Alright guys, welcome to, uh, Tuesday Show Off track with Hinch or Rossi.
Obviously you got me this week.
And, um, this week's guest, very special.
We're excited here. And I'm gonna give you a hint in case
you're just listening and not watching on YouTube, because if you're watching on YouTube, you can see his, his beautiful face.
But if, uh, you're just listening, I'm gonna give you a hint here.
Okay, but what kind of beer is that?
Because he chugg more light. Look, I couldn't find a
Light, I couldn't find a Miller Light .
Of course you put it together.
Now we're talking to Santino Ucci. First of all, hello.
Welcome. Thanks for coming on.
Oh, thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it.
Um, I'm just, I'm gonna ask the question right off the, so like, normally a good interviewer would like delay the hot topic until the end of the interview to keep people engaged the whole time.
I'm going right for the throat here.
Do you have a Miller Light sponsorship from mid Ohio?
I do not. I wish, ah,
Miller Light currently sponsors Penske and obviously the Speedway.
So, uh, slight conflict interest.
Well, I mean, AJ Foy Racing has a technical partnership with, uh, Penske.
So why can't we have like a low key commercial partnership one off, just a one off.
I'm not saying a full wrap, you know, like maybe Aol.
Stick on the lids. Molson for Canada.
your home race. There you go.
I like that. I think we could maybe
try to work on something there.
Um, that'd be fun. Um, that would be fun. Okay.
We'll work on getting Molson or some kind of brand because look after Connor got, depends on his car.
After he peed himself.
I, I just figured this was gonna be, the new trend was every driver that did something noteworthy in a race, we're gonna turn it into some sort of sponsorship the next day.
Man. That'd be awesome. James,
did you ever get Shishkabobs?
You know what? No, I, I was a missed opportunity.
I should have gotten my own, my own brand of like, like kebab spits, you know, that, that just are modeled after Dara AARs. Um,
That's amazing. .
So, dude, how good was that beer?
That was, honestly, I'm not a big beer person.
That was definitely the best tasting beer I've ever had. I mean, how hot
Was it?
Huh? How hot was it in the car?
Oh, dude. I mean, I don't run a cool suit either, so like,
I got out and I was kind of like really thirsty and then the water in the car was boiling hot.
Yeah. So, I mean, the fans did try to throw me a water.
It was like one of the big jugs and I didn't think I was catching that regardless .
But, uh, yeah, so when they threw the beer, that definitely was, that was more refreshing.
Well, because didn't, didn't the water like explode when it hit the ground?
It did, did so There's nothing left.
It was like a, almost like the, it was like the half gallon, like the really massive one .
So it was like, there's no way I can, I can catch this without hurting myself.
So I tried to like lower it in with my foot. Yeah.
And exploded. I got like two sips of water,
but I could not drop the beer. I had to catch the
beer. .
Well it was, uh, that was the sports center worthy moment, man.
That was, uh, that was cool.
You were walking in the beach, you were on the sand, cracking a beer.
It was so appropriate, especially in Wisconsin. Yeah,
I loved it. That was a great time,
Dude.
Like great race and great run of races.
I mean, we'll, we'll go back to the other ones, but just, I mean, walk me through your race at, uh, at Road America.
Because from where I was sitting, that was a, that was a gnarly race.
It was exciting as hell.
That was one of those weird ones to where, you know, we knew we had a really good race car.
We were really quick and warm up.
Everything was going right.
We just kind of missed something in the car for qualifying, which is fine.
But we knew we'd come through the field and finish in the top 10.
So like, I was pretty passive on the start and just trying not to, like, there was a lot of people banging into each other and I was just trying to avoid it, keep the car in one piece.
And once we settled in, I figured it'd start passing, uh, the way that strategy worked out, you know, we had to make a massive fuel number.
So me and Scott ended up, or McLaughlin ended up coming out of the pits together on the final stint.
And uh, you know, our car was just a rocket ship.
So I was able to make this massive fuel number save and not lose pace to the guys in front or get passed from behind.
So it was, it was a long day.
I, it's not physically challenging as, you know, when you're saving fuel, but mentally it's a nightmare.
'cause you have to be so perfect on every lift, every break zone.
Like everything, there's, there is no, no margin for error.
And especially at Road America too, because the straits are so long and they all lead to good passing opportunities.
So like knowing, like staying on in a little bit too long, it just, over the course of a lap, like it's gonna drain that fuel, it's gonna ruin that number.
But then lifting too early.
You're so exposed to the gut cars behind.
Yeah, so you're right. I
mean, mentally it's so tough, right?
I mean, I was probably lifting at like, oh, most of our brake references were around the 300 foot mark.
I was probably lifting at about the 8, 7 50.
What? Yeah. And then like
That's how big a number you were trying to make.
Yeah. And then turn one I was lifting right about just
after pit out actually probably a bit before.
Oh my God. dude, that's,
It was gross.
It was gross. It was actually disgusting. That fuel
Number That's so hard.
That's so hard as a driver.
So for somebody who's uh, who doesn't understand as many, uh, racing terms or terminology, what, what does that, how, how would you explain that to the layman?
I mean, if you're normally trying to save fuel, you're probably only lifting about, if you're breaking full bore at 300 foot, you're probably only lifting for 150 feet.
And like your brake reference is only moves about 50 feet later and you're, you're trying to save like 0.1,
0.2 tenths of a gallon a lap.
So it's not much.
But that can normally extend your stint a lap around a track like Road America.
We need to extend our stint to laps, which I mean we sat in our pre-race meeting and It's the longest lap.
Yeah. And drive in for Chevrolet.
Obviously we're not as fuel fishing as Honda.
Um, but you know, to be honest, we, we saw that fuel number, uh, before we went into the race and we went, okay, what's not doable?
And we went, that number is not possible.
So we're like, the the max we can do is a 15 laps stint.
So the fact that we came outta the pits and it's like, well if you don't make the number, it's gonna be this, but if you do make the number, there's a chance you finish like fifth.
Yeah. So yeah,
I didn't have a, didn't have a choice in there.
That's good motivation, but yeah. Yes, it was.
So like, to kind of put it into perspective, like you were saying Tim, so if you're normally breaking it to three right?
You're, you're now lifting like more than twice the distance from that break on point to the apex and coasting.
And then again, as you kind of mentioned, you break later when you're coasting in.
'cause obviously your top speed's not quite as high. Yeah.
So the earlier you lift, the later you actually break, but you're just doing it from slower.
So finding that right balance is so tough and a lot of tracks have like one or two good zones.
You can do it. But in Road America you can do it into one,
you can do it into three a little, you can do it into five a ton.
You can do it into eight, you can do it into 12.
Like there's so many spots to do it. Yeah.
Getting them all right's just so tough Man.
I mean, you know that track. Well, I mean, going into
to one, I was lifting at the expel board, the last expel board, which was pit out and my break reference was almost at the a hundred foot marker.
Right. So I was just going down
like through the gear slowly.
I was lifting down the hill into two for 150 feet. Right.
I was lifting before the boards even started.
And we crested down the hill into three or into four or well, five.
What is five I guess. Yeah.
There's a lot of corners that don't exist.
I was lifting up the hill into six so I didn't have to break lifting down the hill as long as I could into eight.
And then I was lifting halfway through the kink into 12 into Canada.
Yeah. It was pretty <crosstalk> and
I cannot believe you made that work.
That is a, that is an obnoxious amount of lifting.
Yeah, I mean I, we, the car was so good, so obviously lifting that early, my brake references moved about 130 feet.
Like Right. It was wild to get used to. Yeah. Yeah.
But then again, you, yeah, you can do that.
You can lift early, you can break late.
But I mean, if the car balance isn't there to just kind of help you keep the minimum speeds up and roll, like the amount of lap time you bleed is so much more so clearly the wagon was good.
Oh dude, the car was insane. I I it rotated so well.
I mean you can tell that other people were really tight and we just had so much front rotation and the rear was super on top of the track.
That, to be honest with you, making the fuel number just kind of sliding the car through the corner was really helpful. .
Yeah. Yeah. Though it didn't kill the tires. That's,
That was, that's always the Dixon magic, right?
Is he can run the thing free enough and he can do that and make that crazy fuel number.
Yeah. But dude, I mean that's, that's the latest
and a run of some really, really strong results for you and the team.
I mean obviously Detroit was, was awesome to watch.
Like fine, you, you, you, you pit before that yellow, so you cycled up front, but then you also like passed willpower on track, so it's not like the pace wasn't there.
Right. And then you go to Gateway
and Man Gateway looked like so much fun.
How much fun did you have there?
Dude, gateway was a wild race too.
I mean, it was so hard to get to the front, but once you got to the front, like you could run hard and run fast.
The amount of passing the two lanes, I mean honestly Rasmussen did a great job.
He had a rocket chip of a car.
I mean normally I'm the one that's up top quite a bit.
And they said he was coming and I was just like, yeah, no hard pass .
Yeah. I was like, he, he can,
he can have all that if he wants.
I'm good . So, you know, to, to be in the top five,
the last four events, I mean it was on all different disciplines too.
You went from the super speedway to the short oval to the street course to the biggest road course.
Like it was, it was pretty cool.
So just, I think it shows how well-rounded this team's becoming and you know, my driving style's really getting into a good, a good groove here.
So pretty, pretty thrilled.
So you've, like you say you've had this, this great run, um, and again you say even going back to India, you know, another, another top 10 in Indy, we'll come back to that.
But you know, you guys, excuse me, you guys finished last year super strong as a team, right?
You were knocking off great results, got yourself from the top 10 points.
It was a big story coming through the off season.
Lucas comes on board, you know, a nice step for the team, bringing in a, a nice fast driver for, for you as a teammate.
And I think a lot of people expected, like right off the bat that the team was gonna pick up where you guys left off.
And you know, especially with David pushing you, you pushing David, the whole thing was just gonna kinda keep moving.
But it seems like the first four or five races were maybe a little bit more of a struggle you get to India where everybody expected you guys to be quick and you were, and you both delivered.
But from there on the pace has been there from both of you consistently.
So the question kind of is is like, I don't wanna say what happened those first couple races as much as like, what, what was the shift that's now put you guys up in this sort of next realm of, of competitiveness?
Dude, to be honest with you, it's amazing how far a little bit of luck goes.
Yeah. I mean at for example,
like we were pretty average at St.
Pete, we finished what, 11th, 10th and 11th.
Um, we were pretty average at thermal two.
But Barber we were gonna run sixth Fuel prob got had an issue and we short field, we had to make an extra stop.
Long Beach, we were bad fast again, I hit the wall and qualifying.
So when you start from 27th, dude for a green flag race, start to finish Long Beach, if you would've given me a million bucks, I would've never bet on my life that that race would've been green start to finish. Yeah,
For sure.
dude, we came through, passed a bunch of people and strategy and everything and finished 11th, which was awesome.
And then ND gt, we, yeah, qualified well, but we, we did a clutch.
We didn't practice much in FP one or at all in FP two.
We just went straight out to qualifying qualified well and then had a motor let go right in warm up.
So we didn't even get a chance to run a race car.
We barely made the grid, no setup for the race.
So like, just kind of been unlucky.
And then, you know, we had a really rough month and then we kind of turned it around right for qualifying.
And from there on out it's been just, everything's kind of just clicked.
So we've, you know, we switched engineers again.
So my race engineer, uh, has changed from Detroit, uh, onwards.
So I now have Adam Ssar and Mike Arm Brester is now a technical director for us.
And um, so it's been a very interesting five weeks with all changes and then, you know, the results.
So it's been really cool.
What what has it been like working with David and kind of having him join the squad?
I mean we, we talked to him a few weeks ago and kind of got his take on it, but I'd love to hear, you know, how it's been for you to have him kind of join, join the squad and, and what he's brought to the program.
Yeah, obviously like he's very different from past teammates that I've worked with.
I mean, everybody's very different.
I'm sure that people say the same thing about me.
like , um, it's, he's very quick.
He's got insane one lap pace and that's something that I really needed to build off of.
So learning from him, you know, what he can do in qualifying and you know, how he goes about it and what he can get outta the car as a maximum has been a really good step.
So it's pushed me to do better in quals.
Uh, as you can tell, I've clearly not done better in quals, .
My, my, my average positions gained in the last four races is 15 .
So Not great.
Um, but I am patting my passing stats at the moment.
So yeah, no doubt for that end of the year, uh, tag Hoyer award.
Right, right. But, uh, no, it's, it's gonna come,
it's gonna click, you know, and I think for him, he's learning a lot of my racecraft and he watches all my races to understand the way that I'm thinking to move forward.
'cause I think that's something that he said he struggled with a little bit more.
But also just to have like two competitive drivers, you know, in the field for the team, for the morale, for engineering, um, you know, to be fighting with Penske to also be pushing their guys was just, you know, it's a lot of fun.
Honestly. I think we're having a ton of fun where we are.
'cause it's not stressful. I mean there's really no, um, uh,
there's, there's no expectations for our team.
So my goal is just to beat everybody else, you know, to have fun doing it.
So, I mean, you, you and David obviously have pretty different personalities and different, like front facing, uh, like to to the fans.
You guys are are different guys. Do, do you get along?
Do you guys hang out or is it just business when you guys are working together?
No, we get along. He's funny as hell man.
I mean, 'cause he's so, like today's generation of, uh, yeah, yeah.
he is, he is very Gen Z. Yeah. Aggressively
Gen z, very aggressively Gen Z.
And I'm over here hands absolutely dirty working on a road car.
Like if yeah, very old school can barely, I had to figure out how to download this app to join you guys today. .
Yes. So I love that
Though.
Completely different, uh, personalities.
But we have a very good time of the track, you know, relaying and talking about the car.
We drive completely different cars, which is quite interesting to me.
So, um, but we do have our own set of references, which is good. That's,
That's tough though when you've got, especially on a two car team, when, when the drivers kind of have different styles to the point where similar setups don't really work.
So I mean, how do you guys navigate that and how much, I guess it kind of, it kind of segues into the next thing I wanted to ask you about, which is this, this Penske technical partnership.
I know you and I have talked about this kind of offline, but when you, when you have a teammate right next to you who doesn't necessarily like the same car as you are, do you find yourself kind of more, uh, you know, closely relating to one of the three Penske guys and then just in general, what's that?
What's that engineering relationship really like? How does it really work?
Yeah, I mean with David, we drive very different cars on the road and street courses When it comes to the ovals, we're actually more similar to each other than not.
I think just the way that we like to have the big arc, good old poncho, we can, we can take our hats to poncho on that one.
We got taught by the same person.
So, um, which is helpful there.
'cause the ovals are very competitive as you know.
But when it comes to the data analysis and stuff like, you know, we don't talk with the other drivers unless we have a personal relationship.
Um, also with everything that's happened, you know, we don't really have, uh, we just, it the communication is not nearly kind of what it was or what it they're going through some changes.
Yeah. Well obviously with the departure, you know, three
of their top guys, you know, we, we were, you know, it's kind of changed the communication just a little bit until I think they get fully reorganized.
But we look at all their data and their setups, um, and go from there.
So, and they do the same for us.
But, uh, I mean, other than sys, uh, other than, uh, dampers, uh, and setups, that's all we get.
So like, our thirds are up for interpretation, our bars, all that stuff.
Um, we can get some of their, their components, but it's not like the alliance, like I think you see with Shank and Gia Shank and Andretti was, it's, we're not in the debriefs together.
We're not, you know, we're not a big five car team.
You know, we're still, we still have our independency, which I think is really helpful for me and for our team.
But, um, no, I, I mean I'm pretty similar.
I'm always between Will and Scott for Okay.
My driving style. Um, so I tend
to favor looking at their data more so, and their driving style more so than I, every time I look at Joseph, I just look at it and go, what in the world is going on?
ing his driving, his driving style is, uh, so unique. Yeah.
And yeah, I was just like, yeah, I cannot do that.
I don't know how he . Sometimes Scott's like that too.
Like I've watched some of Scott's stuff.
I've been like, uh, that, that's doesn't make any sense. .
Right? . So, okay. So that's it. So that's interesting.
So the, the, not in a bad way, but just, it's almost like it's more of a, a transactional engineering partnership than like a collaborative engineering partnership because you guys aren't sitting there and like divvying up damper responsibilities in a practice session and then all getting together and being like, alright, what'd you like, what'd you not like?
It's just you run your stuff, send them the run notes, they run their stuff, send you the run notes and that's kind of it.
If we wanna change for the dampers, we can ask.
And they're very, very helpful with that stuff.
So for me, like I really like a big front mm-hmm .
So more times than not I'm on a, you know, damper that's got a little bit more front in it and, you know, there's trade offs to that.
So they're, they're very open to helping us as well in that regard.
'cause they never know where its direction's gonna work really well.
So like any race team, you find something that works at a specific track that you're a sudden really quick, everybody else is gonna wanna try it.
Right, right. So,
So you know, at this point we're nine races into the season, we're past halfway, you're back in the top 10 in points.
What are the races that you're looking forward to coming up and, you know, based on the late season charge that you had last year, are you like pretty stoked and confident about staying in the top 10 in points?
Dude, I'm, I'm just like, we're halfway through the season and my head, I'm like, we got four ovals left.
Like, perfect. Let me put those aside.
Right. So, you know, I've put, you know, the Milwaukee,
Iowa Nashville races kind of to the side for, for right now.
I'm very confident in those events.
Um, my primary focus has actually been a lot on mid Ohio.
'cause I feel like that's gonna be my weakest track in the next span of Road and Street.
So I've been really focused on, you know, nailing a car set up there.
Um, Toronto I feel really good about.
And then obviously Portland and Laguna.
I really can't wait to get back to either or. You've shown
Some pace there. .
Yeah, dude. Laguna.
So Portland, yeah, Portland's just like, that track's so natural to me.
It's, it's very similar to the track that I grew up on co go-karts with.
So to me that track is like, I could drive it blindfolded, backwards, like in love with that track.
And that's how I kind of felt about Road America too.
And Laguna, we were gonna end up with a top five last year, but I got a blocking penalty, so we ended up ninth, which was rough.
So I feel really good about going back there.
I think it's also a good track for me.
But, uh, dude, it's, it's gonna be exciting.
I, I can't wait to see how this plays out.
I feel good about the championship.
Um, I would love to beat, uh, all the penskes in the championship. .
Technically I would've been ahead of all of them if you gimme my 26 points back.
But that is, that is part of racing.
You, me, you, you mentioned, uh, you know, your hands are dirty and, uh, you're, you're not really the Gen Z guy.
Where are you and what are you working on?
Like show us, show us the goods, man.
All right, let's flip the camera here.
Lemme figure out how to do that.
Do I just double tap it or do I click it? Nope, I turned it off.
Oh God, you are so, so old. Tell me, tell
Me, flip the camera.
You're like, you're like 10 years younger than me.
Even. I can figure that out.
I'm gonna turn the phone around since I can't, I literally can't figure out how to do this .
It's so sad. You
Can rebuild your engine, but you can't figure out how to flip the, flip the camera.
So sad. Flip the camera. There's, there's a Gen Z,
so I'm currently putting on valve covers, so I'm just working on the passenger side.
I had a, um, this, I've had this car forever, but you know, I love working on it.
It's got an electrical gremlin, so there's all the valves and rockers.
So I was just going through, checking all of that, making sure everything works.
I'm actually in my friend's shop, so I'll show you the, the shop is amazing.
So they have almost every year Corvette in here.
Damn. Yeah. Oh my
God.
So it's it's four rows. Yeah.
A bunch of classes. And where, where
Is this shop and when is it unlocked? .
It's in Fort Worth and it is, it is unlocked.
Uh, if you come with me. So they have like,
And where exactly do they keep all the keys?
Yeah. Oh, don't worry. Oh man.
They don't tell me the safe combination.
But yeah, this place is, this place is uh, that's One of my favorites there.
Yeah, so I've been, I spent a lot of my off season at this shop, uh, actually working on a C five.
I pulled a transmission, clutch, flywheel, whole rear end assembly.
And um, basically by the time we got everything back, I didn't get to put it back together.
I was pretty bummed about that.
But, um, I did a lot of the body work, so I spent my off season working on cars.
So. Love it.
It's, yeah, this is, I'll show you the car 'cause it's in the mechanic shop.
So this is the car that I spent my off season really working on.
So this thing's kind of sick.
Is this yours? No, this is my buddy's, uh, okay. Jr's.
Yeah. So, you know, full race car, full cage,
but um, it's a pretty mean looking car for C five.
Not bad man. Not bad at all.
Yeah, I wish I could flip the camera and actually show you what I'm doing , But Clearly can't do that.
But, uh, yeah, no, it's so, you know, it's, if it's not the go-kart track or here, you know, uh, it's the Ville race car track for, or the shop in Houston.
I, I don't know. I don't, I guess this is my social life
now, .
Hey man, it's, if it works, it works.
Yeah, I mean that's uh, not a bad way to spend your time in the off season.
No, there's an F 40 up in the front with a Porsche 9 5 9 too.
So there's some, there's some sick stuff here, man.
What's uh, what's, what's the dream car?
I mean, you're clearly a car guy, so, uh, you could, let's say even just in that shop, what's, if if there was one you could drive off with tomorrow In the shop, would it be drive off tomorrow?
Man, you so many. Okay.
There's a 1970s Chevelle race car that's kind of way down on the end.
That a Chevelle Race car.
Yeah, it's super sick.
I probably, I've driven that car too outta here. I mean, it's got a full, like
You are definitely an old school guy.
Yeah. . So that car is probably one of my favorites.
The F 40 is so sick.
And then, uh, yeah, you know, there's, there's just a bunch of other things in here that are really cool.
Honestly. The, uh, 67 67 vet
with the, is also one of my favorites.
That was actually my wedding.
That's a, my wedding card. That's
A gorgeous one. I like that one.
Oh, cool. Yeah, so we, my friend had an all black one
with a red stinger stripe and, um, he let me drive it around the week of my wedding and take photos.
Like with my wedding party.
It was sick because like, you know, we were all black tuxes and then the inside of my tux was red.
So it was really, really cool. Nice.
Nice. Yeah. Nice touch. Nice touch. Cool buddy.
Well look, we don't wanna take any more of your time.
I'll let you get back to work on your car, but, uh, thanks for coming on and honestly man, great run that you're on.
I know there's a lot of tracks coming up that you kind of vibe with pretty well, and there's, uh, a lot of, uh, a lot of high hopes that you can kind of keep the run going and move even further up the points.
That's the goal, man. Hopefully keep giving people, uh,
something to watch and something to talk about.
Amen brother. Amen. I mean, I didn't even get to,
there's like a stat that I love telling people that we didn't even get to.
We don't have time to, but , next time you're on, we will talk about the fact that you are the only driver in history to finish in the top 10 in seven of their, their, their first seven and all of their, you know, Indy 500 starts pretty frigging impressive.
Thank, but, uh, we literally don't have time to cover it, so, we'll, we're gonna leave on that little, uh, on that little Easter egg.
We'll have you back on. We'll talk, uh, we'll talk history,
we'll talk past and we'll talk any 500 stuff another time.
But in the meantime, uh, best of luck amid Ohio and for the rest of this season, man, this has been off track with Hinch and Rossi.
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About this episode
Santino Ferrucci dives into his recent strong performances across diverse tracks, highlighting the mental challenge of fuel-saving strategies at Road America and his evolving dynamic with teammate David Malukas. He shares insights on their Penske technical partnership, the engineering nuances, and how differing driving styles affect setup choices. Off the track, Santino reveals his passion for working on cars during the offseason, showcasing a Corvette project and his appreciation for classic race cars. The conversation blends racing tactics, team chemistry, and personal interests, offering a well-rounded look at Santino's racing life and mindset.
Santino Ferrucci comes on to talk about his impressive run so far in the 2025 season, plus chugging a beer, potential sponsors, fixing up old cars, and more.
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Off Track is part of the SiriusXM Sports Podcast Network. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, please give a 5-star rating and leave a review. Subscribe today wherever you stream your podcasts.