Race Report
Toyota Indy 300
Homestead-Miami Speedway
Homestead,
FL
Engine
problems in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series
season opener forced A.J. Foyt IV to drop out with just 10 laps
remaining in the Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He
finished 15th.
Sam Hornish beat teammate Helio
Castroneves by six-hundredths of a second after a heated battle in
the closing laps.
Foyt IV battled with horsepower
problems from the time the Conseco crew changed the
Toyota engine after running in the top 10 in practice on Friday. The
fresh engine that was installed before qualifying should have been
quicker but in reality wasn't. Foyt qualified 19th.
"The Conseco car was comfortable all
weekend," Foyt IV said. "We knew we had been having problems with
the motor in qualifying and final practice. It finally gave up on us
in the last 10 laps. The good news is that we had a solid car all
weekend and the car was solid today. We brought it home in one piece
so it wasn't too awful bad. We just have to get our motor program to
where it needs to be. I'm sure my grandfather will be on the phone
with the Toyota engineers in the morning."
Initially team owner A.J. Foyt
believed the problem was in the gearing but when that problem was
corrected for the race, the engine still performed poorly. However,
Foyt IV did a good job despite the problems; he had gotten as high
as 11th in the race that was slowed by five cautions,
four of which were for cars that had contact with the wall.
"A.J. IV did a good job driving
today," said the senior Foyt. "He has improved so much from last
year at this time. It's a real shame that the engine let him down
this weekend. That's what is so frustrating because when it comes to
the engines, it's out of our control with the way the manufacturers
have the program set up. But we'll get it straightened out with
Toyota by the next race."
Quick thinking on Foyt IV's part saw
him avoid several near misses in the pits during
pitstops and one bizarre occurrence on
track. Rookie Ed Carpenter spun off the pit lane and
onto the track between turns three and four right in front of Foyt
who went high to avoid the out of control car.
"That was close," he said afterwards.
"I didn't know what happened but I was glad he didn't come any
higher on the track or we both would have gone for a ride."
Foyt IV's next race is the Indy 200
Copper World Classic on March 21st. It will be televised
live on ABC
