Foyt Racing Earns A Moral Victory in Japan
 A.J.
Foyt IV didn't win the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi, but
nevertheless the race was a moral victory for A.J. Foyt's Indy car
team Saturday afternoon. In the land of the rising sun, the team
worked into the night to repair the 14 car which had crashed in
final practice.
Foyt IV qualified 19th for the race and was running in the final
practice session when cool track conditions, cold tires and a
chassis change combined to cause him to spin coming off turn four.
He hit the outer wall and slid across the track to the inside wall.
Foyt IV emerged unscathed but his race car sustained heavy damage on
the left side.
"We started out not running too good in the final session," said
Foyt IV. "We made some adjustments and it just got loose on me in
Turn 4. I couldn't save it."
There were less than 20 hours until the green flag dropped on the
200 lap race around the 1.5-mile oval. The team had to remove and
replace the car's undertray, nose assembly, left front wing, left
side suspension, left sidepod and the rear wing.
 The
team had taken the back-up car off the truck when they signed a
primary sponsor just a day before leaving for Japan. The plan was to
paint the car in the new sponsor's red, white and blue colors so
it'd be ready to be reassembled when the team returned. With just
three days in the shop before they had to leave for Indy, time was
at a premium.
The accident, occurring with just ten minutes left in the session,
signaled a minor disaster for the team but both the driver and the
chassis' tub were intact.
"At first our guys thought the car was too badly damaged to fix it,"
said team owner Foyt. "They were ready to pack it in and either
borrow a back-up car or watch the race from the sidelines. Well, I
looked at the car and figured we could fix it. And that's what we
did."
 Fortunately,
chassis designer and parts supplier Dallara Engineering had
everything on hand to fix the race car and the Foyt team set to
work. John O'Gara, team manager for Dreyer-Reinbold, and several of
his crew members pitched in to help, staying until 8:30 pm Friday
evening when the last bus left for their hotel in Utsonomiya, an
hour and a half away.
The Foyt team stayed until 11 pm, long enough to fire up the engine
to A.J.'s satisfaction. The team slept on their hour-long bus ride
back to their hotel in Mito. They were back at the track at 7 a.m.
to finish up their work.
 The
car didn't look pretty, it was a combination of white, Foyt's
signature orange-red and the dull black of brand new carbon fiber.
There wasn't the time nor the facilities to paint the new pieces.
A.J. IV did his part by running the entire race and bringing the car
home in one piece. No easy task considering there were five other
drivers who had wall-banging incidents in the race with several of
them destroying their cars. Fortunately no one was injured.
"The track conditions for the race were cooler than we had practiced
and it caught a lot of guys out," said Foyt afterwards. "But A.J. IV
stayed out of trouble, and finished the race. I know it plays on a
driver's mind when he's crashed at a track, and for him to go out
and drive a car put together overnight, well it says a lot about him
and about our team. He trusted us to put the car together right;
there wasn't a chance to try it out before the race. The biggest
thing is that none of us gave up. I think it opened some people's
eyes."
Foyt IV had been running on the lead lap for most of the race but a
last-minute decision to keep him out an extra lap to avoid problems
with the leaders (who were passing him when he needed to pit) caused
him to run out of fuel. He lost three laps as he coasted into the
pits from turn two. He finished 14th, losing a spot at the end.
"Our goal today was to run as strong as we could and to bring the
car home in one piece," Foyt IV said. "We did that and now we can
focus on Indy."
Dan Wheldon won the race, He was followed by Scott Sharp, Buddy
Rice, Danica Patrick and Bryan Herta.
The next race is the Indianapolis 500 which will be run Sunday, May
29th. The race is set to go off at 12 noon eastern time on ABC-TV.
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