Race Recap:
 I
was glad when this race was over because it was a long frustrating
day at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham. In fact the best part
of the race was having Mike Wallace as my spotter.
He is Mr. Optimistic and when I was particularly frustrated at one
point in the race, he came over the radio and said, "Just remember,
you are one of only 43 men in the world who can be out there today
doing what you are doing."
We both got a good laugh out of that one.
I started 35th, not my best effort but we had some problems in
practice which limited my time on the track, but I really thought
we'd have a better qualifying run. I was pretty disappointed.
 Going
into the race, we figured we had a pretty good set-up on the No. 14
Harrah's Chevy but I quickly found out it was going to be a long
day. In retrospect, I would say we missed on the shock package we
chose for the race.
My first clue was the revs in the engine I heard going over the
bumps in turns three and four. When you hear that sound, it means
your rear wheels have left the track and that is never good.
To compound matters, my car was very tight with new tires but once
the tires wore out (which at Rockingham takes about three laps), it
got wicked loose. So even when my rear wheels were on track it still
wasn't a good feeling.
Talk about being between a Rock and a hard place...
All things considered, I had to be satisfied to finish 24th in the
Harrah's Chevy because it could easily have been much worse.
Actually, the real satisfaction in that race came when the checkered
flag flew because then it was over.
Now we can focus on Phoenix International Raceway, the one-mile
track which bills itself as the Desert Jewel. I'm not sure about the
billing, but I really like the track for a lot of reasons. I hope we
add to that list this Saturday.
The Bashas 200 NASCAR Busch Series race will start at 2 p.m. eastern
time and will be televised by NBC.
See you at the races!
Notes & Quotes:
Larry Foyt on North Carolina Speedway: "The track is
deceiving because there is so much banking that you can easily
overdrive it and you have to be careful not to do that. It is so
tempting to really bury it in there but that's not the fast way
around. You need to find your rhythm and focus on taking care of
your tires because the track is really hard on tires. So pit
strategy comes into play as does tire management. Personally I like
the place because we usually run pretty good there."
A.J. Foyt Racing's Winston Cup driver Mike Wallace will spot for
Larry Foyt at Rockingham this weekend.
Foyt is 19th in the NASCAR Busch Series standings; he has earned
$530,885.
Last Race (Atlanta): Foyt started 24th according to owner's
points because qualifying was rained out. He had trouble with the
car pushing (towards the wall) from the center of the corner on and
made some adjustments on the first pitstop. However, he had a
problem in the engine, which cost him horsepower. That problem was
compounded when he was cut off by another car on the last restart
and Foyt sustained damage to the right front fender, causing the car
to push. The long day got even longer when he ran out of fuel with
five laps to go as the team was hoping to stretch fuel mileage.
Unfortunately, the optimistic calculations dropped Foyt from 16th to
27th. However, he did pick up a position in the point standings.
Best 2002 Start: 5th at Nashville (Apr. 13) and
Kentucky (June 15)
Best 2002 Finish: 8th at Talladega (Apr. 20) |
