Former IndyCar Racer Santino Ferrucci Moves To NASCAR Xfinity Series For 2021

Santino Ferrucci, one of America's more controversial racing figures in recent years, has finally confirmed the rumors: He's moving on from IndyCar and taking up a part-time schedule in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Sam Hunt Racing's No. 26 Toyota endeavor. He'll make his debut on February 27 at Homestead-Miami.

From Sam Hunt, team owner of Sam Hunt Racing:

Santino's passion and drive was apparent the first time we sat down together.

I had heard about him, seen some stories from open-wheel, but waited to form my opinion until we spent some time together one-on-one. He's a great kid. He's passionate, and he's ready to learn the racecraft of NASCAR. He's situationally aware and works hard for every sponsor and investor he has. I have no doubts that he will be a strong competitor for us once he learns how these heavy cars drive, and how these races run. We are all excited to get to work with him.

And from Ferrucci:

I'm incredibly proud to join Sam Hunt racing and TRD. I think together we will have a ton of success. Working with Sam these past few weeks has been fantastic and his drive to put out a great race car and team is second to none. The transition to NASCAR will be tough especially with no practice, qualifying, or testing, but I welcome the challenge. My limited experience before the green flag in Miami will be the Chili Bowl and my Super Late Model test. So far everyone at NASCAR and the people that make up the NASCAR community have been very welcoming to me, the testing that I've done has gone really well, and I am excited to start racing.

While Ferrucci's full schedule has yet to be announced, it's believed that his focus will be on mile-and-a-half tracks. As with many part-time schedules in NASCAR's feeder series, Santino's longevity in the sport will likely be determined by performance.

His debut in stock car racing will come with no prior practice.