Santino Ferrucci will make a shock return to the IndyCar field for Sunday afternoon’s race at Texas as Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver Jack Harvey has been deemed unfit to race.
Harvey crashed heavily in the final practice on the Fort Worth oval yesterday and after being evaluated on Saturday night and Sunday morning he wasn’t cleared to participate in the main event.
The struggles continue for @RLLracing.
The yellow flag is out @TxMotorSpeedway after this incident involving @jack_harvey45.
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— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) March 19, 2022
He had qualified 24th out of 27 cars, although remarkably he was the highest-placed RLL car in a weekend where team leader Graham Rahal described his car as “slow”.
Ferrucci was already at the track on Saturday watching the action, and he lives in nearby Dallas, Texas.
Tough news today as I have not been cleared to drive at @TXMotorSpeedway. Gutted to not be able to get behind the wheel today but I’ll be cheering on the @RLLracing group and ready to get back to work at Long Beach.@HyVee // @HondaRacing_HPD // @IndyCar // #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/sKpXKEYy4Z
— Jack Harvey (@jack_harvey45) March 20, 2022
He was in contention to drive for the RLL team in its third entry for 2022 after his impressive drives in that car last year.
For drivers that started more than two races, Ferrucci had the fifth-best average finish of any driver across 2021 with his five appearances.
However, the RLL seat eventually went to Christian Lundgaard while Harvey replaced Takuma Sato in its other car.
Ferrucci made his IndyCar oval debut in a test at Texas and then finished fourth in his first race there in 2019, before a strong run in 2020 was ended by his car being damaged in a pitstop.
Ferrucci will return to the IndyCar Series later in the year as he has signed a deal to join Sage Karam at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing for the Indy 500. Karam finished seventh in D&R’s one car effort last year.
Official statement from the team regarding Jack Harvey and the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda entry for today’s race. pic.twitter.com/St2UGRpZfw
— Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (@RLLracing) March 20, 2022