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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 11th quickest run out of 21 entrants. Previously
the best run was tenth at the 2006 season opener.
 At
the start, Manning moved into 10th and then into 9th
by lap 14 but by the time of his first stop he had dropped back
to 15th. 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 11th
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. |
