By A.J. Foyt


Man this was a tough weekend for the Foyt Racing No.14 cars--all of 'em! Luckily, all the drivers walked away.

The most serious accident involved my son Larry Foyt, who was racing the No. 14 Harrah's Chevrolet in the NASCAR Busch Series race at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. A series of circumstances put him a lap down early in the race. Following a rain delay, Larry was making his way up the inside to double up for the restart when Steve Park's car snapped sharply left directly into Larry's path. Larry got on the brakes but he couldn't slow much before he hit Park just behind the driver's side door.

It looked bad. Larry said he was going over 100mph when he hit Park.

I was watching it on TV in my Indy car transporter's lounge because I was at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois where we were racing with the Indy Racing League. What a helpless feeling that was, waiting for the TV announcers to say something, anything, about Larry. They talked about Park who was airlifted to the local hospital and finally, they mentioned that Larry climbed from his car and was taken to the infield care center. Several minutes later, a couple people called from the track to tell me that Larry was shaken but okay. Park, who was unconscious at first, suffered a mild concussion and bruised collarbone. He was very lucky.

I'm still not sure why Park's car did that, although I did hear some rumors about the steering wheel coming off in his hands, which would explain it. The cars run so much stagger to help them turn left that without the driver controlling the wheel, the car would naturally turn left. One thing is sure, it was a bizarre accident.

Ron Hornaday and the No. 14 Conseco Pontiac also had a tough race the next day at Darlington. Hornaday was in the first wreck and the last wreck of the race, which had 11 yellows in all. Fortunately, he didn't get hurt but the car sure took a beating. He ended up 37th.

Which brings me back to Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet where the IRL was running their first race at this beautiful new1.5-mile track.

For me, it was a case of good news, bad news. The good news was having my two Harrah's cars running in the top-five with less than 40 laps left in the 200-lap race.

The bad news was that only one car made it to the end of the race. But Donnie Beechler, who's been driving a second car for me since May, drove a helluva race to finish fifth after starting 17th.

Eliseo Salazar, who started seventh, was running third in the No. 14 Harrah's Dallara when he came upon a lapped car with about 38 laps to go. Instead of braking, he turned to the right to go around the slower car. Mark Dismore, who was racing outside of Salazar for the position, had no intention of moving over. Salazar clipped Dismore and they both crashed.

Frankly, I think Salazar made a big mistake. I know he was worried about losing momentum (and positions) by braking for the slower car but as he found out, he lost a lot more than several positions. He ended up 18th with a wrecked racecar. And he could have been hurt.

I just don't understand what he was thinking.

We were fortunate that Donnie didn't get caught up in the same accident, which he easily could have because he was running sixth in the tight pack at the time. He got by without getting involved.

Although he restarted fourth, Donnie couldn't hold on to that position. We've been having power problems with our engines for the last four races. He could stick with the cars running two by two, but when they strung out, he couldn't keep up with them.

I knew what he was up against, so I asked him to just bring it home in one piece and he did.

And he was the only who did this weekend. But then his car was number 11.

I can't wait to write about the weekend when all of the Number 14 cars win!