I know Benjamin Pedersen is second-to-last in points of the full-time drivers as a rookie, but it seems that when the team itself has put together a good package he doesn’t drastically underperform the pace in at least qualifying and doesn’t seem to be as badly off the pace as Dalton Kellett was (goodbye my leftist king).
However, Santino Ferrucci has been a clear step up in consistent pace over the lead Foyt car for the last couple of seasons and is even knocking on the door to a top 15 spot.
I really doubted Larry Foyt’s leadership of the team because for a long time they really got worse each year until reaching their nadir last year, but they really seem to be willing to put in the effort and a bit more money into the program to turn things around, and putting two cars in the top 12 on a road course is a huge step forward I think. What do you think, are they turning the page?
Every year there’s a smaller team that suddenly starts doing well, and it’s Foyt this year (and I’m 100% fine with that). What feels different about this is the narrative around it. Usually there are a lot of glittering generalities about the ‘team pulling together’ and ‘everyone working hard, both of which are true (but makes one ask ‘then what were you doing before?’).
The story for Foyt seems to be they started spending money two years ago targeting this year. And they’re pretty open about it. That feels different. I’m hopeful.