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I'd rather be lucky...
By A.J. Foyt
 "I'd
rather be lucky than good."
After our Indy Car season opener in Miami, I just might have to
agree with Lefty Gomez, an all-star pitcher for the Yankees in the
1930s who said it first.
.
My grandson A.J. IV posted his career best finish of ninth in the
Toyota Indy 300 despite not running his best race. He's had better
performances where he should have had a top-five finish but luck
wasn't with him at the time.
This time he was lucky. In fact, he was very lucky twice!
We had the car working pretty good but we were down on power and
that's just something we'll have to deal with until TRD finds
something to make the Toyotas more competitive this year. They had a
problem last year too but towards the end of the season, they found
some stuff which made all the Toyota teams perform better so I'm
sure they will again this year too. And I believe they'll find it
before Indy.
He spent most of the race running from 15th to 17th which is what I
expected because we were lacking the power of the Hondas and Chevys,
not to mention Penske's Toyotas (which they build themselves under
the supervision of TRD).
 So
we were looking at avoiding trouble and just finishing the race.
When A.J. IV pitted on lap 146, the stop was pretty normal but when
the fueler pulled out the fuel hose, the buckeye didn't fully
release causing fuel to spill onto the hot exhaust.
As soon as I saw the problem, I started yelling ‘Fire' even though I
couldn't see it (when methanol fuel burns, there is no orange
flame). I could see the heat waves though. I yelled at A.J. IV to
drive out of there which he did or he could have been burned too as
more of the fuel ignited.
The fire was behind him and as long as he was moving, there was a
good chance it would go out. By the time he got back to the pits,
the fire in the pit stall had been put out but he had to be careful
coming in so he wouldn't slide in all the water.
When he got there the crew dumped more water on the car and on him
as a precaution--good thing too because he'd set the grass on pit
road on fire in turn four as he re-entered the pits. That brought
out a short yellow. Once we checked him over, we sent him on his
way.
The race restarted before he could catch up to the field which
seemed unlucky at the time until all hell broke loose in turn one.
Kosuke Matsura spun down across the field and triggered a massive
pile-up. A.J. IV was just coming out of four when our spotter Larry
Arnold yelled to slow down and go low. By the time A.J. IV got to
the scene, the crashing had stopped but there was debris everywhere.
He managed to pick his way through but he was worried about some of
the stuff he ran over and radioed in his concern. He was a little
goosy at that point (with good reason) but I told him we'd look the
car over when the pits opened.
By the time the wreckage was cleared, seven of the eight cars were
finished and we went from 16th to ninth. Although the accident
looked terrible, only driver was injured--the rookie Danica Patrick,
who sustained a concussion but was she released that night.
That's what I meant when I said I'd rather be lucky than good. No
one in our crew was injured in the pit fire although some of them
felt the heat. A.J. IV certainly didn't have a great car that day
but he still pulled out his best finish to date. And looking back at
that big accident, he wasn't the only one who was lucky that day.
I'm sure there are several other drivers who would agree. |
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