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Michigan
By A.J. Foyt
 This
year's Indy car race at Michigan International Speedway was a great one for the
fans. They were on their feet to see Alex Barron to steal past leader Sam
Hornish on the final corner and edge him out at the line by just 12-thousandths
of a second! The Firestone Indy 400 was a thriller.
I thought we were also going to be celebrating A.J. IV's first top-10 finish
because he was easily on his way to one in the No. 14 Conseco G-Force/Toyota
car. But it seems that Lady Luck is having nothing to do with him these days. He
needs to work on that relationship. This was the third or fourth time that we
missed out on a good finish.
This time a shift fork broke in the gearbox and when he went to pull out from a
pitstop, he couldn't get it back in gear. With over 30 laps to go, I had my
Conseco crew replace the gearbox. That is not an easy thing to do because the
parts are very hot to handle. But they did a good job and got A.J. IV back out
there. He was 12 laps down when he rejoined the race but he also picked up a
position and finished 14th, which is still his best 'finish' to date.
With every race I am seeing more and more improvement in him as a driver. He is
able to give me better feedback and I am able to set the car up more to his
liking. I didn't have the car set up perfectly but he was able to handle it and
we worked on it during the race and made it a little bit better. He was still
lacking in overall downforce but he was able to deal with it.
He also managed to deal with a situation when the crew didn't get the right rear
wheel tight enough. He felt it by the time he got to pit lane exit and he came
over the radio shouting, "Something's wrong! I can't turn it!"
I told him to come back to the pits and he did. He told me it might take a while
because he couldn't drive it very fast. Fortunately it was during a caution
period. As he was coming towards us, the right rear wheel popped off and beat
him down pit road. We were very lucky nobody got hurt including A.J. IV. I was
upset with my right rear tire guy but I also know that we aren't the only team
to lose a wheel. There have been quite a few championship contenders that have
had problems in the pits this year and last.
A.J. IV has some very challenging tracks ahead of him including Gateway near St.
Louis in two weeks and Nazareth, Pa. towards the end of August. In fact, we're
testing at Gateway this week but we may have to cut the test short because of
problems with the track's surface.
They tried to fix some problems with the track but the 'fix' has caused new
problems for the Indy cars. The Indy cars generate so much downforce in the
corners that the surface is breaking apart. That means little chunks of track
are coming up and that can cause cut tires which is very bad. Depending on where
the tire gets cut and where you are on the track, you could easily end up in the
wall. I'm sure they'll get it fixed for the race but I'm not sure they can fix
it in time for us to complete our two-day test. I'm telling you A.J. IV needs to
work on that Lady Luck. The good news is we found out before he cut a tire and
had a serious problem.
At any rate, I head to Indy later in the week for the Brickyard 400 where my son
Larry Foyt will be racing for the first time in the No. 14 Harrah's Dodge. He is
excited about it and so am I.
We tested there a couple weeks ago but it didn't go well. We've changed the car
around a lot (it needed it) and I'm hoping that it runs a heckuva lot better
than it did.
I've been very disappointed in the stock car program and more than a little
embarrassed. Larry's had to carry a big burden because we really haven't given
him a good car to drive. It's as simple as that. I am making changes and will
continue to make changes because I know he can drive a race car. We just have to
give him a good one.
Indy would be a great place to start...and finish well. |
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