Santino Ferrucci Loses It at IndyCar Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix

It's a good bet that NTT IndyCar Series driver Santino Ferrucci is not in line for any Mr. Congeniality Award at this weekend's Chevrolet Detroit Prix presented by Lear.

On Saturday, Ferrucci fired a verbal shot—and a bit of a shove—at rival IndyCar racer Kyle Kirkwood after the two made contact on the circuit during a morning practice session. The outburst had more than a few folks shaking their heads.

"I'm just coming down the hill, and who just turns into somebody and slides the car into you? It's such a dickish move, man," Ferrucci said when asked about on-track contact with Kirkwood that ruined a potential Ferrucci qualifying lap. "I grew up with him, known him a long time, and I've never seen him do something like that. But you saw him turn into Newgarden yesterday. It's a shame.

"Its a tight track. We're way quicker than this. It would have been nice to get at least one green lap in. It is what it is."

But wait, there's more from Ferrucci.

"If you go back and watch (the tape), you see him turn, turn left. I mean I don't know what more evidence you need than that, He's got the onboard camera and not us. And then his little boyfriend teammate (Colton Herta) over there did the same thing.

"Leave it to them. We're out here doing out own thing. It's Detroit. I'm having a blast. The crew is all fired up. We know we've got a hot rod."

Kirkwood didn't exactly see the incident the same way when asked to respond to Ferrucci's accusation that Kirkwood triggered the contact.

"Of course he's going to say that," Kirkwood said when describing the setup to the incident during qualifying. "Everyone stops here. Everyone has to wait, get your gap, get a clean lap in, it's practice. Relax.

"And that's not what he did. He decided to do it to me and he did it to Colton, too, and they collided. I don't know what he was doing. His lap was already ruined. And then he just ruined his next lap, too.

"It's just dumb. It's dangerous. He drove tight into me, purposely tried to drive me into the wall. And I went up and tried to talk to him about it and then he grabs me and he's shaking me. It's like 'what are getting mad a me for.'

"It's insane, but we've seen it before with him."

As for Herta, he also chimed in after Ferrucci's blast that brought him into the conversation.

"I don't even know what I did," Herta said. "That guy's a head case. I'm not really sure what I did to make him mad. He passed me before the alternate line. We're all waiting for our gaps and he passed me and so I passed him back and ruined his lap.

"He can do his thing and we'll do ours. He's driving a Penske car in P 20th again for the fifth consecutive weekend. I'm happy with what we're doing here, and the Gainbridge car is fast. We don't have time for him and his shenanigans at the back."

Ferrucci did come back and offer an apology to Herta and Kirkwood on NBC TV after qualifying.

“First, I just want to say sorry for what I said and how I acted to Kyle and towards Colton,” Ferrucci said. “They’re great competitors. I stepped a little hot out of the car. I love racing against them, man. It’s good now.”

Herta was asked if he had any response to the apology.

"No," said Herta.