Note: This continues a series of 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES team previews on INDYCAR.com. The season starts Sunday, March 2 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding (noon ET, FOX, INDYCAR Radio Network).
Starting Lineup: David Malukas (No. 4 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet), Santino Ferrucci (No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet)
2024 in Review: Ferrucci enjoyed the best NTT INDYCAR SERIES season of his career, earning his first NTT P1 Award (in the BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland) and consistently finishing in the top 10. He posted 11 of those top-10 finishes in the 17 races and finished ninth in the standings in AJ Foyt Racing’s famed No. 14 Chevrolet. Both achievements were the best for the organization in more than 20 years. Ferrucci qualified sixth and finished eighth in the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, extending his career-starting run of top-10 finishes in the event to six. He led at least one lap in the “500” for the fifth time and finished 3.6143 seconds behind race winner Josef Newgarden. He finished a season-high fourth in the two Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s. Ferrucci’s pole at Portland International Raceway was the first for A.J. Foyt’s team since Takuma Sato earned the top spot for a race in Detroit in 2014. Malukas missed the first seven races of the season, including Indy, following a wrist injury suffered in a mountain bike accident in February, which led to his departure from Arrow McLaren. Midseason, he joined Meyer Shank Racing to drive the No. 66 Honda, making his debut in the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. He qualified in the third position for his second race of the season, The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the 2025 Civic Hybrid, and he started and finished sixth in the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto. He qualified a season-best second for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway, but his race ended with an accident. He started fifth and finished ninth in the season finale, the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway.
New for ’25: For the first time, both team cars will be prepared in the same shop in Indianapolis. Team officials established its shop on Main Street in Speedway in the fall of 2014 and have fielded one of its cars there since 2017, with the other being prepared at the team’s other shop near Houston until this season.
Keep an Eye on This: The team’s technical alliance with Team Penske is entering its second season. Last year, the combined effort seemed to help both organizations, with three drivers finishing in the top eight at Indy and Ferrucci winning his first pole in the series. Michael Armbrester will be the lead engineer on Ferrucci’s car. James Schnabel will serve that role with Malukas’ car.
Little-Known Fact: Ferrucci’s success on oval tracks last season can’t be overstated. His average finish of 7.28 was second in the series only to Scott McLaughlin. Malukas had only one top-10 finish on ovals last year, but he has produced his best races in this series on ovals. He has three top-five finishes on such tracks – second- and third-place finishes at World Wide Technology Raceway (in 2022 and 2023) and a fourth-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway (2023) – all with Dale Coyne Racing.