Story By: ANNE FORNORO / AJ FOYT RACING – MADISON, IL – “That was fun!” Sting Ray Robb radioed to his crew on the cool down lap of the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Robb led eight laps and went on to post his career-best finish of ninth in the No. 41 Goodheart Chevrolet Saturday night after starting 24th.
With several different fuel strategies at work during the 260-lap race, Robb ran in the top 10 throughout the race, posting his fastest on lap 125 while running second. On lap 171, he claimed the lead when pole winner Scott McLaughlin pitted. Robb relinquished it when he pitted on lap 179. His savvy driving saw him avoid a few close calls on track as it appeared the full moon created some lunacy with daring moves resulting in contact and a few crashed cars.
With just 10 laps remaining, four cars collided in a chain reaction accident on the restart sending one airborne briefly. The carnage brought out the red flag but no one was injured. When the race restarted Robb held his own to claim his first top-10 finish.
“I think next to the Indy 500, this was the highlight of the year–P9!” said the 22-year-old.
“By the end, I thought we were gonna be a little bit higher than that, but we were struggling on restarts just a little bit compared to the guys around us. I don’t know what the deal was there, but the car was great in the long run. I mean, we made up a lot of spots on the overcut, and the balance got better and better all the way through the night. So I’m really, really happy with that. It was a lot of fun, and we had a great group here. I think that we had over 50 people that came out to watch this weekend so, great support. It’s fun to put on a show for them, driving from the back of the pack to the front, and leading some laps, is always a highlight.”
Santino Ferrucci, who started 17th in the Bommarito Chevrolet, was headed for a top-five finish but a pitlane speeding violation on lap 150 resulted in a drive-through penalty dropping him from 12th to 18th and he lost two laps after serving the penalty under green. The team is checking the data to find out exactly what happened. However, Ferrucci buckled down and clawed his way back to 12th.
“I think it was a solid recovery day,” Ferrucci said after climbing from the Bommarito Chevrolet. “It’s a bummer to throw away a top-five due to a technical issue, but hey, that’s racing. I’ve thrown away mine already once before this year with the team so, you know, can’t always be perfect every day we show up at the track. But the good thing is, we found a race car that was balanced incredibly well, and really looking forward to the rest of these ovals.”
The race was slowed by five cautions prior to the red flag coming out on lap 250. The accident set up a 10-lap sprint among the five cars on the lead lap. Race leader Josef Newgarden got the jump on teammate Scott McLaughlin and stretched out his lead to win. Following the Team Penske duo were rookie Linus Lundqvist, Colton Herta and Alex Palou.
The teams head to the West Coast for the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland which will be broadcast by the USA Network Sunday, August 25 starting at 3 p.m. ET.