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Indy--What else could go wrong? Don't Ask.
By A.J. Foyt
 Indy
has a way of humbling you and she did her best this past Sunday. I
was totally disgusted and a little embarrassed, okay, a lot
embarrassed. Having both my kids crash out of the Indianapolis 500
because they were impatient with their cars, after a month of
preaching to them about patience and not trying to be a hero, well I
was pretty mad.
Right off, I knew they were lucky to walk away
from their crashes. I've seen too many accidents when the drivers
didn't (and I'm speaking from personal experience) to not appreciate
that fact. And that may be one of the reasons why I got so mad
because I'm not sure if they realize how lucky they were and how
close they came to getting hurt.
 I'll be honest, I expected more from my
grandson A.J. IV and my son Larry even though he was a rookie. They
both admitted their crashes were from driving errors, which is a
good sign. You have to admit your mistakes before you can learn from
them.
And I missed on the set-ups. Obviously if the
cars were handling really well, they would have been easier to
drive. Being able to work through those situations usually comes
with experience, so it's a catch-22 with young drivers.
There was a bright spot and it came from the
rainstorms that caused a one hour 47 minute delay. My Team Conseco
repaired A.J. IV's car and got him back in the race. My guys did a
great job. They replaced the nose, right front suspension, whole
rear suspension, rear wing, undertray and both sidepods.
A.J. IV was back on the track when the green
dropped but unfortunately, he never felt comfortable in the car. He
tried to feel things out before really gassing it but the leaders
were upon him quickly. He couldn't get out of traffic or into a
rhythm. So he decided to park it. That was hard on the Conseco crew
since they worked so hard to get him back out there. But I know the
last thing A.J. IV wanted to do was crash or cause someone else to
crash.
He finishing 33rd and Larry finished
32nd. Larry was struggling with his car from the
beginning of the race. It was bad in traffic and he was in traffic
when the car pushed up into the marbles. Moments later he was in the
wall and out of the race after just 54 laps.
Finishing last is hard to live with and you
have to live with it until next year's 500. I know they were as
disappointed as I was.
When I headed for the airport that evening, I
didn't see how things could get much worse. And then the good Lord
showed me in a very convincing way.
I was flying home on my private jet with my
family (except the boys who had to attend the victory dinner Monday
night). We had to wait about three hours for the airport to open
because of the terrible storms and tornadoes in the area, so it was
late when we did get going. Then, while in flight, the warning
lights came on and the oxygen masks popped out because there was a
problem with the pressurization in the cabin. It became very hot and
everyone was really quiet.
My pilots turned on the back-up system and
things were almost normal. But then they noticed the system was
taking more power from the engines. We decided to make a
precautionary landing in Longview, Texas. Checking over the plane,
they felt like they determined the cause but I decided we should fly
the rest of the way home at low altitude because pressurizing the
cabin isn't necessary. The way my day was going, I didn't want to
take any more chances.
I guess the moral of this story is that even
when things look pretty bleak, they can always be worse. So we'll
learn from our mistakes, go to our next race, which is at Texas
Motor Speedway June 12th, and have a better showing.
It's tempting to say we couldn't do worse, but
we all know better.
On a final note, I'd like to congratulate Buddy
Rice on an outstanding drive and a well-deserved victory. He was the
class of the field Sunday and now his life will change in ways he
never imagined. I know that from personal experience too.
I just hope he enjoys every minute of it.
USA Today
By A.J. Foyt
 This
Indianapolis 500 will be one of my most special races ever because
there will be two Foyts racing that day. My grandson A.J. Foyt IV
qualified for his second Indy 500 driving the No. 14 Conseco Dallara/Toyota
and my son Larry qualified for his first 500 driving the No. 41
G-Force/Toyota.
Our qualifying
speeds weren't what we wanted but I decided to take them anyway so we
had a spot in the field. A lot can happen between the first and second
weekends and I didn't want to be on the outside looking in–especially
with two young drivers champing at the bit.
There was a lot of
talk during the first week of Indy that there might not be enough cars
to fill the field for the Indianapolis 500 but with 26 cars in the
show already, I am making back-up plans for my two boys in case we get
bumped out of the field.
I believe our speed
will hold up because a lot of the boys who will be trying to get in
the field next Sunday haven't been in an Indy car in a while. And
these cars take a little getting used to with the new aero package.
Plus, there's rain in the forecast this week so they'll have their
challenges getting up to speed.
And as my son Larry
said in his post-qualifying press conference, ‘There are so many
things that can go wrong in those four laps, and only a couple things
that can go really right, so as far as that goes, I'm glad it's over.'
So am I.
But at the same
time, I don't want to be caught off-guard on Bump Day so I am getting
my back-up plans ready in case we do have to re-qualify.
Overall, the week
went pretty smooth right up ‘til Pole Day. While we were idling the
engine in the pits just before our morning practice, we had an o-ring
failure in one of the injectors in the Conseco car. That triggered an
engine fire.
The crew took the
car back to the garage and changed the engine in less than an hour (it
takes them three times as long to do it back home). We hoped to get
out for the second group practice but we missed that too.
Then the rain came
and set qualifying back for three hours. When the track opened for
qualifying around 2 p.m., I sent Larry out. I knew we wouldn't find
the extra horsepower we needed since the engines were hurting in that
department. I took a 213 mph average, and as it turned out it was the
slowest time of the day. Larry wasn't too happy but as I explained to
him, with iffy weather, you're better off getting in the show if you
think the speed will stand up.
At Indy, the grid
is set according to the fastest 33 cars in the order of the day that
they qualify. That means all first day qualifiers start ahead of
everyone else. So a driver could set a new track record the second
weekend and he would still have to start behind everyone who qualified
on the first weekend.
The way Pole Day
qualifying went, there never was a break in the line. The weather was
cold, so the drivers were told to take an extra lap to heat up their
tires and that took extra time. Even with that, three guys crashed
going into turn one which delayed things a bit.
Bottom line, A.J.
IV never got any practice. With 35 minutes left (the track closes at 6
p.m.), I asked him if he wanted to try to qualify. He said yes (he'd
been sitting in his car for about an hour, ready for practice).
There wasn't time
to drain off some of the fuel (the tank was almost full) so we put
him in line and he went through inspection. I took out a couple of
degrees of rear wing, adjusted the front wings and told him to feel it
out. If it felt good, go ahead and give it the gas.
 He
did and put together four consistent laps. To be truthful, he drove
the wheels off that Conseco car. He looked like he brushed the wall
every lap (which he did on lap three, white-walling his right front
tire), but he kept going and got it done. His average was 214 mph. He
wasn't happy with his speed either but he was happy to be in the show.
It takes a lot of
guts to go out with a different car set-up in conditions that are less
than ideal--cold weather, cold track--plus knowing that three veterans
put it in the wall earlier that day.
Both boys did a
heckuva job, especially considering the cold weather. I am really
proud of them.
All of the
Toyota-powered cars suffered in the horsepower department and on a big
track like Indy, it becomes pretty obvious pretty quick. We're hoping
that the Toyotas' reliability will be the saving grace on race day. |
