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Conseco Race Report
Firestone Indy 225
August 29, 2004
Nazareth Speedway
Start: 17
Finish: 15
 A.J.
Foyt IV and Team Conseco turned in a good performance in the Firestone
Indy 225 at Nazareth Speedway Sunday afternoon. The event marked the
100th race of the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series and the last event
for the one mile tri-oval in eastern Pennsylvania. The track is
scheduled to be torn down.
Foyt IV finished 15th in the race won by Dan Wheldon. Andretti-Green
Racing swept the podium with Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti
finishing second and third. Ironically Michael Andretti won the first
Indy car race at Nazareth when CART competed at the newly
re-configured track in 1987; now his team has won the final Indy car
race there.
 Foyt
IV started the event in 17th but by his own admission, "messed up on
the start" and dropped to 19th. In the first stint, the car's handling
was difficult due to the tires' stagger not remaining consistent.
Unfortunately, he went down a lap before he could pit for adjustments.
"It's unfortunate when you start in the back on such a small track,
because you can go down a lap pretty easy," Foyt IV said afterwards.
"We need to work on qualifying better so we don't get in those
situations."
Once the adjustments to the car were made, however, he was able to
pick up his speed.
"The car was much better but I got stuck behind some slower cars. The
track has just one groove, and that makes passing really hard at
times," said Foyt IV. "The only way to pass was to get them coming off
the corner and we just don't have the torque we need to do that. But
Toyota is working hard to improve the engines and I think we'll see a
difference in power at the next race."
 Foyt
IV, slowed by lapped cars, became a prime target as the front of the
field caught him and he went down a lap to Sam Hornish. He lost
momentum initially but then Foyt IV was able to pull away from second
place Tony Kanaan and closed in on Hornish who also had difficulty
passing the slower cars. Eventually a traffic jam ensued and Foyt IV
got shuffled to the outside and lost track position as 2nd through 9th
swept by him.
After his second pit stop, he lost fifth gear and was forced to run in
sixth for the remainder of the race. That, as it turned out, was
beneficial since he began posting his fastest laps of the race.
"I wish we had lost fifth gear earlier," Team Conseco owner A.J. Foyt
said afterwards. "I should have had a slightly lower sixth gear and
not had him shift because he would have been better off. Overall, I
think we made some gains on our short track program which has been a
problem for us. Our pit stops have been really good and I'm proud of
our guys, especially because so many of the other teams have been
messing up lately."
The final three races of the IRL IndyCar Series take place on the
1.5-mile high speed ovals, the first of which is Sunday, September
12th at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. The Delphi Indy 300 will
be televised live at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time on ABC.
NOTES & QUOTES: Firestone Indy 225 at Nazareth Speedway
A.J. Foyt IV: Conseco No. 14 Dallara/Toyota/Firestone
 A.J. Foyt IV on Nazareth: "Last year when I came to Nazareth
for the race, it was the first time I ever saw the track so it took
us some time to get everything figured out. We ran decent in the
race so we can go back with a similar set-up for the Conseco car.
We'll just try to be consistent, run all day and get a good finish."
Time Off: A.J. IV took a busman's holiday on Monday to test
the Davey Hamilton-owned No. 1 Wirtgen/Weld Racing supermodified.
Hamilton warmed up the car before Foyt IV took his first laps ever
in that type of open wheel car around Madera (Calif.) Speedway, a
one-third mile paved oval. He got to within one-and-a-half tenths
(.15) of a second of quick time (on old tires) within 50
laps, reaching a top speed of 110 mph. Foyt IV is planning to
compete in the 33rd Annual Harvest Classic on September 18th. "It
was a lot of fun," Foyt IV said afterwards. "Those cars have a lot
of horsepower, especially for such a small track. Everything
happened real fast at first, but then as I became used to the car
and the track, things slowed down for me even as I went faster. I'm
looking forward to racing there."
Kick-off: A.J. IV will kick-off his personal tour of college
football games on Labor Day when he attends the Florida State
University/University of Miami game at Miami. ABC racing analyst
Jack Arute will be working as a sidelines reporter for the match
between the FSU Seminoles and the Miami Hurricanes. The game, which
airs on ABC that Monday evening, culminates ABC's first weekend of
coverage of college football. Last year Foyt IV, an avid football
fan, attended the Univ. of Michigan/Notre Dame game as Arute's
guest.
At the Honda Indy 225: A.J. IV started 21st and finished 21st
due to handling problems. He completed 53 laps. "The best thing we
can do is leave last weekend behind us," Foyt IV said. Several other
teams also called it quits early due to handling problems with their
cars.
A.J. IV's past performance at Nazareth: Foyt IV started 17th
and placed 11th for his best finish of the season.
Foyt Racing past performance at Nazareth: In 2002, Airton
Dare started 17th and finished 11th. That same race, Richie Hearn
subbed for injured driver Eliseo Salazar; Hearn started 22nd and
finished 14th. A.J. Foyt's best finish at the paved speedway came in
1987 when he finished seventh.
The Firestone Indy 225 will be televised live Sunday afternoon at
2:00 p.m. Eastern time on ABC.
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