didn't think at the. I didn't believe at the time that I was discounted because I was American. But I was trying. I think the problem was, is I got too, like, mentally into it. I was living in Italy. I was training every day. I was not wanting. I wasn't going home. So I was just going back to a training facility in Italy and just working out and also kind of forgetting to be a kid and enjoying, you know, what I was doing.
- [26:46]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [26:47]
Santino Ferrucci
And it started to become, you know, more and more of a chore. But then I got to drive the F1 car for the first time.
- [26:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
When did that happen?
- [26:57]
Santino Ferrucci
At Silverstone in 2016.
- [26:59]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
A real life, a real deal F1.
- [27:01]
Santino Ferrucci
Car the current year. So at the rule in F1.
- [27:04]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
How nervous were you when they said you were going to do that? Like, I mean, I would have been. I would not have been able to.
- [27:11]
Santino Ferrucci
Asleep, I was. I was freaking out. But I was also, at the same time so excited because this was like my dreams coming to reality.
- [27:19]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [27:20]
Santino Ferrucci
And, you know, in GP3, I was having an okay year. It was a brand new team for the series. So, you know, we were all kind of. We were having good weekends and bad weekends, you know, Trying to figure out the car. And you know the biggest thing that they tell you when you're developing drivers, hey, don't hang around in the F1 paddock too much because we consider it a distraction. And all I wanted to do is sit in there and look at the car and sit in the engineering meetings and try and learn and decipher what's going on. But you know, you also, you're told you can't do that. So I was at a bit of a crossroads. And I never forget how much I was training for this car because it's all neck. And the night before they hand me like a 51 page booklet and I was like, what's this? So this is every error code on the steering wheel.
- [28:15]
Connor Daly
Dude.
- [28:15]
Santino Ferrucci
I started going through this thing and I was like, they don't tell you anything about the car. And it's like half an Italian because it's partnered with Ferrari and it's half in English.
- [28:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Wow.
- [28:30]
Santino Ferrucci
I was just like, all right, this is kind of nuts.
- [28:33]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [28:34]
Santino Ferrucci
And then driving the car, you know, they were just, they're like, we're not going to drive in the rain because it's England. Just, we don't want you to wreck it. But they're gonna just go out, take your time, enjoy it. Pulling. Pulling out for the install lap. Coming up the hill. You know, I kind of remember stepping on it. And it's so easy to light the rear tires up. And then what freaked me out the most is there's no steering wheel feeling.
- [29:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's just light.
- [29:01]
Santino Ferrucci
It's. It's light. I mean, it's like turning the air. It's like you go to your gym and take a five pound plate and turn that right. Was creepy. And the car was so fast and everything was just. Everything that you could ever imagine is on steering. Well, you could change the differential on the fly. You go through all these engine settings and power settings and the way that the car sounded, I just. It so quiet at the time because this was still the first few years of the turbo.
- [29:35]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [29:36]
Santino Ferrucci
So you can hear the turbo. And then when I went down the back stretch the first time, I'll never forget it because the cars have such a high ride height. It started to hit the ground and drag the ground and it was so loud. I was like, there's something wrong. Like something's underneath the car dragging something. They're like, oh, no, that's. That's normal.
- [29:54]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [29:56]
Santino Ferrucci
I was like, not used to this. Not normal in the GP3.
- [30:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What did you want to. What Were you hoping to accomplish where you. Did you have a lap time or did you have, like a goal at the end of that? Did you get out and go, man, I feel good about what I did. What was this?
- [30:21]
Santino Ferrucci
Man, the tire allotment was weird. So everybody had. The test had different tires.
- [30:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It was all there.
- [30:27]
Santino Ferrucci
Every team had one car. Every F3. Every F1 team had one there.
- [30:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And it was all of these sort of proteges up and comers getting laps. It's kind of like a school day.
- [30:39]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah, it was. Yeah. Essentially what it was. It was so like, you know, whoever I had been running against in the top team at Mercedes development, driver would be in the car.
- [30:48]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Did anybody go out there and wreck? There's make a mistake or.
- [30:54]
Santino Ferrucci
Not that day? Not that I remember. I. I do remember some FP1 sessions where kids crashed cars. Because FP1 is important for the team to where you can prove yourself against the F1 drivers. Yeah, I was going. It was a two day test. I was in the second day. The first day was Charles Leclerc. And my goal was to just be as fast as him.
- [31:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Were you?
- [31:19]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah. And. Or beat one of the current F1 drivers. Times were you on and. Oh, yes. Gutierrez and Grosjean. And I was quicker. I believe I was actually quicker than Grosjean for comparative lap times. And I was all excited about it and I was having a really good, you know, early afternoon session. Then I spun.
- [31:44]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Okay.
- [31:45]
Santino Ferrucci
And I spun in maggots and beckets, which is like. I was just trying to push the car through the high speed. Mind you, I still have no feeling in the steering wheel. So I came through and I did a complete360 and I missed the wall. Dude. I pitted so fast and got out of the car. I was like, I need about 30 minutes to. To just go lie down because I didn't even know what happened. This like the spinning in an Indy car or in a stock car or even in a go kart. Like, you can feel it coming.
- [32:18]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [32:19]
Santino Ferrucci
This car stepped out so fast, and I was backwards, I think, before I even got to the apex. And I had no idea where I was. And I was just trying to push the car on the high speed because. Because that was my biggest deficit to, like, Leclerc. So I just kept building up to it, pushing it more and more. The problem is I couldn't really feel where it was and when it. Normally cars give you a moment or a wiggle before they're gonna step and you can lift or catch the brakes. It Stepped out so fast, I lit the rear tires up sideways. Cause I didn't lift. I didn't know what had happened until it happened. And then by the time you'd spun, you're on the brakes. I kept it going and corded all four tires and. Yeah, that was a code brown pit moment. I mean, those cars are. If you wreck one, that's like $20 million worth.
- [33:12]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Did you get to run again after that? Yeah, just, you know, calm down, come in, change tires, take a break. You got to. Yeah, that's always good when they have the confidence to send you back out there even after something like that.
- [33:26]
Santino Ferrucci
No, it was. It was nice. It was relieving. They were like, hey, let's. You know, we gotta do some long runs for some actual testing. You know, also give you a chance to build back up to it again. And I was like, perfect. We can do some long running. The next issue was my neck getting tired. Yeah. I could not hold my head up any longer. So it didn't matter how much I trained for it. My. My head felt like it was attached by a string. So it's kind of like flopping all over the place in the car.
- [34:00]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [34:00]
Santino Ferrucci
So not. Not fun.
- [34:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I want to transition a little bit to. You know, there was some. Some difficult moments in your. In your career. And I guess one in particular. Right before you actually Transitioned into the IndyCar scene, there was some controversy. In F2, 2018, you got banned for four races, fined $60,000 for intentional contact with your teammate. Was it intentional?
- [34:32]
Santino Ferrucci
It was meant for me to be flipping him off, and I had the in car camera that race, and I was gonna get right behind him and pull up real close to him. And right as I was about to do it, I was like, I think that's expensive. And because I pay your. You pay your own fines. So before I moved back, because I already had momentum, I clipped them.
- [35:00]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [35:01]
Santino Ferrucci
I mean, you're talking about. I misjudged it by about this much. And it was after the checkered. I didn't do any damage to the cars.
- [35:12]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [35:13]
Santino Ferrucci
Light. The contact was. And yeah. So that kind of. I actually thought. I didn't think anything of it at the time. Came back, you know, the storage like, okay, well, we need to call you in for this move and that move. And me and my teammate, we're getting into it that race weekend a little bit. You know, we were not happy with the team at this point. We'd both graduated to F2 together. We'd known each other our whole lives. Like this. You're talking about someone that came like was one of the few people that came to like my birthdays that I had in Europe.
- [35:48]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [35:50]
Santino Ferrucci
It was pretty crazy to kind of see what was happening. But either way, I didn't go to the stewards meeting because I had to. I had a flight home from England and budget was tight. Money was tight with sponsorship and I couldn't afford to move my flights. And in hindsight, that was. I needed to move my flights.
- [36:12]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [36:12]
Santino Ferrucci
And I needed to go there and I needed to. Yeah. So it was a huge mistake on my part and trust me, I. There's not. I really regret that.
- [36:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Sure.
- [36:24]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah. I was the. Probably one of the biggest mistakes if. Probably the biggest mistake in my career.
- [36:30]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You had. You had that happen. You also got a fine for being in your car with your phone, being a goofball, you know, just kind of. I mean, who. I've done that. I've. I've run around the racetrack recording laps, holding my cell phone up and testing. I was trans.
- [36:45]
Santino Ferrucci
I was transferring the car to a different paddock.
- [36:47]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [36:48]
Santino Ferrucci
Oh, really?
- [36:48]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's it.
- [36:49]
Santino Ferrucci
I wasn't in the race. We weren't racing.
- [36:51]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [36:52]
Santino Ferrucci
People. Yeah. It's so crazy. People think that I was like completely banned and lost my FIA license and I was racing around with my phone.
- [37:00]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [37:00]
Santino Ferrucci
And I had a four race band which was two weekends and I got my, you know, international A back, paid my fines and then I had my phone because we had to transfer paddocks and Silverstone and we all listen. We were all listening to music pre race fired up the car and I still had it in my pocket. So instead of losing it, I in the floor because I'm so damn short and you got to pull the nose socks off. I put it in my hand.
- [37:26]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [37:26]
Santino Ferrucci
So I. We're on rain tires doing a transfer and yeah, that's. That's. And I got out and I handed it to the mechanic and because I had the in car camera, they could clearly see that I handed my phone off.
- [37:43]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Is it. Is the idea that you're not supposed to have your phone because it could also be a device? Is there. You know, is it like. Because that's the way they are with us. They don't want us to have our phones in our cars, in a cup car, in a stock car because they. There's just so much Bluetooth technology and different ways you could probably do traction control or whatever.
- [38:03]
Santino Ferrucci
I think it was just the no phones while driving, like the texting and driving thing.
- [38:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So when you showed up at Indy for your rookie year, you're fresh off of the heels of all of this in Europe, right? And you are. Now you're. You have left Europe. You sort of. You've sort of divorced that plan, that path to go to F1. How hard was that? Was that. Was your. Were you heartbroken? Were you like, nope, I'm ready for greener pastures. Let's go do this IndyCar thing. You know, how. How hard, I guess, was it to have to give up on this plan or this. This dream of F1?
- [38:50]
Santino Ferrucci
Man, it was tough. I mean, I had just. That was my whole goal. I never wanted to be in IndyCar, believe it or not, because I just thought it was dangerous. And, you know, you see everybody that gets injured or, you know, passed away, and so I didn't really think anything of it. It's funny, because a lot of people think of it as, like, a. Where people go that they can't make it in Europe. And it's. That wasn't the reason I didn't want to be an IndyCar. I thought IndyCar was just flat out dangerous.
- [39:21]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [39:22]
Santino Ferrucci
And that's why I didn't want to be here. And, you know, seeing what happened with my career, to be honest with you, I just thought my career was over.
- [39:31]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Completely.
- [39:32]
Santino Ferrucci
Oh, yeah, completely. I. I called my team owner in IndyCar at the time, which was Dale Coyne, and I was just like, hey, man. Like, this is what happened. It's in the news. I'm so sorry, but I totally understand if you don't want me in the car for the rest. For the rest of the 2018 season or moving forward. And he was like, not. I don't. He's like, I don't care. He's like, no, just, you know, come back and, you know, keep racing, and we'll. We'll figure it out.
- [40:03]
Connor Daly
We'll.
- [40:04]
Santino Ferrucci
We'll talk it out. We'll. We'll figure out what we can do. And came back. And the first race I did back was actually this race here where I'm at in my camper, which was Portland. And, you know, just. It was a really, really tough weekend for me mentally, because it's the first time that I'd been back at a racetrack, really, and had been around people and fans and a team since the controversy. Yeah. And, you know, I did a. I did a podcast with Marshall Pruitt explaining it kind of in depth, and it was, like, very emotional for me, and I was just really having a hard time getting through it. Still Still a hard time for me to even like, think about, to still talk about, like, did. I mean, like, it like wrecked me. Like, I still have nightmares about this stuff.
- [40:54]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [40:55]
Santino Ferrucci
And we are now seven years down the road.
- [40:57]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Sure.
- [40:58]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [40:59]
Santino Ferrucci
Oh, but, yeah, like, this track brings back a lot of memories of that.
- [41:04]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [41:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, you, I remember you coming into IndyCar and I'm, I don't know a ton about, I don't know a lot about IndyCar. I'm crushing like this sort of, I'm going through this sort of like supersonic home study of drivers, their careers, their history, trying to prepare for the Indy 500. And I'm getting this opportunity to be part of the broadcast team. And I wanted to, I wanted to kill it because otherwise they were going to say, hey, who's stock car guy? He don't belong on the show. He don't know anything about this. You know, IndyCar. He doesn't belong here. And I wanted to make sure that I, you know, I had a good review by the end of it all, but I was reading about, I was reading about you and I was reading about the, the, the controversy and the trouble that you'd, you'd had. And something in me, like, I, I felt like, look, man, this guy, he's young, he made some mistakes, but something about something tells me that he's, he's the kind of person that can, can, can learn from those and make the adjustments some people make. You know, some people make those kind of mistakes in life and they don't have the self awareness to say, yeah, I should have done that differently. They don't have remorse, they don't have any. They don't grow from it. But I could see it, I think, in you that you were thinking, man, I, that up. I've got this chance over here in, in IndyCar. I'm gonna try not to this up. I'm gonna try to make this work. And that's what you've done over the past seven years, is try not, you know, try to make this one, this one count. I don't know if I've got that completely correct, but that first year as a rookie, I don't know, man, it was fun to watch you in the race, but also love this sort of idea of redemption. And man, yeah, I've got this checkered past. I'm owning it. You talked about it on the podcast. You've answered all the questions that anybody's ever, ever posed about it. And you're wanting to move forward and move on and try to show people that, hey man, that's not who you think I am or who people are telling you I am is not who I am. Because the guy that I know and the guy that I've met and ran into from time to time is a good guy, you know, and a hard racer. He likes to have fun, likes to take chat, you know, take risks on the racetrack, which I enjoy too. We don't, you know, you go, you got a good personality, a colorful personality that's good for the series. Do you think that when you got to, you know, in 2019, going full time in IndyCar with DCR, are you thinking, hey man, I've got to earn back the respect, Earn back. I got to change the narrative around who people think I am?
- [44:29]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah. I mean, a big, a big thing for me was to not crash or to have any altercations with anybody or anything.
- [44:41]
Connor Daly
Right.
- [44:42]
Santino Ferrucci
Whether it be drivers or fans or this. I mean, my whole first year coming back, the, the doing the autograph sessions was like brutal for me because like, people would just look at me and walk off and like, I still. You're laughing. I still deal with this today.
- [45:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, I know, it's. Why do you crack?
- [45:05]
Santino Ferrucci
It cracks me up every time. I was just like, take a minute to like, just talk to me.
- [45:10]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [45:10]
Santino Ferrucci
Like, I get that, I get that you, you hate me and you know.
- [45:13]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But what do you think it is that people dislike? I don't honestly don't see anything that rubs me the wrong way. And look, I don't, I don't rub elbows with you every single week at the racetrack. And, and, and, but everything I've seen about you is not problematic at all. Why do you think it's taking so long to kind of like turn around the storyline?
- [45:39]
Santino Ferrucci
I, man, I don't know, maybe has to do with my, my, some of the mistakes I've still made in IndyCar with my driving style. Some of the interviews that I've done, a couple of that I've done in IndyCar that I'm also not very proud of that. I, you know, I had one last year at Detroit, which.
- [45:58]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What did you do? What did you do in the interview?
- [46:01]
Santino Ferrucci
Oh, in Detroit? Yeah, I got a little hot headed after practice session with two of the Andretti cars and I wasn't really thinking about it and I called them, I called them teammate boyfriends or boyfriend teammates or something like that. And I didn't realize that I had said it because it's not what I was thinking in my head because I knew they're like best friends, so. And I see them all the time, you know, And I grew up with Kyle, and it's not. And I grew up knowing Colton, and it's not what I meant, but people took it and they were just like, see, he's. He's still the same old person. And I was just like, that's. It's not what I meant. It's like, I have a lot of respect for these guys, and they just. They're using their cars to hit other people on track, and I'm just fed up with it because they think that they're better than everybody else.
- [46:59]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, people are passionate. People are passionate.
- [47:03]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah.
- [47:04]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I feel, you know, I don't know. I. I think that the other thing I guess I wanted to talk about is your. I think one thing that keeps the narrative going, the negative. The negative narrative around you is your beef with Connor. And I give Connor a hard time because I tell him that I. I'm a big fan of yours. I'm a big fan of Connors, too, and I like Connor, and I think Connor's a great guy. But y' all have out outwardly told each other that you're not big fans of each other. You don't like each other. I don't know where it is today, but just a few weeks ago, y' all had contact at Mid Ohio, so I guess it's still brewing. But. And he. In Connor, see, the reason why this doesn't work for you, the reason why this is bad for you is because Connor is kind of looked at as the. The good. The golden child or the good guy or, you know. You know what I'm saying? He has this reputation in the. In IndyCar as. As. As the good guy. And, man, everybody wants Connor to, you know, make it, and everybody wants Conor to have. He's kind of the underdog, too, in a way. Y' all are really kind of similar, honestly, in where you are in your careers. I think you both have good talent, and you just aren't in the. Aren't in the. Exactly in the right situation to really seize the opportunity to show it. But do you guys. I mean, and I think that works against you. I think that. That, that. That beef that y' all have, if there's a way for y' all to squash it, would. Would be a good benefit for both of you.
- [48:49]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah, it's. I respect him a ton as a race car driver. I mean, running with him on the ovals, he's like one of the few people that I feel like I Can truly run really hard and like kind of let loose a little bit and he can do the same. And we both believe in our ability enough to know that we can put on a hell of a show racing each other and not crash. And I think a lot of people after mid Ohio, you know, I. I made a mistake in mid Ohio. I missed the apex and I just drove into him. Looked up from my spotter, calling him on the outside and I drove into him and you know, he had his mistake in the pit lane where I rear ended him and I thought he break checked me and we talked about it. We were ever going to go out and play golf together and be buddies. I. I don't know. But racing each other, like, I love racing him on an oval, man. He's probably. It's just the way that you can run someone like that is just different than you can run like say, a rookie or, you know, someone that's newer in the series that didn't have a lot of oval racing growing up where you got to tiptoe around a little bit. So. Which I really appreciate.
- [50:05]
Connor Daly
Yeah, well.
- [50:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, I like. I think it'd be cool if, If I'm. If we're all three ever in the same city that we all three went. Would go to dinner together. That'd be pretty. That'd be pretty interesting.
- [50:18]
Santino Ferrucci
That, that would definitely. That would. That'd be fun, man. That'd be.
- [50:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I can mediate.
- [50:26]
Santino Ferrucci
That'd be great. I think we'd have a blast.
- [50:28]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I want y' all to end up. Yeah, I want y' all to go golfing together. I don't even play golf. I'll go golf. I'll be the. I'll go play golf. We'll have a threesome and chuck it around a little bit.
- [50:40]
Santino Ferrucci
You know, I think it's kind of funny. When I first came back, going back to 2019, that race, that, that 500, I had two goals that year. I wanted to finish, improve to everybody, that I don't just crash all the time. And I finished all but one race, which for rookie was pretty awesome. And I also wanted to prove that I can be quick and I can get through everything. But, you know, I got to race with TK that day as well quite a bit. And I don't think I'd ever been so frustrated racing someone. And then I started. I started racing Connor a little bit. Damn. I was like one retired and the other one's, you know, doing really good too. But yeah, that was 2019 was a hell of a year. So. But I'd be happy to do some dinners with him.
- [51:30]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I'll be the mediator. I'll take y' all to dinner. Do you take a lot of pride in your seven straight top tens in Indy 500?
- [51:40]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah, I do. I think it's something that's unique to me. It's driving me nuts because I've come so close to winning that race twice, and I know I can win that race. So it's. Yeah, I. I would almost rather have wrecked at one point, just, like, not have to, because now it's like, oh, well, you're gonna continue in top 10 streak. Can I just tell. And I'm just to a point telling people, I hope not. Yeah, I was like, I want to win it or wreck trying to win it. Yeah, it's. It's. I don't understand. You know what? This year was weird. We had a really good race car. We had a bunch of issues in the race, which we were just super unlucky. We had a side pod coming off the car for 120 laps that they somehow bolted back down in a pit stop. Mean, I wish it was like NASCAR in that sense, where we can just take the tape that you guys have and just stick it down. Yeah, we don't have that. So when he put the duct tape down on the side pod, I watched it blow off before I left pit lane. I was like, that's not gonna work. And then the last stop, I came in behind Pillow and the redhead. The fuel hose got stuck in the car, and we lost a lot of time. So, yeah, it. My 500 have been really good, yet they've been very painful for me. In the last stint, for a few.
- [53:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Years, you had a streak of four straight top fives this year. Yeah, I would say that that's overachieving. You know, I think for your team, y' all work really hard with what you have, but I know in the competition that you're up against, I think that you have to hang your hat on those type of moments. I know you want to win races, but you're 13th in points. So to go out and have four straight events where you're solidly in the top five has to feel pretty good.
- [53:45]
Santino Ferrucci
Dude, that was. That was a crazy stretch of races for me in the team. You know, we'd kind of just hit one of those weird strides where we're at a bunch of tracks I really liked. I really enjoyed. We had a lot of luck on our side for Detroit. We were quick, but we kind of boxed Ourselves in with a strategy and it ended up working out in our favor. And I was leading that race. You know, been a minute since I'd been behind the pace car in first. And I cooked my tires. I mean, you think, yeah, a seven year veteran in the sport would know how to keep tire temps up, but oh, dude, I cooked them so bad. And what saved me was that red flag because I couldn't get them back to. I couldn't get the car back underneath me.
- [54:33]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [54:34]
Santino Ferrucci
Oh, man, I'm gonna drop like a rock. Yeah. So once I got the car back underneath me, re fired. And I was just like, okay, cool cars back. You know, made a great move on Will. You know, I love racing against. There's a few people I love racing against in this sport. Will is definitely one of them. I don't have a ton of friends down the grid, but I have a lot of respect for the old, you know, the, the old guard that's been in the series for a few years.
- [54:58]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [54:58]
Santino Ferrucci
A long time. Just, you know, you always know what you're going to get when you're racing them and it makes it a lot more fun for me. So just a lot more respectful and in that sense, yeah, I, I got.
- [55:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
A chance to kind of get a. I know it's. It's not the real deal, but we did that back during the pandemic. We had those races we ran online for FOX and that were broadcast. And I got an invitation that I was very proud to get to run with y' all at Michigan. And I know everybody's at home on their sim rigs and it's pretty, you know, it's unserious, but some of the guys take. Took it pretty serious. And I'll say this, man, I was really surprised at how outspoken everybody was. You have all these different nationalities, so many different cultures, so many different, like, styles of aggression, even verbally, right. And like, so when we were racing online at Michigan, y' all were. We run the race and at the end of the race, everybody's all pissed off because, like, three of us accidentally made it on fuel. Like, I didn't, I was from the first, the start of the race, we got damaged, had a big pile up at the green flag. I didn't know it, that my car was damaged and we had one quick fix and I was going to save it, but it never, I never got a chance to use it. And so I was going so slow that I had this really great fuel mileage. And I think a couple other guys did that. As well. And I remember we come down pit road and everybody was raising hell, like all of that for some making own fuel. And I was like, I could not believe it. I'm sitting there going, holy, these guys don't hold back. And it was mostly Will. Will was like lighting people up.
- [56:51]
Santino Ferrucci
Oh, I love Will.
- [56:53]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I do too. And I was like, you know, this is why like if the world, if, if, if the United States could see this right here, they would really want to know more about the IndyCar series. Because truthfully, man, the drivers are so unique, individ as individuals and you all have a different opinion of how things should go on any given corner. And so, you know, I really enjoyed kind of getting a peek behind that curtain a little bit. And it really made me understand how damn difficult it must be to race in the series where everybody is so hard headed and so stubborn. Because that was sort of the vibe that I got was like all of y' all are just stubborn. Like you all think that you know exactly what needs to happen in every moment. And you have the right, you know, you have the right attitude or the right idea and, and when it doesn't go your way, it's because that son of a bitch over there didn't know what he was doing.
- [57:58]
Santino Ferrucci
You got to come to a driver's meeting.
- [57:59]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I would love to.
- [58:00]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [58:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean I, I really, it made me a fan of the series in a unique way. I've always watched it from a distance, you know, being a stock car guy. And I think, damn stock car Daytona 500 is the greatest thing ever. And I went to Indian. I'm like, holy, this is different. And I'll admit Indy 500 is by far the, the greatest sporting event I've ever been a part of or ever witnessed. But the IndyCar series has so many colors and layers to it in terms of just personality and talent. You know, I get to pull for you, Connor, Will, a couple. I see Will out at the GoPro track every now and then.
- [58:41]
Santino Ferrucci
Will's a fiend for the go.
- [58:42]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He is, he is. And so I've become, I've come really interested in, you know, your career and a few others as well. Getting to talk to Scott Dixon like this guy is freaking Superman. Like he's, he's done it all, but he's as down to earth. Like you walk right up to him and talk to him and he didn't, he doesn't talk to you like he's a freaking hall of famer. You know, it's pretty neat.
- [59:08]
Santino Ferrucci
He's the most surreal to race against.
- [59:10]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It has to be. It has to be.
- [59:13]
Santino Ferrucci
It's just kind of, like, weird. Every time, like, I'm around him or I'm racing him, I'm just kind of like, damn, that's Scott Dixon.
- [59:19]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [59:20]
Santino Ferrucci
And I, like, I have been in the sport long enough and I'm still like, damn, that's Scott Dixon.
- [59:25]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [59:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's great.
- [59:27]
Santino Ferrucci
Doesn't change.
- [59:27]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know. I think that says a lot about your character. Like, you have that respect, you know, and. And I would feel the same way I was. You know, I feel the same way even when these old heads walk into the room, you know, like guys my dad competed against. If I see them or if I'm in the same place as them, man, it's like, holy, you know? Hey, everybody, you want the latest Dale Jr. Download apparel? Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com we're always adding new stuff all the time. Especially, like, when we say something silly on this show. We'll put it on a T shirt again.
- [60:01]
TJ
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- [60:11]
Travis
It can be a lot. There's everything people are saying at you. It just gets to be a lot.
- [60:15]
TJ
Every now and then, I'll get a message from my girlfriend. She sends me something on Instagram, like positive affirmations, but those are hard to come by. And especially now in the online culture, mental health and therapy is so important.
- [60:28]
Travis
It's a lot of negative, negative, negative. You need to think about yourself and make sure you're being a better person and you're not always down on yourself.
- [60:35]
TJ
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Travis
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- [61:06]
TJ
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- [61:15]
Travis
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- [61:22]
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- [61:31]
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- [62:00]
Travis
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- [62:16]
TJ
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- [62:30]
Travis
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- [62:50]
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- [62:59]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I wanted to talk to you a little bit about your, your trip to nascar. So I think this, you know, you had, I will just go ahead and get out of the way. And I didn't really, I'm not going to, I don't really, we don't have to talk about it. But I had a, you had a run in with Josh Berry at Phoenix. But that aside, let's put that aside. I was very impressed with how you adapted to this race car. It's very hard for, I think open wheel guys to come drive our cars and it's very hard for our, our guys to go drive your cars the way they are in air the way everything about them works, the way they feel, steering all those things. And so it was really impressive that you. That you adapted to the car and was able to get good speed out of it. I mean, the car you were driving was a 10th to 15th place car on most occasions. And you ran, if not there, a little bit better. Do you, you know, what do you recall of your. Of your little. For your little quick trip to NASCAR and your experience running the infinity races?
- [64:10]
Santino Ferrucci
Man, it was. I have to say that that is something I enjoyed so much. And like, I still talked to Sam. I went and visited him in Charlotte and had dinner with him not too long ago.
- [64:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Sam Hunt, he's a great dude.
- [64:23]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah, he is a amazing dude. And yeah, it was. I. So I had never gotten to drive the Xfinity's car. The only preparation that I did was I did a. I did a little over a half a day in a super late with Kras gala, and we were getting in and out of the car together. So I was like, I wanted him to drive. I wanted to drive because I needed. I needed benchmarks. I needed references. I needed, you know, what can I do better? And he's super talented and a super late and does very well in Xfinity. So, you know, I was learning as much as I could. And then the first time. The first time firing up and driving the Xfinity was Homestead. Yeah, that's a tough one. I didn't even get to turn laps. And, you know, the NASCAR world is so different with. We talked about driver etiquette and things you should and shouldn't do. Some of the dumb things that I had done, one of which was my first pit stop. I didn't realize you need to blip the throttle to keep the power steering unit going. I parked in the box the wrong way, followed up by I cut a tire down trying to run the wall, and I didn't let the tire changer come back across the front. See, normally.
- [65:39]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He tried to leave.
- [65:42]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah. So I was. Honestly, I was. I thought I was really competitive at Homestead.
- [65:48]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [65:48]
Santino Ferrucci
And it kind of like pains me because that was such a growing race and I thought I could do really well. And of course, I took advice from Kyle. Kyle Larson, and it was, okay, just go run the wall. You'll be fine.
- [66:01]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [66:02]
Santino Ferrucci
So that's all I. All I wanted to do all day long was run the fence because I've never gotten to do that. And I wasn't going to turn down the opportunity to just go and why.
- [66:13]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Not take it out.
- [66:14]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah. I thought it'd be fun. And Sam was cool. Sam's like, dude, go take the right side down off the car. Like, I don't care. I want you to. To be quick. He's like, hammer down. I was like, okay, this best. Best thing an owner can ever tell a driver. And, you know, I got a couple races in going back to the Josh Berry thing at Phoenix, so I hadn't realized what I had done. So when I was racing and passing these guys, I didn't realize that if you commit underneath, you got to run the bottom. So an IndyCar, if you're passing someone, you just take the preferred line.
- [66:57]
Connor Daly
Ah.
- [66:58]
Santino Ferrucci
So I totally. I totally passed him and took the PJ1 on the top on the preferred line and put him out in the marbles. I had no idea what I did. I had no idea that that was wrong.
- [67:15]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [67:16]
Santino Ferrucci
And not correct etiquette, especially that early in the race. And when I came around, Chris Lambert was my spotter who spots the 11.
- [67:26]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [67:26]
Santino Ferrucci
And he's like. I think he said something to me on the radio about Barry being out of his car. And he said, it looks like he's gonna come give you the one finger salute. And I got the double bird.
- [67:37]
Connor Daly
Yes.
- [67:38]
Santino Ferrucci
And I was like, wait, that was for me. And I was like, what did I do? And he just goes, don't worry about it. He wrecked himself. I. Yeah. No, he did not eat. Yeah. I take some blame for that.
- [67:54]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, yeah.
- [67:54]
Santino Ferrucci
It's all right.
- [67:55]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's all it was. It's water under the bridge. But, I mean, do you. Do you miss do was, you know, you ran good, you know, and I felt like. I think if you stuck with it. Right. This could have developed into something more. So, you know, you. Only you. You had, you know, partial IndyCar schedule, partial Xfinity schedule, but you eventually, I guess, had to choose one or the other.
- [68:20]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah. And, you know, NASCAR was tough because of sponsorship and budget versus I. You know, I was getting paid to go run in the IndyCar.
- [68:30]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [68:31]
Santino Ferrucci
And so that kind of made my choice for me. I. I would love to get back in the Xfinity's car. I want to run Darlington. I want to run Homestead again. Like, I. I would not hesitate at jumping in at some of those tracks. I didn't enjoy the road course.
- [68:49]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What's that?
- [68:51]
Santino Ferrucci
I did not enjoy the road courses.
- [68:52]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [68:53]
Santino Ferrucci
I did indie gp. And I'll be honest with you, it's a painful road course in the IndyCar.
- [69:01]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [69:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And it's just Even worse in a car that doesn't do anything right.
- [69:06]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [69:06]
Santino Ferrucci
It's even worse than a stock car.
- [69:08]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [69:09]
Santino Ferrucci
And, yeah, no, I was not a fan of those cars on your. And you're splitting your schedule between the two, and you. You jump in to the stock car out of the Indy car, you're just kind of like, man, this thing is atrocious.
- [69:24]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [69:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Now, I can understand that.
- [69:26]
Santino Ferrucci
Running it on the mile, because I did mostly mile and a half tracks. Vegas, old Atlanta, Homestead. Just being able to, like, drive the car in and feel it sit and have it move around. I. I don't think I've ever had more fun racing people. One of the best races I had was with allgaier at Vegas.
- [69:46]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [69:47]
Santino Ferrucci
I can't tell you how hard I was trying to, like. Because I'd known, you know, Justin forever from dirt world stuff and go karts, and I was trying so hard to, like, push the car to its limits, Pushed myself the amount of times that I probably hit the wall racing, like, just trying to race him at the end, just making little mistakes. I had so much fun. And it was also. It was really cool because I was racing against your team.
- [70:24]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [70:25]
Santino Ferrucci
And it was. You know, I think he was having a rough day, and our car was. Our car was really good for whatever reason, and I was super comfortable. And, you know, races like that, I had a blast. Same. Same with Pocono, man. I love Pocono.
- [70:40]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [70:40]
Santino Ferrucci
I'm so mad. IndyCar doesn't race there. You know, I had a really good experience with Sam there, and then I wrecked. Then I had the last one. I wrecked. I didn't realize that you could pull a car around on the outside.
- [70:54]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [70:56]
Santino Ferrucci
Dude, that was the most scared, I think I'd ever been in a. In a. In a race car.
- [71:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What happened?
- [71:02]
Santino Ferrucci
I was running in the. I was just kind of running. It was stage one, and I was just hanging out, like, casually driving. And I just remember Chris coming on the radio. He says, well, you gonna step on it or what? Because you could see I'm just like Sunday cruising. So I start stepping on, and I start coming through the field. We get going to stage two, and we're running all side by side, really tight. And I got tight in three underneath the Custer. And in an IndyCar, when you get tight, you kind of blip the throttle. And when I did that in the stock car, I got really tight. And then he got momentum and came around the top me, and it just pulled the rear end around, right.
- [71:50]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [71:50]
Santino Ferrucci
And I was running like, 12th and the pack, we just restarted. So I was like, in the mid front of this pack, and I was like, oh. Like, how do I spin in? Because, like, the IndyCar gets sideways. If you floor it, you can spin down the track. And I got sideways and I floored it. And I was like, come on, spin down. Spin. And I spun up and just created a smoke cloud. And there's like, there's like six of us in field medical care. And I was like, I am so sorry to everybody in here. I was like, that was like I spun on my own. I was like, is everybody okay? Like, there's a car upside down across the line and.
- [72:30]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, my gosh.
- [72:31]
Santino Ferrucci
I was so freaked out. I had such a grip on the wheel. I was wearing white gloves, and I'm still getting hit. Chris goes, let go of the damn wheel already. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that was. There was some learning to do, but I. I would get back in one in a. In a heartbeat to. To run any one of those. Those speed, those types of speedway tracks, those mile and a half tracks. So awesome.
- [73:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Moving. Moving forward. You know, where do you feel like your career's at? What do you think is the. What's. What do you think you're hopeful for in the next five years or so?
- [73:14]
Santino Ferrucci
Oh, man, five years is a long ways out for. For me, I think in my career, I want to stay at AJ Foyt. I really love Larry, and I love driving for A.J. and I, you know, I've seen. I've came into this team in 2023. It's very fortunate because like you said, I've been part time. I just been running Indy and a couple other races, filling in for injured drivers. It's not a fun time in your career when you're doing that because you don't know if you're ever gonna be back into making it full time or you're just gonna do that part time, you know, driver, and you've seen drivers come back and make it full time. I look at, in recent years, Almendinger. Yeah, he's running full time, Xfinity, a couple cup races, and now back in Cup. And she's a really talented dude, in my opinion. And, you know, I was just, I think, driving for AJ Seeing this team pull from out of the leadership circle, where it was 23rd, 24th in points first year, that was the goal then. And also nearly winning Indian the first year I was there was pretty awesome. And finishing third and then seeing it progress into a top 10 of the championship last year. With, you know, a couple of top fives and a bunch of top tens. And then this year, being on the podium twice, I want to win my career, in my opinion, to be successful. If I win Indy in World the 14.
- [74:48]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [74:49]
Santino Ferrucci
Because I want to. I want to win. Everybody wants to win Indy. I really want to win Indy. But I feel like if you do it in a Ganassi or if you do it in a Penske, it's just a little bit less special than if you do it for A.J. foy.
- [75:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
A.J.
- [75:06]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [75:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No, that would be pretty insane.
- [75:10]
Santino Ferrucci
And we're a small team.
- [75:13]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's got to be. That's talking about being on the grid and looking over and seeing Scott Dixon. It's got. I had the chance. I come by and said hey to you in your garage for the 501 year a couple years ago. And AJ being in there and around all of that just has to be. Having had that experience as knowing that you appreciate, you know, the. The characters like aj it's got to be pretty crazy. I don't know what kind of pressure that's like, though, driving for AJ Especially.
- [75:44]
Santino Ferrucci
At Indy, man, I. I will tell you, he. My qualifying performance hasn't been great, and, you know, it's something I've struggled with, and I know I'm not the best qualifier, but I know I'm a damn good racer, and doesn't matter where I start for a lot of these things. And I think, you know, AJ Would come up to me or call me after a qualifying and be like, you know, Sunday's what pays, so get out there and do your job.
- [76:15]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [76:16]
Santino Ferrucci
And, man, after the 23, 500, dude, I was, like, heartbroken that we finished third. Like, I was. Oh, yes, it was. I was. I was like. I don't even know. Like, I'm happy, but I'm, like, so mad because I was close. Yeah, I was hard to beat in that whole race. I knew it, too. It's like, okay, how do I get around the 10? How do I get around the 21? And then how do I get around the 5? And once they all wrecked, I was like, you know, coming to the end, I was like, it's. It's me. Like, there's no. I was like, there's nobody else. I was like, this is great. Just keep my cool. And. Yeah, I talked to AJ after the race, and he looked at me and he goes, man, keep your head up. There's so many of these races that I should have won that I didn't win. And so Many of them. There's a few that I won that I shouldn't have won. I was like, well, that's some pretty damn sound advice. So, no, no complaints. But now it's just being in the garage with him. I mean, you get to see he's. He's such a legend. I mean, it's just one of the few people that lived through the most dangerous era of open wheel racing. Not without, you know, a couple of massive crashes.
- [77:33]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Sure.
- [77:33]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [77:34]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He's had his share.
- [77:35]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah. And the stories, like, just being down the first two years the team was in Houston, I'd spend a lot of time down at the shop. You know, I drive down from Dallas and, like, go to lunch with them and hang out, and he's. He's in the shop. He loves seeing cars being built. He loves hanging out there. He's. Larry made me drive home with him from lunch one day. Just be like, go. Make sure he can drive home. Okay. I was like, what do you. What do you mean? I was like, he's like, He's 91. I was just like. I was like, I'm not gonna be the one to tell him you're taking his driver's license away.
- [78:11]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [78:12]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was like, that's funny.
- [78:13]
Santino Ferrucci
I was like, you're gonna need to go de arm him first. This is not gonna be pretty. So.
- [78:20]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But he's.
- [78:21]
Santino Ferrucci
He's been really healthy this last year. You know, come May, he's looking good. I actually think he's coming to Milwaukee, which would be the. One of the first races he's done that's not been indie since I've been with the team.
- [78:33]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [78:33]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's awesome.
- [78:34]
Santino Ferrucci
But do you. He's good.
- [78:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Do you have. Do you have, you know, any reaction or thoughts to Fox buying interest in the series?
- [78:47]
Santino Ferrucci
I think it's good. I mean, it's so. It's so unique, you know, to see a new broadcast partner come in and, you know, everyone's kind of been knocking them on, like, little things. And I think that in a few years, maybe two years, the broadcast will actually be really good and will be what it needs to be to portray the different personalities in IndyCar. Because I feel like we were all pretty muted before.
- [79:20]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [79:21]
Santino Ferrucci
And, you know, being able to, like, I got to be. And I got to be in the booth for the Indy next race.
- [79:27]
Connor Daly
Yes.
- [79:27]
Santino Ferrucci
And I get to go in again, and I love it. I have so much fun going up there to call races.
- [79:34]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It gets you a good perspective of the job that the broadcast team's trying to do. I wish I would. I wish I would have done that as a driver. I never really did that.
- [79:43]
Santino Ferrucci
Dude, you did a great job. I don't know who. Who you're talking about.
- [79:46]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, I know, but I'm saying is that when I was driving, I didn't go into the booth, and I wish I had because it gives you. You understand, oh, that's why they do it this way. Or, oh, that's why they made that decision. Or now I try. Now I understand who. What their job is and each person and how hard they work. Right.
- [80:06]
Connor Daly
The.
- [80:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The. I never really appreciated pit reporters and broadcasters and all the effort that it goes into it. Like, I should have. You know, it was all about me and, and being selfish.
- [80:19]
Santino Ferrucci
It's a lot. I was surprised also. Like, I got to be in the flow racing booth for the dirt races.
- [80:25]
Connor Daly
Yep.
- [80:26]
Santino Ferrucci
And, man, you gotta, like, be up on it too, because the heat races so fast as a chili bowl. And no, I think Fox is gonna do a great job. But I mean, dude, honestly. And one of the big. One of the biggest moments in 19 was you broadcasting Indy. I mean, and I had that moment through the grass and you were talking about it. I was like, I said I had to watch it. I still watch it back every so often because I was like, hey, this was me. This is Dale talking about me.
- [80:55]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, man, you did a hell of a job. Good wreck avoidance. Every. So when we started that broadcast, they were like, who are you watching? And I was like, I'm curious about this Santino Ferrucci guy. I'm curious about him. I've heard some stories. Maybe, you know, got. Maybe made some mistakes. But he's, you know, I'm into the underdog and he's a rookie, and let's see what happens. Being the rookie of the race, a big deal. And. And so you made me look smart. You're out there, you know, dodging those wrecks and staying in the top 10 and making some great passes and being aggressive. And I'm like, maybe I kind of know. Know what the hell I'm talking about here. But we both, we both benefited from. From that experience.
- [81:41]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah. You without a doubt, single handedly helped rebuild part of my reputation that I feel like would have taken a lot longer. Well, I'm very thankful for that. So that's what I did. Like, also like you. I believe you text me over the holidays.
- [81:58]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [81:59]
Santino Ferrucci
And I was just like, I. I freaked out. My wife will tell you, like, like, I freaked out. You're never gonna believe this.
- [82:06]
Connor Daly
Yeah.
- [82:07]
Santino Ferrucci
Texted me.
- [82:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [82:08]
Santino Ferrucci
She's like, what? I was like, yeah, she's like that. She's like, they like Dale and her. I was like, yeah, like that deal and made my whole holiday weekend because I would not. I would not shut up about it.
- [82:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, hey, we're pals. I'm. I'm a big fan of yours. I've enjoyed watching you, you know, sort of create this opportunity for yourself in any car and what you've done with. With Foyt racing. And. Yeah, I mean, it's. I like having somebody to pull for, somebody to cheer for, and I like to know that person. Right. And it's been. Opportunity just been cool to be able to interact with you and run into you from time to time. And so I've. I've enjoyed it, man. And I hope that you, you know, I hope that you achieve all the things you want to achieve. I hope that you, you know, continue to find success growing this team and improving this team. You got to take a lot of pride in that.
- [83:03]
Connor Daly
I've.
- [83:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I've been through that experience myself, taking a team from, you know. All right, let's go run in the top 15. That's our goal. All right, we're doing that. Let's go change our goals to top tens, top fives, you know, and it' process and to see it play out and is really rewarding. And so I like that you want to stick around and continue that.
- [83:23]
Connor Daly
That.
- [83:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That, you know, that growth. And so I'm wishing the best for you, man, going forward. I've enjoyed this conversation. Can't wait to run into you somewhere. Let's go have dinner with Connor and give him a hard time and. Yeah, buddy, appreciate you giving me some time today.
- [83:45]
Santino Ferrucci
Yeah, no, thank you. And like I said, it's very thankful for a lot of things in my career, especially my boss, Larry. So I'm excited. I'm really excited to see where he's taking this team. Dude. He's made some tough decisions in the last three years, so moved it from Houston. All new crew, had different sets of engineers all three years. So I think once we start getting into the continuity of same people, it's gonna be. I think it's gonna be impressive, and I think we can win some races here. And, you know, that's what I feel like would be a really successful career for me, is to be doing this here.
- [84:18]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, well, I like that, man, and I appreciate your. Your passion and. And devotion to it. Larry is a good guy. I got to know him a little bit through racing stock cars when he came down to do that for a while. And super, super nice guy, really humble and glad to see he's found something to, you know, to carry on that foight name and to have that commitment that he's had. It takes some guts and it's good to see him succeeding. So wishing you both the best, man. Thanks a lot.
- [84:51]
Santino Ferrucci
Thank you.
- [84:52]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right, we'll see you Santino Ferrucci on the Dale Jr. Download. Hey everybody, it's Babs.
- [85:08]
Babs
I am so excited to tell you.
- [85:10]
Santino Ferrucci
About Birch Lane, a brand that shares.
- [85:12]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
My passion for classic style and joyful living.
- [85:16]
Santino Ferrucci
Their classic furniture and decor helps you celebrate it all.
- [85:19]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
From big holiday gatherings to everyday moments at home, each piece is carefully crafted and delivered fast and free so you.
- [85:26]
Santino Ferrucci
Can celebrate what matters most. Shop my handpicked Birch Lane collection and.
- [85:31]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
More classic styles@birchlang.com.
- [85:35]
Babs
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- [86:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So that's a great conversation with Santino and yeah, you know, I think there's a little bit more that we could have dove into to spell out the idea that, look, he's made some mistakes and been a goofball in the past, but I do feel like that, you know, he truly has matured. He's trying to establish himself as a racer and trying to find his way to victory lane. I think he's got real good raw talent and, and I like the edge and the, in the risk taking in the, in his, you know, his, his wanting to, you know, take a car and get even more out of it. Saw that in the Xfinity series when he came and drove. You can just see when you're watching somebody race whether you like or dislike their, their approach and the choices they make. And so yeah, been kind of fun getting to know him. And yeah, you never know where you might run into him, but a lot of fun to talk to him and I'm hoping that everybody else enjoyed the conversation. IndyCar is an incredible series with a lot of layers and a lot of personality and he's one of those guys that's, you know, kind of in the mix. And I think if we, you know, if you're not IndyCar fan, I'm kind of a casual fan up until the last probably seven years. Once you find that, you know, driver or two or three that you get to know and really appreciate, maybe you get the chance to meet them, you start to really go, all right, man, I'm going to watch and follow this career and hope to see them have success. And that's kind of what's happened with me and Santino and, and and several other drivers in the series as well now that I've, I've had a chance to really get to know the series better over the last several years. So I enjoyed the conversation and yeah, hope y' all did too. All right, so the white flag is out on this episode of the Dale Jr. Download. And just to tell you about all the great things that we have going on around here at Dirty Mo Media, the teardown was live on YouTube and Twitter as it is after every race this year with Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck. And on Monday, action is detrimental. Denny Hamlin let loose about the current state of cup racing and had a lot of great, passionate, opinionated things to say about his experience in Iowa. And Door Bumper Clear also dropped on Monday as well. Me and TJ did our Dirty Air episode of the Dale junior Download yesterday and tomorrow will be another episode of Bless yous Heart coming out today. Connor Daly, Speed street, and also Herman Schrader. I hope you guys had a great week. We'll see you tomorrow for Bless your heart and take care. Check out Dirtymo Media on Instagram, Facebook X and TikTok.
- [89:18]
Babs
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