Nashville Superspeedway
Firestone Indy 200

Race Report:

Driving the Conseco/ Dallara, A.J. Foyt IV started 16th and finished 17th in the Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Superspeedway in the Indy Racing League's final Saturday night race of the season. Gil de Ferran won the event.

Nashville Superspeedway is a 1.3-mile concrete track with very little banking. It puts a premium on the car's handling and the driver's skill. Foyt IV's skill in the Indy cars is becoming more evident with each race. This past weekend he battled an ill-handling car for the entire race. While he was off the leader's pace, Foyt IV managed to avoid the mistakes of others who crashed.

"A.J. IV would have had a better race if I'd given him a better race car," A.J. Foyt said afterwards. "I was too conservative in the Conseco car's set-up and it bit us. It was really hard for him to keep the car in the racing groove. Then, when I tried to correct the "push" with adjustments to the front wings, the car started bottoming out because the ride heights were too low. We also had problems with inconsistent tires which we couldn't do too much about anyway. That's pretty much how the race went--we'd try to fix one problem and another one came up."

"My car was good in practice during the day but we were off on the nighttime set-up," Foyt IV said afterwards. "From the start of the race, the car had a real bad push which meant I would have to wait before I could put the power down or the car would slide up to the wall. It was a long night and I just tried to hang on and finish the race which we did.

"I'm looking forward to running at Michigan this coming weekend. Michigan is very similar to California Speedway where I had a good test with the Conseco car in the beginning of the season. Going into Michigan, I feel a lot more confident so I think we'll do pretty good. Plus we won the Infiniti Pro Series race there last year so I have some good memories."

Foyt IV will compete in the Michigan Indy 400 at Michigan Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich. on Sunday, July 27th. The race will be broadcast live on ABC starting at 3 p.m. eastern time.

In the Infiniti Pro Series, Ed Carpenter started fifth in the Futaba/Delphi Dallara. He had moved as high as third before brushing the wall in turn four and spinning into the infield on lap 20. The contact damaged the right front suspension and he was credited with a 13th place finish. He is currently second in the standings to Mark Taylor who won the event.

NOTES & QUOTES:

A.J. Foyt IV: Conseco No. 14 G-Force/Toyota/Firestone
Jaques Lazier: No. 5 Dallara/Toyota/Firestone

Cleanevent 100
Ed Carpenter: No. 14 Futaba/Delphi Dallara

A.J. Foyt IV on Nashville: "We didn't have a very good test there but the car will be set up quite different when we come back and those changes should help a lot. I'm glad we got to test there. The track is different from any other track we run. It's concrete and at 1.3 miles long, it's in between the short tracks [mile or less] and the superspeedways [1.5 mile or more]. We run the superspeedway aero package which means you don't have a lot of downforce. It's a pretty challenging track. We need to come here and try to be competitive. The main thing we've got to do is to start finishing races, running all day and collecting a little more points than we have been. I just want to stay out there all day and get as much experience as I can. Night races underneath the lights are fun. You don't get to do it that much in the year, so having one or two races, you really look forward to them."

Past performance for Foyt Racing at Nashville Speedway: Last year Airton Dare was leading the race after starting 18th. Sam Hornish dove underneath Dare in a pass for the lead. To avoid hitting Hornish, Dare slid up the track and hit the wall. He finished 17th. Eliseo Salazar, in his comeback run from his injury in testing at Indy four months earlier, started 17th and had gotten as high as second. He had to pit under green and lost two laps. He moved high to allow faster cars through and slid up into the wall. Team owner A.J. was three for three that evening because Greg Ray, who started 19th, ran through fluid, spun and hit the wall. A.J. Foyt IV redeemed himself in the Infiniti Pro Series race by finishing fourth. He had spun on his qualifying attempt but didn't hit anything and was able to post a single qualifying lap to start 10th. In 2001, Donnie Beechler finished 10th and Salazar finished 11th after the engine blew on lap 148 of 200.

Ed Carpenter jumped to second in the Infiniti Pro Series standings with his runner-up finish at Kansas Speedway. Carpenter had won the pole and led the most laps but saw Mark Taylor slip underneath to grab the lead. Carpenter and Taylor waged a close battle for nearly 10 laps, with Carpenter briefly regaining the lead just three laps from the end. Taylor stuck to his inside line and was able to pull ahead for the victory.

Ed Carpenter on Nashville: "I am looking forward to returning to Nashville Superspeedway and the one-day format that we have for that race. I am used to one-day races from all of my USAC experience, so I think I may have an advantage. Hopefully, I will get out of the gate quicker than the other guys. I feel like my team is finally in full swing and working together well. Hopefully, now we will be able to begin to chip away at Mark Taylor's point lead."

The Firestone Indy 200 will be televised live July 17th, Saturday night, at 8 pm Eastern on ESPN 2.