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Chicagoland
Speedway
Tropicana 300
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Location: Joliet,
IL
Shape: Tri-Oval
Distance: 1.5
miles
Banking, Turns: 18
degrees
Front Straight: 2,400
feet
Banking, Front
Straight: 11 degrees
Back Straight: 1,700
feet
Banking, Back
Straight: 5 degrees
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Chicagoland Speedway
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Movin' On Up
Larry Foyt started 33rd and finished 22nd Saturday afternoon in the inaugural Hills Bros. 300 at Chicagoland Speedway, a brand new 1.5-mile track in Joliet, Illinois. The race was held before a capacity crowd of 75,000 under sunny skies.
Foyt's finish moved him to 22nd in the NASCAR Busch Series points, the highest his Harrah's team has been since early March.
"I was really frustrated because we had an awesome car," said Foyt of the No. 14 Harrah's Monte Carlo. "Jon and the Harrah's crew gave me great pitstops and the car was handling so well but it just didn't have the power coming off the turns. Handling-wise, that's the best the car has been in a long time but because of the motor problem, we couldn't capitalize on it. At the end of the race I was just riding around hoping to finish."
Foyt had gotten as high as 15th in the field but an engine problem, suspected to be a broken valve spring, left him with only seven cylinders for much of the race. Despite the setback, he managed to avoid several accidents, some of which happened directly in front of him.
"There was just one groove out there, and if you got out of that groove, you were in the wall," said Foyt afterwards. This was Foyt's first race using the Hutchens Device, a new head restraint belt system designed by
Autoliv, a world leader in automotive safety research and design. Fortunately, Foyt did not have to test its effectiveness.
There were nine caution flags in the race won by Jimmie Johnson, who, after 58 starts, became the third first-time winner on the Busch Series this year. Johnson's team called for a two-tire pitstop with less than 40 laps to go which gave him the lead. His only challenger appeared to be hard-charging Ryan Newman who tagged a lapped car and then tapped the wall with two laps to go. Newman, who lost a left front wheel in the incident, ignored a black flag and then was penalized two laps dropping him to 26th.
The race capped a busy weekend for Foyt. He appeared at an autograph session at the Harrah's Casino in Joliet Thursday evening. Friday evening he visited with approximately 75 guests of Harrah's at a reception held in the casino.
"Overall, we had a great time this weekend," said Foyt. "I always enjoy racing at those tracks where Harrah's has a casino nearby. I usually end up giving back some money to the casino but I have a great time doing it."
Pre-Race Notes & Quotes:
On Chicagoland Speedway: "We didn't test here before this
morning's practice," said Foyt. "The track is smooth and fast
and pretty challenging. It has a lot of grip but we're trying to find
even more. Compared to the other 1.5-mile tracks I've run like Charlotte
and Atlanta, this track seems flatter but it has more banking than
Vegas. I like it. Nearly all of the tracks have been new to me on this
circuit, but this track is new to everyone so I won't be at as much of a
disadvantage."
Testing at Indy: The Harrah's/Foyt team is planning to test their
Monte Carlo at Indianapolis Raceway Park Tuesday, July 17th.
On Watkins Glen: "At the beginning of the race, we were just
riding because our goal was to just stay on the track. But we slid off
early -- it was pretty quick -- we didn't lose a lap. Then we were going
for the conserve fuel strategy and we were up to 15th but then fell back
to 25th when we broke the track bar. It took 15 laps to fix it so there
were only about 10 laps left when we rejoined the race. We ended up
30th."
 Points
standing: Foyt is 23rd in the driver's points; he has earned
$224,072..
Best Busch
Series Start: 14th at Nashville Superspeedway on April 1
Best Busch
Series Finish: 12th at Talladega Superspeedway on April 21
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