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Race Recap
 You
need a little luck on your side in order to survive the 300-mile
Busch race at Lowe's Motor Speedway (LMS) at Charlotte, N.C., just as
it's embedded in your mind that you better avoid the "Big One" at
Talladega. Although, the Harrah's Racing Team brought home their best
finish (8th) of the season at Talladega in April, we weren't as
fortunate at Charlotte as the Harrah's Chevrolet pulled in 27th at
the end of the day.
Jon Wolfe and the Harrah's Crew built a car from the ground up to
bring to our home track and you could feel the excitement at the Foyt
Racing shop prior to race weekend. The car wasn't ready for open
test, so Wolfe knew bringing a new car was going to be somewhat of a
crapshoot. Wolfe has brought new cars to tracks in the past and many
times he's been right on, while other times he's had to make
adjustments after the first practice lap. However, once we unloaded
our newly-constructed Chevy at the track, (as Chief Engine Builder
David Evans described it) we experienced "the new car blues".
During the first two-hour practice session, the car was hitting the
ground hard and moving all over the track. It was barely drivable. It
was tight going into the corners, but once I put wheel into it became
loose. The team was frustrated as we made numerous attempts to solve
the car's troubles. After qualifying 36th (the last spot based on
time), we knew we had our work cut out for us in order to move to the
front of the field.
We had a lot of support in the Harrah's pit on race day. Family,
friends and "Behind Enemy Lines" co-star David Keith, along with
Harrah's Sweepstakes winners, Laura and Cal Morton. So, there was a
lot of energy surrounding our team at the drop of the green flag.
Within seven laps, we moved up seven spots to 27th. The Harrah's Crew
was pumped up for the first time all weekend -- watching the car push
through the field that quickly.
Just when things were starting to look up for the Harrah's Racing
Team, Ron Hornaday spun in turn 4 on lap 24, so I had to move up the
track to avoid him and brushed the wall -- causing right-rear fender
damage. The car didn't have any severe problems, so we decided to
stay out. Nearly 50 laps later (lap 78), I started to hear chattering
in the tires and felt like the car turned way too late in the
corners. So, when we pitted, the team changed all four tires, went
down one round of wedge and removed the rubber in the right rear.
On lap 84, Dale Earnhardt Jr. hit the wall on the front stretch –
bringing out the seventh caution of the day. Ben Hess, the team's
spotter really showed how valuable his job is as he directed me
through upcoming traffic. During the yellow flag, I told Wolfe that
the changes the team made during the last pit stop freed up the car,
so I was hoping to gain a few spots.
But, all of a sudden on lap 102 the Harrah's Chevrolet began slowing
down dramatically. It was like the car had no power and was out of
fuel. Even if I pumped the throttle, the car just wouldn't react.
While the Harrah's Crew began taking the tool box back to the garage,
I restarted the car and it began running fine. Wolfe called me into
the pits to take a closer look under the hood and there didn't seem
to be any problems. So, I headed back out on track, however I exited
pit road too fast (speed limit – 45mph), so NASCAR penalized me –
making me come back on pit road for a pass-through run.
Evans came to the Harrah's pit to discuss the potential causes of the
car's odd behavior with Wolfe. They came to the conclusion that
somehow the fuel got too hot causing it to vapor lock. So, with these
unusual occurrences, the team went eight laps down and ended the day
27th – remaining in the top 20 in points.
After a frustrating day of bad luck, I was off to support the
Harrah's Indy Team at the 86th annual Indianapolis 500. I've been to
every Indy 500 since I was born (1977); in fact my first trip to Indy
was when my dad (A.J.) became the event's first four-time winner.
Once Helio Castroneves took the checkered flag, I jumped on a plane
back to Charlotte to sit atop the pit box with Crew Chief Mike
Hillman for the Winston Cup race Sunday night. After a long weekend
of logging hundreds of miles on-and-off track, I had Memorial Day off
to relax and unwind before we tame "The Monster Mile" at Dover Downs
Int'l Speedway this Saturday.
Thanks for all your support.
FAST FACTS: Larry Foyt ~ CARQUEST Auto Parts 300
« Happy Anniversary... Alaska natives Laura and Cal Morton will
travel a full day to celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary as
Honorary Pit Crew Members of the Harrah's / Foyt Racing Team this
Saturday at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Laura Morton and James Starnes,
who will be a member of the Harrah's Indy 500 crew, were selected
from a staggering 127,575 entrants in the "Harrah's Behind Enemy
Lines Sweepstakes".
« Star Power... "Behind Enemy Lines" co-star David Keith will be
atop the Foyt box as Honorary Crew Chief for the Harrah's Racing Team
this Saturday in conjunction with his duties as Honorary Race
Director for the event. Prior to "Behind Enemy Lines," Keith is best
known for his acting roles in "An Officer and a Gentleman", "U-571",
"The Two Jakes", "Major League II", "Firestarter", "Brubaker", "The
Great Santini" and "The Rose."
« Have One Built For You... The Harrah's Chevrolet on track at
LMS this weekend is the first car this season that has been
constructed entirely by the Foyt Racing Team. According to crew chief
Jon Wolfe, the car design and structure is the result of information
compiled over the course of Foyt's 44 Busch Series starts – all of
which have taken place with Wolfe atop the box for the Harrah's Team.
« Off to Indy... Following the Busch race in Charlotte, Larry
Foyt will travel to Indy to continue an attendance streak at the Indy
500 that dates back to 1977. Foyt has even climbed to the spotters
stand on occasion, guiding Kenny Brack to his 1999 Brickyard win for
A.J. Foyt Racing.
Larry Foyt... "The majority of the cars that I've driven so far
in my Busch Series career have come from somewhere else, so it's
exciting to take a car to LMS that we built from the ground up,
especially since it's in our own backyard. Jon Wolfe has taken
everything we've learned from our previous races and applied it to
this car, so I'm anxious to get her out on track to see what she can
do. We didn't have the car ready for open test, so I soaked up as
much information as I could watching our Cup car at The Winston last
weekend. Most of the cars perform best on the bottom of the track,
with both left-side tires on the white line, but once you get to
Turns 3 and 4 you can take the higher groove to avoid the bumps –
both Stacy and Earnhardt, Jr. had success running up there."
Jon Wolfe... "I wish we would've been able to test the car at
Charlotte because bringing a new car there makes it's somewhat of a
crapshoot. I've brought new cars to tracks in the past; sometimes
you're right on, and other times we've had to make adjustments after
our first practice lap. The track changes drastically throughout the
day with every change in the weather – loose one hour and tight the
next. The good thing about Charlotte is that it's a track that Larry
is comfortable on and has run quite a few laps. We can take what we
already know about the track and combine that with what we learned at
Texas earlier in the season, since the tracks are similar."
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