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Nashville
By A.J. Foyt
 The
Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville began and ended with fireworks but the real
spectacular action took place during the race as the IRL IndyCar Series provided
its unique brand of thrilling, wheel to wheel racing entertainment.
My grandson A.J. Foyt IV had his own thrills with the No. 14 Conseco car so we
were pretty happy that he survived that race. Our troubles began with a right
rear tire going down due to a puncture which made the car real loose.
Fortunately there was a caution for debris and A.J. IV pitted. That's when we
figured out the problem.
It could have been much worse but it turned out to be just the beginning of our
problems that night, most of which were out of our control.
Ed Carpenter hit the wall hard in turn four right in front of A.J. IV who
narrowly missed him.
What we didn't know at the time was that debris from Carpenter's accident
damaged the right end fence on the rear wing of the No. 14 car. Unfortunately,
we couldn't see the damage when A.J. IV pitted for new tires during the caution
that followed. However, as he continued to race, the damage to the wing's end
fence worsened and track observers notified our team that the wing was broken
about 20 laps into that run.
I ordered my grandson to the pits immediately. When I saw what the actual damage
was, I told the crew to tear off the bent part of the end fence and send A.J. IV
back out which they did. However, because it all happened under green flag
conditions, A.J. IV lost five laps to the leaders.
What I also didn't know at the time was that the right rear wheel sensor had
also been damaged and that triggered problems with the car's traction control
program which affected the engine management system. Those problems would
surface later.
Being six laps down turned our race for a top-10 or top-five finish into a race
for survival. We knew the only way we could gain positions was through attrition
and avoiding other people's accidents. The tough deal about that is you have to
run fast enough to stay in the pack but not so fast that you're on the edge of
control.
What compounded our problem was the fast pace set by leaders Vitor Meira and
Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice. They were in a class by themselves, (although Meira
would have problems near the end of the race that took him out of contention).
A.J. IV got out of the gas to let those two by easily but that also messed up
his rhythm. He also lost momentum, especially with the 3.0 liter engines. Pretty
soon the rest of the pack was upon him and he lost even more.
Still he was doing a good job in spite of all the setbacks. Looking on the
bright side, he learned to run the track which had been a problem for him
because Nashville Superspeedway is a tricky track. It has a concrete surface
which doesn't provide much in the way of overall grip and A.J. IV had trouble
keeping his car down in the groove. However, about a third of the way through
the race, he made a breakthrough and he became more consistent in his lap times.
He finally figured out turn two!
As I mentioned before, the damaged right rear wheel sensor caused problems with
the engine management system but they didn't surface until later in the race.
The engine quit running during one of the caution periods and A.J. IV had to be
towed into the pits. Our Toyota engineer suspected the cause and was able to
disengage the traction control program. The engine was re-fired and A.J. IV took
off once again.
Throughout all of the problems he kept a cool head and did the best job he
could. We picked up another five positions because he didn't give up.
The fireworks after the race were nothing compared to the wheel to wheel action
in the race. One really memorable incident was the challenge for the lead on a
restart. Buddy Rice led once his teammate Meira (who'd led 117 laps) had
problems, but Dan Wheldon beat him out of the pits during a caution period for
Bryan Herta's crash.
They entered turn three with Rice inside of Wheldon who squeezed Rice onto the
apron. They both went for the same piece of race track. Their wheels got locked
and somehow they didn't crash. It was pure luck. Rice's front wing broke so he
had to pit to replace it. Wheldon continued to lead during the caution period
that followed (the yellow came out because it looked liked someone was going to
crash even though they didn't!). On the restart, Wheldon's right rear tire blew.
He kept the car off the wall and was able to pit and replace the wheel but he
lost a lap in the process.
Sad thing is, had either of them been a little more patient, Rice would have
been in victory lane and Wheldon probably would have finished second. Instead of
a podium finish, Rice finished sixth and Wheldon finished 13th.
Tony Kanaan won the race over Sam Hornish and Helio Castroneves. It was the
seventh straight win for a Honda-powered team in eight races. But at least
Toyota was knocking on the door with the Penske cars finishing second and third.
The next race for the IRL is the A.J. Foyt 225 at the Milwaukee Mile. It's the
IRL's first visit to the one-mile flat track but I've been there many times
which is probably why they named the race after me. Someone said I competed in
98 races there but I find that hard to believe.
In any case, I am honored and I hope that A.J. IV has a good race there. It will
be televised live on ABC this Sunday, July 25th at 3:30 pm eastern time. I hope
you tune in. You can also tune into the "The Fast Life: An American Story" which
will have a feature on A.J. IV. That one-hour show is also on Sunday, July 25th
but it airs on ESPN-2 at 12 noon eastern. |
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