Tempers Boil Over Between Santino Ferrucci and Andretti Drivers During IndyCar Practice

In the final practice before the qualifying for the Detroit Grand Prix on Saturday, Kyle Kirkwood and Santino Ferrucci's on-track incident moved off track when Ferrucci went to Kirkwood's pit box to show his anger at the Andretti driver.

With less than two minutes remaining in practice, Ferrucci got into Kirkwood after he said Kirkwood served into him a few corners prior.

“Of course, he’s going to say that," Kirkwood told NBC Sports, "It all happened right there. Everyone stops here. Everyone has to wait. That’s not what he did. He did it to me, and he did it to Colton too. I don’t know what he was doing; his lap was already ruined, and he ruined his next lap too. It’s just dumb and dangerous. He purposely tried to run me into the wall. Then I went up to talk to him about it, and he grabbed me."

Kirkwood was planning on going to talk to Ferrucci before he was confronted, but Ferrucci beat him to the proverbial punch. Ferrucci's reasoning for going after Kirkwood was that Kirkwood's move took away his chance of putting down a lap time that would land him in the top three of Practice 2, he would end up 20th instead.

"We’re in practice, and I’m on a lap that’s going to put us P3," Ferrucci told NBC, "I know everybody is fighting traffic, I’m coming down the hill, and who just turns into somebody and slides the car into you, it’s such a dickish move."

Ferrucci went on to complain about Kirkwood's teammate Colton Herta who he had a separate run-in during the practice session, referring to Herta as Kirkwood's 'little boyfriend teammate,' sprinkling in a microaggression for the start of Pride Month.

Herta also commented on Ferrucci's on-track behavior, saying, "I don’t even know what I did. That guy is a headcase. I don’t even know what I did to make him make he can do his thing. He’s driving a Penske car to P20 for the fifth consecutive weekend."

Ferrucci's average finish of 14.4 is slightly better than what Herta alluded to, but the point of the comment was to stir the pot more than provide accurate commentary.

Ferrucci alluded to pent-up aggression in the media bullpen on Friday before any track action occurred, and it seems reasonable that this is not the end of the battle between the AJ Foyt driver and the Andretti teammates.

When asked if the anger from this practice session would affect how Kirkwood would race Ferrucci this weekend, he said it wouldn't be an issue because they won't be running near each other on track.

"I think, based on that [practice], he’s going to be a little bit behind us, so I’m not too worried," Kirkwood said.

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