Larry Foyt Finishes 17th at Memphis

MEMPHIS--Driving his Harrah's Chevrolet, Larry Foyt finished 17th in the Sam's Town 250 NASCAR Busch Series race at Memphis Motorsports Park Sunday afternoon.

Rain on Saturday forced the postponement of the race to Sunday. The grid was set according to owner's points when qualifying was washed out on Friday. Foyt started 25th.

Foyt had worked his way up to 16th about midway through the race when he spun after entering the corner too hard by his own admission. He dropped back to 24th but was able to get the car going without bringing out a caution flag.

He battled back to the 17th position when the checkered fell. Randy LaJoie took advantage of the final lap altercation between Jay Sauter and Jeff Green to take the win. Green recovered to finish second. He was followed by Kevin Harvick, Sauter and Jeff Purvis.

Notes & Quotes: NASCAR Busch Series NAPAonline.com 250

On the past race at Charlotte: "On the start, the car jumped out of gear. I started to put it in fourth but I couldn't get it in quickly enough so I dove to the apron so I wouldn't cause a big wreck. I finally did get it into fourth but I lost a lot of track position. On the restarts, I just held it in third gear so it wouldn't happen again. It was a shame because that Harrah's Monte Carlo was one of the better cars we had all year. I passed a lot of cars, ran lap times in the top-10 and avoided a lot of close calls. Unfortunately, I just couldn't make up the track position." The start was particularly unfortunate because Foyt qualified 15th. He dropped back to last on the start but climbed back up to 24th.

Future Watch: Larry Foyt is a monthly contributor to CBS.Sportsline.com under the Racing/Future Watch section of the Web site. Known for his articulation and insight, Foyt writes about safety in racing in the October 11th column. Other contributors are: Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman.

On Memphis: "I ran at Memphis last year in the ASA (American Speed Association) Series. It's a pretty fast track for its size. It's been difficult to find similarities in the tracks that I've run before in the ASA and now run in the Busch series. The tracks seem different in the Harrah's Monte Carlo, I guess because the car is faster than my ASA car. Don't get me wrong, it still helps to have been there before, but it's not as much of an advantage when the equipment isn't the same. I'm anxious to see the differences next month at Phoenix because the last time I competed there I was in an open-wheel Formula 2000 car."

Team MVP Award: Tim Secora won the award for this week. Tim pitched in by doing double duty when another crew member had some health problems.

Harrah's Visit: Foyt paid a visit to the former Memphis headquarters of Harrah's Entertainment Thursday. The company still houses its Corporate Services department there.

Bash on Beale: Foyt joins many other Busch Series drivers Thursday evening in the autograph session in downtown Memphis at Rum Boody Café on Beale Street. The proceeds will benefit St. Jude's Children Hospital.

Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. has been honored with the prestigious Darwin Fittest 50 Award from IDG's Darwin magazine for its innovative customer relationship management strategy. It is the only gaming company to be recognized with this award. Other honorees include AOL Time Warner Inc., Boeing Co., Charles Schwab Corp., Citigroup Inc., Deere & Co., General Electric Co., and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.


Points standing: Foyt is 23rd in the points; he has earned $369,687 to date.

Best Busch Series Start: 5th at Michigan International Speedway on August 18.

Best Busch Series Finish: 12th at Talladega Superspeedway on April 21.