LONG POND, Pennsylvania – Santino Ferrucci thinks back to eight years ago, when he was a wide-eyed, 12-year-old guest of Dan Wheldon at Sonoma Raceway.

What could be better than having an Indianapolis 500 winner introduce the youngster to some of his racing friends, including agent Adrian Sussmann. Ferrucci particularly recalls battling on a racing simulator with Wheldon, who recognized the youngster’s fierce competitiveness.

“He thought I had a fire for this,” Ferrucci said of Wheldon, the fan favorite who died in a crash a year later, a few months after winning his second Indy 500. “He changed my life.”

So much so that it inspired the aspiring kid to one day race in the Verizon IndyCar Series.

Now the good-looking, 20-year-old American has an opportunity to put his career back on track – literally and figuratively – in a return to that northern California road course.

On Friday, Dale Coyne Racing announced it was bringing back Ferrucci, who made his INDYCAR debut in June at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear, to drive a third team entry in the final two races on the 2018 schedule – the Grand Prix of Portland and the INDYCAR Grand Prix of Sonoma.

The months in between Ferrucci’s INDYCAR introduction and his scheduled return to Sonoma have been tumultuous, to say the least. But now, he sees the opportunity to set things right and honor Wheldon’s generosity from 2010.

“If it wasn’t for Dan, I wouldn’t have much of a racing career,” Ferrucci said Saturday from Pocono Raceway, where he is observing while team drivers Sebastien Bourdais and Pietro Fittipaldi compete in the ABC Supply 500. “It was the time of my life.”

Ferrucci finished 22nd and 20th in the two races of the Detroit doubleheader. In the latter, the rookie with no Indy car experience before that weekend qualified 13th, three spots better than his teammate and four-time Indy car champion Bourdais.

That impressed team owner Dale Coyne enough to give the Formula 2 driver another look.

“He’d been in Europe running baby-smooth tracks and comes to Detroit, the bumpiest thing he’s ever seen and he’d never been in an Indy car, and he out-qualifies Sebastien the second day,” Coyne said.

Ferrucci chuckles about going from the famed Monaco street course in Europe to the Raceway at Belle Isle Park, a street circuit as bumpy as advertised.

“I was feeling it,” he said.

Aside from not finishing where he had hoped, he enjoyed himself.

But these next two races in September are more than just an opportunity to advance his career. As much as Ferrucci, who was born and grew up in Woodbury, Connecticut, isn’t shy about expressing his desire to race in the series, he also realizes this is a shot at redemption.

He’s contrite about being suspended in Formula 2 and dismissed by his team for crashing into a teammate, failing to report to race stewards to answer for that transgression and operating his car in the paddock area while holding a cellphone.

“If you talk to a lot of people who know me, they know what’s true and what’s not,” Ferrucci said. “What happened in Europe was my fault. I made a mistake. I’ve learned from it. Since then, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect and to understand what I did wrong and how to change and what to do better.

“I let emotions get the better of me. It cost me quite a bit. I’m ready to get back behind the wheel.”

Coyne, who has a lengthy history of giving young drivers a chance, says he isn’t the least bit concerned.

“He doesn’t want to be a bad boy,” Coyne said. “We ran Paul Tracy in his first (Indy car) race; he was a bad boy. He earned his stripes. (Ferrucci) feels very bad about what happened over there. I personally think it all came together at the wrong time and got blown out of proportion.

“That mistake has cost him some stuff, but he’s learned a lot from that. He’s 20, but he’s probably 23 after that incident and experience. He’s learning.”

Coyne added that Ferrucci was “highly professional” at Detroit.

“I’m going by what I know and what I see in front of me,” Coyne said.

That he doesn’t have any racing experience at Portland International Raceway or Sonoma Raceway doesn’t give Ferrucci pause. He can’t wait.

“I really want to be in this series full time,” he said. “That’s the idea, that’s the goal. These are just two races and (hopefully) a little more towards preparation to something that’s coming next year.”

Specifically, he loves the competitiveness in the Verizon IndyCar Series, which he says compares favorably to the racing overseas.

“It’s not something I’ve been used to in a very long time,” Ferrucci said of the tight competition throughout the INDYCAR paddock, where multiple drivers and teams have the opportunity to win and score podium finishes. “I think it’s the reason you see (two-time champion Fernando) Alonso leaving F1. It’s very different to what we have in Europe. As a driver, you have a serious appreciation for it.”

“I really love INDYCAR. I love the racing here.”

And the opportunity to show that he belongs.