Santino Ferrucci is set to make his 100th NTT INDYCAR SERIES start when he takes the green flag for the 2026 Indianapolis 500, a milestone that arrives at a track where he has made himself unusually hard to beat. The driver of the No. 14 Dallara-Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Enterprises has finished in the top 10 in all seven of his previous Indianapolis 500 starts, and he will come back on May 24 chasing the one result that has so far eluded him.
Ferrucci’s best Indianapolis 500 finish is third place in 2023, and his record at the Speedway has become the centerpiece of a career that now includes 99 previous IndyCar starts and no victories. He has also never finished first, second or ninth in the race, even as he has put together one of the most consistent Indianapolis 500 résumés in the field. His first four career starts came with Dale Coyne Racing in 2018, before he became a full-time competitor in 2019 and won the Indianapolis 500 Rookie-of-the-Year title by finishing seventh.
That early promise has since grown into a broader run of steady results across several teams. Ferrucci has raced for Dale Coyne, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Juncos Hollinger Racing and A.J. Foyt Enterprises, and through 99 starts he has three podiums, 172 laps led, a pole at Portland International Raceway in 2024 and an average finish of 13.6. His best race result overall came in early June 2025, when he finished second at the Streets of Detroit, and his best final standings result was ninth in 2024.
Now the focus turns to whether the 100th start becomes the one that changes the shape of his career. Ferrucci said winning in his 100th start “would be quite the day,” calling it “a [day filled with a] lot of firsts” and adding, “It’s kind of wild, 100th start around this place.” He also said, “We have a great career,” and insisted, “There’s no reason as to why we won’t be there [to contend for the win].”
The history around centennial starts only sharpens the stakes. Six competitors have won in an IndyCar centennial start — Mario Andretti, Patrick Carpentier, A.J. Foyt, Pato O’Ward, Bobby Unser and Roger Ward — but none of those victories came in the Indianapolis 500. A first-time IndyCar winner has not won the race since Alexander Rossi in 2016, leaving Ferrucci in a bracket with one encouraging trend and one stubborn gap. He said, “I think if we keep our heads down and worry about us, there’s no reason to why we can’t be doing that at the end of the day.”
Ferrucci said the buildup still carries the feel of his 2019 rookie season, when the Speedway was still new to him and the seventh-place finish that earned Rookie-of-the-Year honors looked like a launching point. More than six years later, it is still his most reliable place to run near the front. “It’s really special,” he said of the milestone, adding, “Just that milestone in general for me, so really happy about it.”
