|
|
 |
A Victory in My Book
By A.J. Foyt
Richmond International Raceway is the kind of track where, if you can
roll your car back on the transporter after the race, you feel a sense
of victory whether or not you won the race. We didn't win the SunTrust
Indy Challenge Saturday night but I was feeling pretty good afterwards
anyway.
 We
were able to roll both of the Harrah's cars back onto the transporter
this year (which we couldn't do last year). I also got to see my good
friend Junie Donlavey, a long-time NASCAR team owner who lives in the
Richmond area. He has helped launched a lot of young drivers careers
in NASCAR and he is a great guy. He was pretty impressed with what he
saw.
The fans were impressed too. Sam Hornish led only two laps – the last
two. He passed Gil deFerran with two to go in a daring move that
brought the fans to their feet. In fact the top six cars were
nose-to-tail on the straightaway so it was a close race. And the fans
couldn't help but notice. Several people came to me afterwards and say
they were trading in their NASCAR tickets for IRL tickets next year.
They had never seen such close racing at those high speeds.
Airton Dare started 19th and finished sixth in the Harrah's No. 14.
Greg Ray started 14th, led 41 laps in the Harrah's No. 11 and dropped
out with a valve train problem late in the race. He placed 12th even
though he didn't actually finish. That's because there were a lot of
cars that couldn't roll back onto their trucks; they had to be lifted
onto them.
With 22 cars on a three-quarter mile track running laps in the
17-second range (157 mph), it's no surprise there were eight caution
flags.
The trouble started with Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves spinning by
himself coming off turn two on lap eight. Then two of my former
drivers Billy Boat and Scott Sharp brought out the next two yellows.
The race winner from last year, Buddy Lazier, had a pit stall fire to
bring out the next caution. All of these guys were running good when
the bad luck bit them. I could say it was a weird night but since it
was night-racing at Richmond, it was normal really.
We had a pretty good race even if we had a poor start. Dare didn't
qualify very well. He only got one lap because the car jumped out of
gear on the first attempt. He brought it in and went to the end of the
qualifying line, which means you give a up a lap when you attempt
again. He was slow the second time out because we missed on the
set-up. And he still has a lot to learn about qualifying. He always
seems to be much better in the race, which, if I had to choose between
the two, I'd rather have a good racer than a good qualifier.
Ray had a problem in qualifying too. The car bottomed out on the
second of his qualifying laps which caused the front end to take off
so he just brought it in and didn't even complete the lap. Usually the
second lap is quicker and Greg figured it would have been at least
2-tenths quicker.
I was really disappointed in our qualifying so I started looking a
little more closely at the set-ups and didn't like what I saw in our
shocks. According to the computers they were fine but my gut told me
they weren't. I pulled them apart and didn't like what I found. So we
changed them for the race and the cars ran a lot better. Computers are
okay (actually I hate them) but they can steer you wrong at times. I
believe in looking at problems with your own eyes and not relying on
the computers. Computers can't replace experience.
In the race, Dare climbed into the top-10 by the first quarter of the
race. In the final stages of the race, the Harrah's car was running
even better. He closed in on Al Unser Jr. but when he got close enough
to pass him, the car picked up a big push. Dare had to get out of the
throttle and he'd lose ground. He had to settle for sixth. But it
moved him and the Harrah's No. 14 up to seventh in the IRL points
standings.
Greg's team used a little different pit strategy which got them out of
sequence on the pitstops. That put them in position to lead for a
while and that was good. The strategy didn't work out as they had
planned because towards the end, they were running eighth when the
valvetrain developed a problem.
There were a lot of crashes that night and I'm real glad that my cars
weren't involved in any of them. We didn't win but we didn't lose as
big as some other teams. With the race in Kansas just a week away,
we're in good shape.
Speaking of Kansas, that is one busy weekend for me. Besides my Indy
car team running there, my grandson A.J. IV is making his debut in the
Infiniti Pro Series driving the No. 14 Harrah's car. It'll be a real
debut because he's never driven the car (the engine came too late for
testing) and he's never been on a superspeedway before. I'm not
expecting miracles but I am excited for him.
On top of that my son Larry is driving his No. 14 Harrah's Chevy in
the Busch race at Daytona Friday night and my Conseco team is running
in the Winston Cup race Saturday night. If it works out on my schedule
I may fly in for the Cup race, otherwise I'll watch it on TV which is
how I'll see Larry's race.
It's tough to keep up with everyone but that's okay. My kids are
having fun at racing and so am I. That's a victory in my book. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
