Riding the roller coaster at Michigan
By Larry Foyt

This weekend at Michigan International Speedway I felt like I was riding a roller coaster –it was full of ups and downs for our Harrah's team.

On Friday, qualifying was pushed back a few minutes because of rain. We were one of the first cars to go out, so I think the rain helped us out there. I saw everybody picking up at least a second so I knew the track had a lot of grip. We made some changes to the car that I felt were going to help us a lot.

The team told me to drive the car into the turn until I saw God and I think I did! We qualified 14th in the Harrah's Dodge. It was our best effort of the season and a major confidence booster for the team.

We backed up our qualifying effort with strong practice runs on Saturday. The car handled well, which is key at Michigan because of the many different racing grooves.

When the green flag dropped on Sunday, we fell back a couple of positions but managed to stay around the top-20 until the first round of pit stops. Most teams decided to take only two tires, but we went for four in case there was a long green flag run (which happens a lot at Michigan). The decision cost us track position, but we were confident we could make it up.

And we did come back up though the field until the transmission failed. It was pretty heartbreaking, because I believe we had a chance to come away with our best finish of the year. However, the car was one of the best I've had all year, so we're going to take what we learned and apply it to the rest of our superspeedway program.

We had a great ride at Michigan but it ended too soon!

Notes & Quotes:

Track Configuration:
- Distance: 2.0-mile D-shaped oval
- Banking: Turns 1: 18°, Frontstretch : 12°, Backstretch 5°

Broadcast Information:
- Qualifying: Friday, August 15, 3 p.m. on the Speed Channel
- Race: Sunday, August 17, 1:30 p.m. on TNT
*All times are EDT

Race Length:
- 400 miles (200 laps)

Track Records:
Qualifying:
- 191.149 mph (37.667 seconds) set by Dale Earnhardt Jr. on 08/18/00
Race
- 173.997 mph set by Dale Jarrett on 6/13/99

Notes:
- Larry has competed twice at MIS in the NASCAR Busch Series. In 2001, he started fifth and finished 18th.
- The best performance for A.J. Foyt Racing at Michigan was in the August event in 2000 when they qualified third and finished 29th.

Larry Foyt on Michigan:
"Since we didn't qualify for the last Michigan race, we're really looking forward to redeeming ourselves. I've competed twice there in the Busch Series, qualifying fifth in 2001.
"Michigan is really wide, which allows plenty of room for clean, side-by-side, racing. It's also a multi-groove track, which allows drivers to search for the fastest way through the turns depending on how their car is handling. Although it may not look like it on television, Michigan is a very fast track."