Change is good for a race team. Whether it’s a change in personnel or a change in luck or just a change in the way we look at things, change is good. After our race at Kansas Speedway last weekend, we are going to make some changes in our ABC Supply team.
Sunday’s Indy car race was a miserable one for our ABC Supply team. I’m tempted to just look ahead to Indy but I know I won’t get off that easy. Besides, you have to learn from your mistakes.
We didn’t have the car set-up that Darren Manning needed in that race. The right rear was too stiff and the right front was too soft which made for an uncomfortable race car. At first we thought something might have broken but everything checked out back at the shop. My engineer took the blame but we’re all to blame because we all agreed on it and we are a team. So it didn’t work and after several pit stops under green of trying to make it work, we parked the car.
We aren’t changing the driver or the engineer but we are going to change our approach on the short race weekends. We think it will help us arrive at the right race set-up sooner. But we won’t be able to test our theories until the Milwaukee two-day race weekend.
In the meantime, we head to Indy which is a totally different deal. We’ll have lots of practice (as long as the weather holds out) to get it right. And the pressure to get it right is huge. Last year, the ABC Supply car ran pretty good in the race and probably would have finished a lot better if we hadn’t run her out of fuel.
This past winter, my former chief mechanic Jack Starne, (who now is our team’s general manager), spent a couple months massaging the primary Speedway car to make it as aerodynamically fit as possible. He did other things too but his focus was on the Indy 500 car. Slick is quick.
With more full-time teams entered for the 500 this year, I look for qualifying to have more action beyond the Bump Day dramas of the past (which I’ve been known to take part in now and then). I think there are 35 driver/car combinations right now and there will probably be a few more popping up for the second weekend.
Before I go to Indy, I’m going to the Kentucky Derby. I’ve been going since the ‘70s. My son Larry and Anthony (A.J. IV) are going again this year and so is Darren. There’s no telling how much money is going to trade hands on their bets won and lost. We all have a good time and it’s a great way to relax before the pressures of Indy.
On another subject, I was invited to New York to attend the opening ceremonies of the Sports Museum of America next Tuesday. It’s the first museum of its kind because it’s all about sports! If it was happening at some other time, I would have liked to be there. But I’ll be at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first day of practice. It would have been interesting to meet some of the athletes who are going (all legends of their sport) but my priority is, and always will be, the Indy 500.
By A.J. Foyt