Kansas Speedway
Kansas Lottery Indy 300

Kansas Speedway
 

Race Report – Kansas

The Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway demonstrated the continual improvement in A.J. Foyt’s ABC Supply Racing team Sunday afternoon under sunny skies.

Darren Manning posted the best qualifying effort on an oval for Foyt’s team in over a year with his 11^th quickest run out of 21 entrants. Previously the best run was tenth at the 2006 season opener.

At the start, Manning moved into 10^th and then into 9^th by lap 14 but by the time of his first stop he had dropped back to 15^th. Changes were made to the car which was suffering from a loose condition at one end of the track and a pushing condition at the other. He moved into twelfth and after his second stop, it appeared, the next set of changes were more to his liking.

Taking the high road on the restart, he passed several cars before turn one only to have another car move up on him as he entered the turn and sending him into the marbles. By the time Manning had collected the car he was last. It took several laps to clean off the rubber build-up on his tires from his near collision with the wall. He lost valuable track position, finding himself over half a lap down from the leaders.

He spent the next 80 laps trying to regain the time he lost which was tough to do since the race stayed green the entire stint. Flawless pit stops by the ABC Supply crew helped him in his task. he slid into 11^th with 12 laps to go. He was getting ready to challenge the ninth and tenth place cars when the caution flag waved with two laps to go for Scott Sharp who spun and hit the wall between turns three and four. Manning’s bid for a top 10 finish fell short. However, it was his best finish of the season as the team continues its ascent towards the top five.

Dan Wheldon won the race over Dario Franchitti, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon and Tomas Scheckter. A.J. Foyt IV posted his best showing of the season for the Vision Racing team by finishing ninth.

The ABC Supply team headed back to their Houston race shop to prepare the cars for the Indianapolis 500. They will arrive in Indy on Friday and take up residence in the Speedway area for the next three months.

NOTES & QUOTES: Kansas Lottery Indy 300
Darren Manning: ABC Supply No. 14 Dallara/Honda/Firestone

Manning on Kansas Speedway: “Kansas Speedway is one of the superspeedway tracks that I call big pack racing. Qualifying doesn’t matter here because you can drop to the back and come to the front because of the help you get in the draft. It’s important to have a comfortable car in the race and that will be our challenge to find the right set-up in the two hours of practice we have. I think the important thing is that with each oval track race we do—this will be our third oval—we keep learning and improving our communication.

Foyt’s ABC Supply Racing team is working out of the Speedway garages this week as they prepare the No. 14 Honda-powered Dallara for this weekend’s race. “Coming back from Japan on Monday didn’t leave us enough time to go home to Texas to turn the cars around in our race shop,” said Foyt. “It made sense to stay in Indy.

Best Finishes at Kansas: A.J. Foyt Racing’s best finish at Kansas was their victory in 2002 with driver Airton Dare. Earlier that day, A.J. Foyt IV won the inaugural Infiniti Pro Series race there and went on to win the title with three more victories.

ABC Supply roofing customer Russell Mason Enterprises won ABC Supply’s ‘Your Name Here’ contest for the Kansas Lottery Indy 300. The company name will be atop the sidepods of the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda. The contractor will receive selected merchandise, race tickets, hospitality and garage passes, plus a Meet and Greet with Darren Manning and A.J. Foyt. The “Your Name Here” promotion selected winners by random drawing from a pool of entries sent in by ABC Supply customers earlier this year.

Last race: In the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi, Manning started 18th and finished 12th. Hoping for a yellow flag that never came, Manning had to duck into the pits for a splash of gas with four laps to go.

The Kansas Lottery Indy 300 will be shown live at 4:30 p.m. eastern time Sunday, April 29th on ESPN2.