Ferrucci ready to go for Laguna

Santino Ferrucci says his injured right hand has mostly healed from the morning warmup crash on Sunday at Toronto and he’ll be ready to race this weekend at the Java House Grand Prix of Monterey – once he completes just over 1,500 miles of highway travel through the Southwest.

“The swelling of my hand has actually almost gone down by 100 percent,” the AJ Foyt Racing driver told RACER. “I have probably 90-percent grip strength, which is good. I'm hoping by the time we get to the race, or at least get to California, we're good and all the way back. Yeah, my knuckle still has a nice blood-colored look on it but could be worse.”

More IndyCar

The RACER Mailbag, April 22

How JHR and VeeKay turned pitstops from a weakness into a weapon

Elkins named IndyCar's managing director of officiating

The trip to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca marks the end of a four-week, five-race sprint for the IndyCar Series. Where most participants would want to get in and out of Monterey as quickly as possible to maximize their downtime before racing resumes on August 10 in Portland, Ferrucci went in the opposite direction.

The Connecticut native chose to skip another round of flights and rental cars and the rest by climbing into his motorcoach with a friend and take Interstate 40 due west from his home in Dallas, Texas. Spending a few days on the road ahead of the intense July IndyCar racing finish line in California felt like the best way to recharge his battery.

“It's just nice to do a road trip and mentally reset and put everything behind,” he said. “We’ve been having an amazing season. You have something like that at Toronto, you don't want to let it get to you, and you just carry on.

“My dad, back in the day, we had the karting team and we just spent a lot of time on the open road. I've done the cross-country trek, but I've never done one from Dallas. Always started in the Northeast and driven across the top of the country. So driving through New Mexico and Arizona, it’s new territory for me. It's beautiful out here.”