|
Mid-Term Report Card
by Larry Foyt
With 16 of 33 races completed, it's time for a midterm report card on my rookie season in the NASCAR Busch Series.
My freshman year in NASCAR has certainly been an experience; the crowds, the competition and the speed are all things I thought I was prepared for back in February. But, there's nothing quite like five months of on-the-job training to give a young driver the full picture.
The Harrah's Racing team stands 27th in the Busch Series Owner Points midway through the season. I'm not really proud of our current position; however, when I take the time to remember how far we've come in building this team, I realize that I wouldn't describe our standing as terrible either.
I've had two key lessons learned in the months since we started the Harrah's Racing team, and they've concerned technology and trial & error. The technical aspects of this sport are so important that a young team like ours could spend our entire rookie year trying to "flatten out the learning curve" to get to the level of consistent performance that makes the more competitive teams so strong every week.
We really thought we had a leg up on the competition when we bought our initial set of cars from DEI (Dale Earnhardt) to start our Busch team. The cars were solid, unfortunately we spent a good deal of time modifying them to meet NASCAR's new templates. It needed to be done, but every day a car spends getting overhauled in the shop to meet specifications is one more day were not gathering information on the track and looking for the little things to change to make that car faster.
David Evans is one of the top engine builders in the sport, and runs the program over at A.J. Foyt Racing, where we lease our engines for the Busch team. When it comes to power, we have run into the same problem that many of the other Busch teams are battling as well, COST. The new Busch engine rules have increased the motor bills for this season, which was something that took a bigger bite out of our budget than anticipated. While David has been able to build good engines for us, we haven't really been able to do as much research and development as we'd like to be doing. We're getting better every race, but the continual chase for more power is a battle we fight every week.
One thing is for certain. When this team sheds the yellow stripe on the bumper and we're no longer rookies, we'll hit the track during the winter months for pre-season testing. Testing is so important for a young team like ours because certain cars run well on certain tracks, and it is necessary to find which cars run well on banked tracks, which cars run well in flat tracks, etc. Unfortunately, we have had to learn this by trial and error this season, which has probably cost us a couple of spots to the learning curve.
All in all, I'm happy with the equipment we have to race. The cars keep getting better and I can't ask much more of this team when it comes to preparation. In the first 10 races of the season, we had ZERO mechanical failures; that sent me right to Outback Steakhouse with my winnings from those races to buy family gift certificates for the team. While we continue to build a solid foundation here with the Harrah's team, a record like that makes me believe we've got a good future in store.
If I'm going to assess the team, I certainly should take a look at the driver. Some of my friends say that I have a tendency to judge myself pretty harshly, but I've never struggled to run up front in a series like I have this season. I keep reminding myself that I only have previous racing experience on 3 of the 28 Busch Series tracks we'll race on in the 33 week season (Milwaukee, Memphis and Gateway).
I tell myself to be patient, that I'm still a rookie, it's only my second year of racing, etc... But, all that aside, I'm still not performing at the level I want to be. To date, my best finish is 12th (Talladega), but I'm really anxious to log my first top-10 and looking forward to returning to Milwaukee after the two-week lay off. I knew I would struggle at some of these race tracks, but I'm prepared to log laps and learn in anticipation of better performance when we return for the second half of the season. We've torn up a couple of race cars, but most of the damage has been caused by getting caught up in the messes of others (there's a typical driver, huh?), and some better qualifying efforts would increase my odds of running all the laps by starting toward the front.
Well that brings you up to date on the first half of the season. It is a work in progress, and I'm continuing to learn every time I get in the car (my testing session this week in Watkins Glen is testament to that). Experience is invaluable in this business, and as my team and I gain more of it, I know we will continue to improve.
This weekend will provide some much needed down time, and I'll spend it showing around some friends visiting from Texas. Familiar faces from home and the new battery I just put in my Jet Ski have me looking forward to the break, but I know I'll be anxious to get back in the car when the new week rolls around. I'll get ready for the race in Milwaukee when I return to the shop; hopefully I can turn the experience I gained in my ASA run there into my first Busch Series top-10; or better!
Thanks for all your support,
Larry Foyt
|
