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Milwaukee
By A.J. Foyt
 The
A.J. Foyt Indy 225 at The Milwaukee Mile was significant for several reasons. It
marked the first ever race there for the IRL IndyCar Series (although many of
the competitors had run there before in the CART Series). It was the first time
that an Indy car race had been named after me which was a great honor. Of course
they usually name races after you when you're dead so I'm glad I broke that
tradition.
There have been a lot of improvements made to The Milwaukee Mile since I was
last there in 1995 including new grandstands and a permanent media center. One
thing they didn't change was the track--it is still as tough as ever.
I have won there--four times in an Indy car, six times in a USAC stock car. I've
also crashed there. Just about when you think you have it figured out, it
reaches up and bites you.
After our first practice session on Friday morning, A.J. Foyt IV was fourth
quick in the first group of 11. We were feeling pretty good.
 That
was our first mistake. The second was impatience on his part in the afternoon
session. He lost it coming out of turn four on just his second lap around and
tagged the wall. The tires were cold and the track was slick. If he waited at
least another lap before gassing it, he probably wouldn't have crashed. He had
all afternoon to think about it.
The next day, he had a light brush with the wall coming out of turn two which is
where a lot of people have problems. The Conseco crew had to replace a couple of
suspension pieces but it wasn't nearly as costly as the day before. I got on A.J.
IV pretty hard.
Things didn't go much better in qualifying and we both started thinking, let's
just get through the weekend. Our final practice came off without incident but
we still hadn't found the best set-up. He was fighting a push the whole weekend.
I made some more changes before the race.
Just to show you how tricky this track is, our defending champion Scott Dixon
wrote off two cars in the space of five hours--one in practice and then during
his qualifying run. I'm sure Scott was on the fine edge of control which makes
you either a hero or a zero. He sustained some minor injuries which kept him out
of the race. There were three other drivers who wrote off cars at Milwaukee that
weekend so I know we weren't the only ones having handling problems.
In the race, we still hadn't found the perfect set-up but A.J. IV was coping. We
looked to improve it on the first stop which came during a yellow flag. We made
some changes but on the restart, A.J. IV moved up when some cars behind him
jumped to the inside in turn three. He spun coming out of turn four and hit the
inside wall.
I thought we were done but Team Conseco never gives up. Our team manager Craig
Baranouski asked Panther Racing if we could borrow their front nose/wing
assembly from their Pennzoil car which had just dropped out with gearbox
troubles.
Craig came back with the bright yellow nose and we bolted it on and A.J. IV was
good to go. It didn't look worth a darn since our car is green and white but you
could sure pick him out!
The wing settings were nearly identical to ours so A.J. IV was back in business.
He had lost about seven laps in the repair (even though it was under caution)
but at least he'd have a chance to get more experience on the track. The rest of
his race was incident free. Unfortunately, he could never get in a rhythm
because he always had to get off his pace to make it easier for the leaders to
pass since he wasn't in contention.
He finished the race, turned in some good laps and learned a lot so the weekend
was not a total loss.
For my part, I got to see some old friends and made some new ones. There are a
couple other things that haven't changed at The Milwaukee Mile. The race fans
are true, loyal race fans and the food is as good as I remember.
It was good to be back.
Our next race is this Sunday, August 1 at Michigan Speedway. The Michigan 400
will be televised live by ABC at 3 pm Eastern time. I know A.J. IV is looking
forward to getting back on a superspeedway. We're ready for a good run and I
believe we'll have it there. |
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