Milwaukee
By A.J. Foyt
 Coming
into this weekend, I knew it was going to be a busy one for us because in
addition to the IndyCar Series race at the Milwaukee Mile being named in my
honor, our team sponsor ABC Supply sponsored the AJ Foyt 225.
The weekend started for us on Thursday with a media
luncheon at the track. We then drove about an hour to Beloit which is where ABC
Supply is headquartered. There A.J. IV and I (and our p.r./marketing director)
met with the company's founder Ken Hendricks and the rest of ABC Supply's top
management.
The company held their annual picnic that evening on the
grounds of headquarters which overlooks the Rock River. A.J. IV and I signed a
lot of autographs, I mean a lot of autographs because they had a great turnout
for the picnic. We arranged with the IRL to have the IRL Fan Experience mobile
marketing unit set up at the picnic. That meant the employees could try their
hand at changing a tire on an Indy car during a "pitstop," do video games in one
of four Indy car simulators or learn more about the cars at the IndyCar
technology trailer.
After signing a few hundred autographs, A.J. IV made his
way over to the Indy car simulators where the employees challenged him. Lucky
for him, he came out undefeated at the video games. They asked me to play but I
knew better than to do that. I'd hate to have been beaten by a 10-year-old which
easily could have happened since I've never played a video game in my life. The
picnic was a lot of fun and it was great to meet the people who have helped make
ABC Supply such a successful company.
 The
picnic turned out to be the highlight of our Indy car race weekend. We got
through the first two days of practice without any incidents which was an
improvement over last year. However qualifying on Saturday was a disappointment.
A.J. IV was headed for a good time because his warm-up lap
was quick enough for 14th on the grid and at Milwaukee you get faster
each lap. However, on his first timed lap A.J. IV got through the first two
turns quicker than he had all weekend and it felt good enough that he really
hauled it down into turn three. That's when I heard the crowd let out a big "Oh"
and I thought ‘Oh no.' But then he came by me so I knew he gathered it up and
saved it. Of course it ruined that lap and the next one but even so, he
qualified at over 162 mph for 19th on the grid.
 After
qualifying, A.J. IV was going to run his second ever USAC Silver Crown race
Saturday afternoon. Driving for my good friend George Snider, A.J. IV qualified
the ABC Supply Beast/Chevy 10th quickest out of 33 cars. The 100-lap
race began under threatening skies and A.J. IV was running 11th when
it was halted due to rain. The four hour rain delay changed the track and when
A.J. IV got back in the car, it had developed a big push. He dropped back to
about 20th by halfway. After a caution on lap 62, however, he started
picking cars off. He was closing in on 13th when he did a half-spin
in turn one with 11 laps to go. He finished 21st.
He did a good job considering he was running against guys
who had a heckuva lot moiré experience in those cars. A.J. IV only drove in just
one other Silver Crown race and that was on the mile dirt track at the Indiana
State Fairgrounds when he was 17.
Because of the rain, the final practice for the Indy cars
was moved to race morning which always makes teams nervous because if you have a
problem on race morning you have to thrash to get the car ready for the race.
 As
luck would have it, A.J. IV crashed in the morning practice. His car spun as he
came out of turn two. He hit the inside wall with the right side of the car
damaging the entire side. I determined that the car could be fixed by taking
parts from the spare car.
As the crew and I worked to fix the race car, A.J. IV went
to the ABC Supply hospitality tents to visit with over 1400 of their employees
and customers. I had planned to go but I had to stay behind and make sure
everything went back together right. I still know how to get my hands dirty and
with my crew working under such time pressure I knew I had to be there.
I didn't want to run the spare car because it was our
superspeedway car and we have a race at the superspeedway in Michigan this
coming weekend. The crew worked their butts off to get the No. 14 car fixed
which they were able to do. The bad news was that we didn't have a chance to
practice before the race. A.J. IV had to go into it cold turkey.
That's hard enough when you're comfortable on the track but
when you've had problems at a track, the situation gets much worse. It was
apparent from the start that he wasn't comfortable in the car as he dropped back
after honorary starter Ken Hendricks (founder and CEO of ABC Supply) waved the
green flag. He said the car was slipping and sliding all over and he couldn't
get it down in the groove.
After 19 laps I told him if he didn't think he could drive
it to just park it. I didn't have to tell him twice. He was in the pits the next
time around which was the right thing to do.
I didn't want him to wreck the car or wreck someone else
and he felt the same way.
Sam Hornish ‘swept the card' as he won the pole and the
race on what turned out to be a really hot day. But no one was hotter than
Hornish who lapped up to sixth place.
Now
we'll re-group and head for Michigan International Speedway this week. The
Firestone Indy 4 |
