Alabama


By A.J. Foyt


Racing in Alabama for me always meant running wide open in a stock car two or three abreast around Talladega Superspeedway, at 2.66 miles, it’s the biggest oval track I ever raced on. I even set a world track speed record there in 1974 with my Coyote Indy car – 217.8 mph which seems pretty tame these days.


So when we returned to compete in the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama with the ABC Supply No. 14 Indy car, well it couldn’t have been more different. The track, Barber Motorsports Park is just that, a park with well-tended lawns and rolling hills. It’s a great place for the fans to watch and the race teams to work.


But it’s not a place for the Indy cars to actually race.


The 2.38-mile race course is built for motorcycles and is too narrow for the IZOD IndyCar Series. Period. They need to widen the track somewhere to create at least one place to pass because Sunday’s race was a snoozer, and a confusing one at that.


Most of the passing took place in the pits when the teams used different fuel strategies. I guess if you’re going to have a boring race, it might as well be in a beautiful place because maybe then the fans won’t notice as much? There were a lot of fans there too –I hope they come back next year.


It doesn’t help that we had a disappointing weekend. Although we got the ABC Supply car to Vitor’s liking in the race morning warm-up, we were starting 20th at a track you can’t pass on. I’m not a fan of that knock-out qualifying because his best lap time was 16th fastest overall but we still start 20th. But 16th vs 20th isn’t that much better anyway. Bottom line is we need to get better at qualifying. Much better.


Make it two in a row for a race strategy that didn’t work. But this time it was because of a botched pit stop on lap 28 when we went from the primary black tires to the alternate red tires. It was supposed to be a quick stop with only enough fuel as it took to change the tires because we wanted it to be a short stint. Well we took on 20 gallons—two shy of a full load because someone had trouble with a wheel nut.


The red tires held up a lot better here than they did at St. Pete so Vitor was able to do the whole run. His second stop was normal and we put on another set of blacks which we ran to the end of the race. We had to stop for a couple seconds worth of fuel on lap 67 and that dropped us to 19th. The yellow with four laps to go cost us a couple positions since there were a few who might have had to stop without that yellow. We finished 18th. We ran in the top 10, but never at the right time.


I had hoped Vitor’s 100th IndyCar race would have been more memorable. Mine was…I won a 100-miler at Springfield in 1965 (of course I wouldn’t have mentioned it if I hadn’t won!). Seriously, I hope Vitor wins his first IndyCar race with us. He’s come so close so often that I know he’s ready.


I have to give a thumbs-up to Simona Di Silvestro--the rookie lady driver—she’s really impressed me with how quickly she has adapted to the cars and the tracks.


It’s a quick turnaround in Houston this week. The transporter returned from Birmingham yesterday at 6:30 a.m. and our truck drivers Rodney Klausmeyer and Ronnie Schultz head out to Long Beach, California at noon today.


The rest of our ABC Supply team will be figuring out how to improve things so we can come out of Long Beach with a decent finish which will keep us in the top 10 in points and me from being grumpy.


After all, when A.J.’s happy, everybody’s happy. Just ask my team.