Toronto

By A.J. Foyt


A top-10 finish in Toronto! Well maybe we have gotten that monkey off our back—finally. It’s been so long that I almost forgot what it was like to finish in the top-10! Who’d think that I’d be happy with a seventh place finish? Let me tell you, when Ryan Hunter-Reay drove my No. 14 ABC Supply car back to the pits without a scratch after the checkered flew, I was thrilled. Period.


That just goes to show you what kind of a season we’ve had this year…four different drivers, ten races, and in seven of them we had to visit the Dallara parts truck -- even for a couple races where we actually finished the race. We’ve gone through some front /wing nose assemblies this season.


We started out the weekend running in the top half of the field after we made some changes in our team because it wasn’t working the way it was. I’ve got good people but we needed to shift some responsibilities which appear to have helped. Everyone still has their job, some just have different jobs now. And we are going to continue to make changes until we’re competitive everywhere we go.


Qualifying went better for us, not spectacular but better because we made it out of the first round into the top 12 for the first time this season. We ended up 12th so we still have some work to do there. But we had good company since Team Penske was starting 10th and 11th. Ryan was surrounded on the grid.


In the Honda Indy Toronto race, Ryan moved into eighth by lap eight after passing Paul Tracy (he was one of our drivers this year) on track and benefitting from incidents on the first lap that involved Will Power and Graham Rahal. Not sure how Ryan Briscoe got a flat tire but he also had to pit early.


When the yellow came out on lap eight for the accident with Dan Wheldon and Ed Carpenter, we decided to pit because we started on the red-rimmed alternate Firestone tire and we didn’t think it would last long. At least those tires didn’t last long in St. Pete and Long Beach. We didn’t get to find out in Watkins Glen how much the tire had been changed.


We had to pit again on lap 46 after getting as high as second during the pit stop cycle. The ABC Supply crew did a good job getting the No. 14 out of the pits in eight seconds despite having to make a front wing adjustment. We came out in 11th and got back to eighth when we were planning to pit again for the final time on lap 59. If we had been able to get in like Dario Franchitti (who was running fifth), it would have been a whole different race. But Ryan wasn’t to the pits when the yellow came out so he had to stay out.


At the time we pitted, we couldn’t have made it to the end without 10 laps of yellow (or so I was told—I will be checking on that). We actually did get those 10 yellow laps which is how Danica Patrick and Justin Wilson who didn’t pit then got ahead of us. But that’s the difference between having a season go your way – or not.


We needed to finish this race and I wasn’t in the mood to gamble on the fuel, certainly not for 10 laps. So we pitted with everyone else and dropped back to 14th! Then again, if we’d been able to capitalize on the yellow, maybe we would have been in the Paul Tracy-Helio Castroneves accident. It was a racing accident but Helio seemed like he might have been able to avoid the second hit. The Canadians thought so too. The last time I heard that many boos at a track was at a NASCAR race when the Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Sr. fans were going at it.


After that accident we were up to 10th so things were looking better. Then Ryan saw a situation sizing up in front of him with the other Canadian Alex Tagliani trying to get past Mario Moraes. The squeeze play didn’t work and they took out Tomas Scheckter too. We gained three more spots, not exactly the way you want to do it but I have to tell you, Ryan did a great job of getting clear of that accident.


I thought he might have something for Patrick but she was on fresh red-rimmed tires and he was on that first set of red tires that we’d taken off on the first stop. It was enough to keep him behind her. He was disappointed that he couldn’t get by her but like I told him, we did get a top-10. To be truthful, he was having a tough season before he came to us so that monkey was on his back too.


Between the two of us, it was starting to feel like a gorilla. I hope it's gone for good.


The IndyCar Series has this weekend off before we head to Edmonton, Canada which is why my grandson A.J. (Anthony) Foyt IV and his fiancée Casey Irsay planned to get married this weekend. I thought I’d be flying to her hometown of Indianapolis but they’re getting married in Napa Valley. So my wife Lucy and I, our daughter Terry, our son Jerry and his wife Kate, my buddy Jim Greer and my publicist Anne and her husband Drew Fornoro are all flying out together on Saturday. Anthony’s parents, Tony and Nancy, are already there--so is Larry who is the Best Man.


I wondered if I’d live long enough to see Anthony get married but he found a real winner in Casey and I mean that in the best sense. She’s a pretty little thing and so sweet that she could be from Texas! She’s been great for him and he’s lucky that she said yes.


Yeah, it looks like things are turning around for the Foyts, on track and off.