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Race Report: A.J. Foyt Indy 225
 A.J.
Foyt IV battled back from an early race mishap to finish 16th in the
A.J. Foyt Indy 225 at The Milwaukee Mile Sunday afternoon under
clear blue skies.
Sitting out most of last season due to a back injury (and subsequent
surgery) from a motorcycle accident, Dario Franchitti won his first
ever IRL IndyCar Series event with a dominating performance.
After a good practice in the first session on Friday, Foyt IV and
Team Conseco struggled nearly the entire weekend finding the right
combination for the one mile flat track. Early in the afternoon
session, young Foyt did a half spin exiting turn four and smacked
the wall damaging the left side of the car. He wasn't injured.
Kosuke Matsura also spun that day and made heavy contact with the
wall. He too was cleared to drive.
 The
next morning Foyt IV brushed the wall exiting turn two sustaining
light damage to the suspension. But Foyt was not alone. Defending
IRL champion Scott Dixon spun in turn one and made heavy contact
with the wall totaling his car. Dixon's problems continued in
qualifying that afternoon as he spun in turn four and hit the wall
again, totaling out a second car. Dixon sustained a hairline
fracture in his thumb and bruises to his left foot. He withdrew from
the race.
Foyt IV started 18th in the 225-lap race which was named in honor of
his grandfather who in his 90 starts at the historic oval scored
four Indy car and six USAC stock car victories. Foyt served as grand
marshal of the event and gave the command, "Gentlemen, start your
engines."
Foyt IV‘s troubles surfaced again when he spun on a lap 45 restart,
hitting the inside wall in turn four. He was towed to the pits and
Team Conseco borrowed a front nose/wing assembly from the Panther
Racing team, whose driver Tomas Scheckter was out with gearbox
troubles. Foyt IV lost seven laps in the repair.
The young driver's resilience served him well as he ran the rest of
the race without incident to finish 16th.
"I was chasing the car one way or the other the whole race," he said
afterwards. "Considering the weekend, I'm glad we have a car left to
go to Michigan this week."
"Milwaukee is a very tricky track," said his grandfather. "Anthony
struggled with his line at this track, but I'm glad he was able to
run the whole race because he was able to learn a lot. When we come
back here next year he'll be stronger."
The IRL IndyCar Series moves to Michigan Speedway for the Michigan
Indy 400 Sunday, August 1. It will be televised live on ABC at 3 pm
Eastern time.
NOTES & QUOTES: A.J. Foyt Indy 225
 A.J.
Foyt IV on Milwaukee: "We were only able to get half a day of
testing because of the rain on the second day. It wasn't as much as
we wanted but we were able to make some good changes on the car. I
think we established a good baseline for the weekend. Milwaukee is
another track on our circuit that's unique because it's so flat. You
really have to get a good set-up for your car. It's hard to get
overall grip on a track like that but that's what you need...I think
it's cool to have the race named after my grandfather but I won't
really be thinking about that this weekend. We'll be focusing on
getting a good race set-up."
A.J. IV will be featured in the next episode of "The Fast
Life" which airs this Sunday, July 25th on ESPN2 at 12 noon Eastern
time.
At the Firestone Indy 200: A.J. IV started 22nd and overcame
several obstacles to finish 16th. Debris from another driver's
wall-banging incident broke part of Foyt IV's rear wing (end fence,
which the team repaired and ultimately replaced). It is thought the
debris also contributed to engine problems later in the race when
Foyt IV had to be towed in after the engine quit. The engineers made
some adjustments on the engine management system and Foyt IV was
able to return to the race.
A.J. Foyt's performance at Milwaukee shows that he has 46
Indy Car starts there, the most starts at one track for him in an
Indy car. In 1965, he competed there three times in an Indy car
although the August 22nd event was the most memorable one because he
set fast time driving his dirt championship car. He finished second
in the race against many rear-engine cars. "I felt like I was
driving a greyhound bus against a bunch of sporty cars," Foyt said
afterwards. He has won four times at Milwaukee (1960, 64, 75, 79)
and has finished second there six times. His most serious accident
occurred in 1966 when he burned his hands and face after crashing in
practice. He also competed there 44 times in the USAC stock car
series, winning six races.
The A.J. Foyt Indy 225 will be televised live Sunday
afternoon at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time on ABC.
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