Race Report: Kansas
 A.J.
Foyt IV drove a solid race to finish 16th on the lead lap in the
Argent Mortgage 100 Sunday afternoon at Kansas Speedway.
"Overall, it was a solid run," said Foyt IV, who started 21st. "We
worked hard to get that finish and it feels like we should have
finished better, at least in the top 10. But I'm happy for the team
that everything went smoothly. The car was pushing a bit in the
beginning but we made the car better throughout the race."
"We had the car working good, but we're just down on power," said
team owner A.J. Foyt afterwards. "Anthony drove a good race, in
fact, he drove his butt off to get that finish. The crew gave him
good stops too, so all in all, everyone did a good job. Last week we
finished higher [14th] but this week it was a better performance by
everyone. We just need to get some horsepower."
 Foyt
IV struggled on the opening day of practice and qualifying but that
evening the team made some dramatic changes to the car which
improved the car's overall handling. "We'd been experimenting with
some stuff from Indy on and it really hurt us," said Foyt. "I went
back to our reliable set-up and the car was more predictable and it
responded better to the changes that we made. That happens in racing
when you keep searching for more speed."
The race provided another dramatically close finish as Tony Kanaan
edged out runner-up Dan Wheldon and third-place finisher Vitor Meira
by 12 thousandths of a second--the sixth closest finish in IRL
IndyCar Series history. Rounding out the top five were Dario
Franchitti and Tomas Scheckter.
Danica Patrick won the pole position to become the second female
driver to win a pole in the IndyCar Series; Sarah Fisher was the
first when she won the pole at Kentucky in 2002. She finished ninth
just ahead of her teammate and outside pole sitter Buddy Rice. There
was very little attrition in the 200-lap race with 19 of the 22
starters finishing.
The IRL IndyCar Series heads to Nashville Superspeedway for the
Firestone Indy 200 which will be televised live on ESPN Saturday
night, July 16th at 7pm eastern time.
NOTES & QUOTES: Argent Mortgage Indy 300
A.J. Foyt IV: ABC Supply No. 14 Dallara/Toyota/Firestone
 A.J.
Foyt IV on Kansas: "Kansas is a horsepower track so I don't
think we'll qualify that well because horsepower has been an issue
for the Toyotas this year except for the Penske team cars. But the
last two years we've had a great handling race car but our luck
hasn't been too good. So if we can just have some good luck this
year, I believe we can come home with a good finish."
A.J. Foyt's ABC Supply Racing Team traveled to Indy this week
where they visited Foyt's old friend (and former driver for the Indy
500) George Snider. Snider, of Bakersfield, Calif., bases his USAC
Silver Crown team in the Indianapolis area during the summer. Foyt's
team is working in Snider's race shop to work on the No. 14 ABC
Supply Dallara/Toyota. "The last couple years we've made
arrangements to work in Indy rather than go all the way back to
Houston," explained team manager Craig Baranouski. "It helps save
time on the road with these races that are back-to-back. We'll do
the same thing in between Nashville, Milwaukee and Michigan."
This race marks A.J. IV's 40th IRL IndyCar start. His
grandfather's team is the only IRL IndyCar Series entrant to have
started a car in every IRL IndyCar Series event. The Argent Mortgage
Indy 300 is his team's 111th start.
At the SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond International
Raceway last Saturday night, Foyt IV started 17th, dropped to last
when there was a problem with the electronics on the shift mechanism
and finished 14th.in the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara The team
struggled to find the right balance for the car during pit stops but
to no avail. Foyt IV said afterwards, "It was a long night trying to
stay out of people's way on a track that is very busy when you're
running well. When you're not running well, it's even busier. It
wasn't much fun tonight."
Last year at Kansas: An adjustment on the car on the first
pitstop was just what the car needed as Foyt IV, who qualified 14th
but dropped to 19th in the opening laps, closed in on the lead pack.
Unfortunately a mistake on the second pitstop where team leader told
him to go before the fuel hose was detached, resulted in a 10-second
penalty when he came round for the fix. Foyt IV went a couple laps
down but he ultimately finished 13th. He was passing cars in the top
10 even though it didn't show in the results. At the time Foyt IV
said, "We had a bad push at the start, but after our first pit stop,
the car was handling great. We ran into more bad luck when the air
hose got stuck on our next stop, and we had to pit again, plus take
a 10-second penalty. But we didn't give up, and we passed some top
cars, so we know we can run with the guys that win races. It was
fun."
Past performance at Kansas Speedway for Foyt's IRL team shows
one victory with Airton Dare and a DNF with Greg Ray in 2002, a
third place with Donnie Beechler and a seventh place with Eliseo
Salazar in 2001. In 2003, Foyt IV was credited with 15th after
dropping out on lap 169 with a blown engine.
The Argent Mortgage Indy 300 will be televised live Sunday at
1:00 p.m. eastern on ESPN. |
