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Race Recap
 When the highlight of your raceweek is unveiling a new paint scheme
on a nationally televised sports show, you know it was a challenging
weekend at the track.
The Harrah's Racing had to battle from the first practice session
this past weekend at California Speedway. All through the practice
sessions, we looked for the right set-up combination to take us
around the 2-mile speedway as fast as we had been the previous year
in Michigan (a similar track), where we qualified 5th.
Qualifying was rained out of Friday, and we started on the basis of
Owner's Points, which placed us 16th on the Saturday grid. I was
sitting on pit road wondering how the full scale changes Jon Wolfe
made to the car would feel during the race when the call to "Start
Your Engines" came. I put the car in gear and – nothing. The
tachometer showed RPMs moving up as the engine worked, but we were
not moving forward. I went up through the gearbox and each time – no
response.
The field was in the middle of the three pre-race warm-up laps when
the Harrah's crew got the car behind the wall, up on jacks and to
the attention of our mechanics. A broken gear had ended our hopes
for contention before they even started. This was the car that not
only qualified well, but ran to a top-20 in Michigan. Since Michigan
and California are very similar tracks, we had pretty high
expectations for the weekend.
To sum up a long day, the Harrah's Racing Team made laps all day in
California, using a long race to learn as much as we could about the
car. Although the crew worked quickly, by the time we were able to
rejoin the race we were already three laps down on a track that
doesn't see too many caution flags – so it's pretty tough to get a
lap back, never mind three.
We came home in 31st position, but we're looking forward to taking
that car to Charlotte to run strong in our own back yard at Lowe's
Motor Speedway.
It was a pretty busy weekend off the track. The Harrah's Racing Team
is part of a sweepstakes promoting the DVD release of the movie
"Behind Enemy Lines." As part of the program, I appeared on the Fox
SportsNet program "Best Damn Sports Show, Period" to unveil the
special paint scheme and spend a few minutes talking racing with
co-hosts Tom Arnold and Michael Irvin. The sweepstakes lets some
lucky race fan be an Honorary Crew Member for the Foyt racing
experience of their choice on Memorial Day Weekend – the
Indianapolis 500, or the CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 Busch Series race
in Charlotte.
We're heading to Richmond this weekend, a track that has also proved
challenging for the Harrah's team. I took a provisional to get into
the field on my first visit there as a rookie in 2001, but worked my
way into the top-30 and learned a lot by running 247 laps around the
D-shaped oval. I was recovering from my accident the previous week
in Darlington when we returned to Richmond later in the year, and
had to turn the driving duties over to Mark Green. Our test session
there not long ago and the lessons I learned last season have me
anxious to get back there and chase our first top-5.
FAST FACTS: Larry Foyt ~ Auto Club 300
« Foyt Walks "The Line" ... The Harrah's Racing Chevrolet will sport
an eye-catching yellow paint scheme displaying graphics promoting
the DVD-release of "Behind Enemy Lines" on Memorial Day weekend.
Foyt unveiled the car Tuesday night with the help of Tom Arnold &
Company on FOX Sports Net's "Best Damn Sports Show, Period." A
sweepstakes in conjunction with the release will reward a lucky race
fan (and their guest) with the chance to be an Honorary Crew Member
for the Harrah's Racing Team at either the Carquest 300 Busch Series
race in Charlotte, NC or the Indianapolis 500. Contestants can enter
at www.behindenemylines.com, www.foxhome.com and www.fox.com until
Friday, May 10.
« Randy Travis ... Recording artist Randy Travis will be featured on
the hood of the No. 14 Harrah's Chevrolet at California Speedway
this weekend. The country music star's appearance celebrates two
days of sold-out shows at the Harrah's – Lake Tahoe concert venue.
« Special Delivery ... After running in the Auto Club 300 at
California Speedway, Larry Foyt will travel to the Harrah's - Reno
(NV) property on Monday for a press conference supporting Meals on
Wheels of America. Foyt will be joined by Meals on Wheels Chairman &
CEO Phil Satre and Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn when he takes his
Harrah's Chevrolet on a run through the streets of Reno to deliver
meals to seniors.
Larry Foyt... "Big, smooth, wide, fast tracks like California have
always been high on my list of places to race. The speedway has
long, curved straightaways where you can build up a lot of momentum;
however, you still need to hustle the car into the corner and exit
strong to make the most of that run. I'm excited because we're
bringing my favorite car – "12." It's the same car that we qualified
5th with at Michigan (another two-mile track) as a rookie. Our goal
has been to take our performance from last year to the next level,
so we have pretty high expectations."
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