Saturday morning’s pillow fight began on pit road at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. The combatants in this mostly verbal exchange were AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci. (shown above) and the Andretti Global pairing of Kyle Kirkwood and Colton Herta.
The issue at hand was the trio’s attempt to find a clear position on the narrow 1.6-mile street course before the readings on their cars entered qualifying.
The opening salvo was produced by Kirkwood and Ferrucci heading into the left corner. With Kirkwood turning right for the turn, Ferrucci shot to the inside to pass Kirkwood and tried to get as far to the right of the corner as possible, but Kirkwood started to turn left and their cars made very light contact. . The exchange upset Kirkwood.
“Santino should be kicked out of the series,” the Honda team said on Radio 27.
Ferrucci and Hertha met in the same late-session window and the Foyt driver did his best to keep Hertha from catching up with the No. 26 Honda.
After the session, Kirkwood went to confront Ferrucci on pit road and was caught and pushed back by the Foyt driver before an IndyCar official separated and moved Ferrucci back to the pit wall.
“You turned on me, you f… ‘Don’t do it again,'” Ferrucci said on the broadcast.
Other than grabbing Kirkwood’s firefighter’s suit, the altercation did not escalate into anything resembling a serious physical confrontation. To that end, Kirkwood laughed as he returned to the pit box and continued the verbal pillow fight with the three participants in separate interviews.
“We are in action. I’m on the lap that makes us P3, right?” Ferrucci said. “I know everyone fights traffic. I’m going down the hill and who just turns into someone and slides the car into you? I mean, the guy is such a hybrid move. I grew up with karting, I’ve known him for a long time. I’ve always been better with racial arts, so I’ve never seen him do anything like that. But you saw it change yesterday for (Team Penske’s Joseph) Newgarden. It’s embarrassing. It is a narrow road. We are faster than this and it would be nice to get at least one lap.
Told by NBC that Kirkwood took the blame on him, the diminutive driver from Connecticut refused to back down and fired a gay shot at Hertha for good measure.
He said, “Well, if you look back and see him step on it and turn left, man, I don’t know what other evidence you need.” “He said it was the board camera, not us. And then his little boyfriend over there did the same thing. Leave it to them, man. We are doing our own thing here. You know it’s Detroit. I’m having a blast. All our employees were fired. We know we have a hot rod.
NBC announced Ferrucci’s condition and made his next visit to Kirkwood.
“Did he say I did that?” Kirkwood said he was placed as the guilty party in the contact. “Of course he says that. Everybody stops here, right? Everybody has to wait, find your gap, put in a clean lap. It’s practice, relax. That’s not what he did. He decided to do it to me; then he did it to Colton, they were going to crash. What I don’t know if it’s working.
“His thigh is already broken. He messed up his next lap as well. It’s just stupid. It is dangerous. He walked straight into me, deliberately trying to drive me into the wall. And then I went up and tried to talk to him about it. Then he grabbed me, shook me, ‘Why are you angry with me? It’s crazy. But with him we have seen it before.
Before the confab adjourned, Kirkwood shared what he intended to say to Ferrucci.
I was going to tell him, which is completely unnecessary, that everyone needs to get their gaps, just like everyone needs to get their gaps so you can test and scan your car. But if you’re purposely crashing into people, you can’t scan your car, so it’s just to see where his head is because he’s obviously not on a fast lap. It makes no sense to me.
The Floridian, who was the second-fastest driver in the session, had a surprise breakaway shot for 20th-placed Ferrucci after being asked if he would face a tougher race by the Foyt driver on Sunday.
“I think he’s going to be a little bit behind us based on that, so I’m not too worried,” Kirkwood said.
Hertha is swinging the last cushion and bringing the team Penske, which provides technical support to Foyt, into the chat.
“I don’t even know what I did,” he said. “I don’t know… that guy is a head case. But I’m happy with our program. I’m not sure what I did to chase him. He passed me before the alternate line. Like, we’re all waiting for our gap and he passes me, so I pass him back and screw up his lap.
“For the fifth consecutive weekend, he’s driving a Penske car to P20 again, so I’m happy with what we’re doing here. (Our) car is fast and we don’t have time behind him and his guys.”