Which was better Sunday at Road America? Santino Ferrucci’s drive in the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America Presented by AMR or his catch of a fan’s cold beer in Turn 1 after climbing from the car on this excruciatingly hot day?

Give him high marks for both.

The combination of the two continued what has been an outstanding few weeks for AJ Foyt Racing’s veteran driver. This third-place finish earned him a fourth-consecutive top-five finish, pushing him to ninth in the championship standings as the second half of the season begins.

The exhausted and likely dehydrated Ferrucci got to Road America’s finish line and could do no more. Actually, his No. 14 Sexton Properties/AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet could do no more, as well. It was fuel deprived, and it came to a stop in Turn 1 with its fuel cell empty.

The always-spunky Ferrucci climbed from the cockpit, slowly removed his helmet and then seemed inspired by the reception of the fans gathered in that part of the 14-turn, 4.014-mile road course. One tossed him a water bottle, although it sailed over his head and landed there in the sand trap. Ferrucci retrieved it and absorbed as much as he could in one long gulp.

Then came a better offer from that same infield section – it was a cold can of Miller Lite. Ferrucci didn’t miss that delivery.

With a pull of the tab, his two-second chug was on, and he capped it with a defiant raising of his beer-holding left hand. Indeed, it tasted great at the conclusion of another productive race.

“And two podiums,” Ferrucci said of his recent run of success in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. “We’re back to where we were at the end of last year. I feel it.

“I’ve got to get my qualifying performances up, but until then I like padding my points for passing.”

Ferrucci finished fifth in the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, second in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear and fifth in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline at World Wide Technology Raceway. He is tied with Colton Herta of Andretti Global w/Curb-Agajanian for ninth in the standings, and they are only six points behind Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin for eighth.

To secure this podium finish, Ferrucci had to climb from the 18th starting position and then overcome not only a stall on a pit stop but had to stretch his last supply of fuel 16 laps. Conventional wisdom was that the maximum any driver could manage was 15 laps, and that’s how far race winner Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing did. So, Ferrucci went a lap farther, and he didn’t have the benefit of drafting off a teammate as Palou did with Scott Dixon.

Ferrucci admitted it was stressful not knowing if his fuel tank would grant what he asked of it, and he radioed to his crew to lay off any conversation, including a lap countdown.

“I told him, ‘Listen, I’ve got to focus because this is getting stressful,’” the driver said of his strategist. “He let me drive.”

Ferrucci dedicated the podium finish to Marlyne Sexton, the team’s longtime friend and supporter who passed away June 11 at age 86. Her memory was celebrated on the sidepod of the team’s car.

Team president Larry Foyt called honoring Sexton with this performance “unbelievably special – it’s hard not to get emotional.”

Said Ferrucci: “She was running with us today. I’m very proud. Yeah, this one tastes a little bit sweeter.”