DES MOINES, Iowa — What is worse: being called a “clown” or a “backmarker?”
In the latest rejuvenated INDYCAR beef, Conor Daly and Santino Ferrucci are throwing shade on their long-running history of not exactly seeing eye to eye on things.
To make things even better, both could be in contention for their first career INDYCAR victory on Saturday and/or Sunday in the Iowa Speedway doubleheader weekend.
“I just got caught up messing with a backmarker,” Ferrucci told me Thursday about his tangle with Daly in the race last Sunday at Mid-Ohio. “We would have finished inside the top 10. I’m mad at myself.”
For context, a backmarker is a driver who regularly races in the back of the field rather than among the leaders in the front.
Their battle at Mid-Ohio ended up with INDYCAR penalizing Ferrucci three positions and with Daly in the grass.
Daly remarked on his “Speed Street” podcast this week that the post on social media calling Ferrucci a “clown” was his most-liked ever.
“The lack of respect that Santino actually has for the effort that goes into this type of racing,” Daly said on the podcast, “to throw it away purely because he either doesn’t care or doesn’t know what’s going on or doesn’t like me?”
“I don’t care that he doesn’t like me,” Daly added. “I don’t like him. … Santino has actually raced somewhat intelligently this year on occasions. And I thought we were actually on a little bit better of a spot.”
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Conor Daly looks on during qualifying for the NTT IndyCar Series Bommarito Automotive Group 500
The move surprised Daly because it cost Ferrucci spots for himself, calling the move “childish.”
“I’d already gotten ahead of Santino’s nose and I’m like, ‘OK it will be really hard for him to run me off the track unless he actually uses his car as a Scud missile and drives into the slide of me,'” Daly said. “Turns out, that’s what happened. … I should have known. Santino has done this multiple times to me, like where there’s no regard for his own actual race.”
Ferrucci admitted to me that the on-track incident was his fault.
“I made a mistake,” Ferrucci said. “When they called him outside, in my mirror, I looked over, and when I turned in — you can see that I visibly missed the turn in — and I just got super tight.
“And when I tried to snap the car around on the throttle and brake, we happened to just touch perfectly mid-corner. And you can see the car straighten back out into him. And at that point, I was completely turned as far left as I could get it and I just couldn’t get the car to rotate.”
Santino Ferrucci during the NTT IndyCar Series Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio
It is hard for these two drivers to agree on what was a mistake and what was intentional.
Ferrucci believes Daly brake-checked him on pit road during the race. Daly said his speed limiter didn’t latch, and he had to hit the brakes.
Ferrucci theorized that since INDYCAR penalizes for contact on pit road, the fact he wasn’t penalized for running into Daly on pit road indicates Daly did it on purpose.
“They can see in his data — him hitting the brakes going down the hill as a brake check,” Ferrucci said.
Daly’s view: “You can make up your own reality.”
Ferrucci is 10th in the series standings, and Daly is 18th. However, Daly acknowledges Ferrucci has had speed and is having a solid season.
“I still believe he’s going to severely injure someone, a driver or maybe even someone else, just because of a pure lack of thought,” Daly said on the podcast.
Both drivers are expected to be good this weekend at Iowa. Daly was one of the fastest at the test a couple of weeks ago.
“He’s a good oval racer and so am I,” Ferrucci told me. “But if he doesn’t think that memories are short, then he has something else coming.
“And I know how to outsmart him on an oval. I’ve done it before. It’ll be fun. I’m looking forward to it.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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