Iowa
By A.J. Foyt


We flew to Iowa a day early so we could also make a stop in Beloit, Wisconsin. Vitor Meira, myself and my son Larry plus some team members went to the first annual Founders’ Celebration of our team sponsor ABC Supply. Honoring the company’s founders, Ken and Diane Hendricks, the month long celebration takes place throughout the company’s 350 locations. Capping it all off was the celebration at the ABC headquarters in Beloit last Thursday held during the annual company picnic.


Ken’s accidental death in December 2007 changed ABC Supply forever but not the basic values that made it the nearly $3 billion private enterprise that it is today. The impressive headquarters is actually a refurbished manufacturing plant facing the Rock River. Ken and Diane believed in giving second chances to people, companies, and in some cases, buildings.


ABC Supply has made a positive difference in a lot of people’s lives. Their mission is to be the best company in America to work for. I ask you—how many companies make that their mission? And by working towards that goal, they have become the biggest and best at what they do—supplying roofing and siding materials to contractors. Their philosophy is one that Ken and Diane practiced -- treat others the way you’d want to be treated.


David Luck, the company’s president and ceo, was hired in 1998 to grow ABC beyond the $1 billion company it was at that time. With the recent acquisition of Bradco Supply, the company’s sales are expected to top $4 billion! I’d say Dave and his executive team (five are Hendricks’ children) are doing a helluva job!


Also doing a helluva job this weekend was our driver Vitor Meira. Since Texas and for the rest of the season, we’ll be going to tracks with Vitor for the first time but we have a good baseline. In Iowa, the ABC Supply car rolled off the truck and was in the ballpark setup-wise. It’s a good thing because the truck was parked in spot number 13 which was also our garage number.


But I didn’t actually notice that number until we crashed in the final five minutes of the second practice! Vitor had just laid down a lap that was fifth quick when he came up on Ryan Hunter-Reay who was having some handling issues (pushing) with his car. Vitor had to move up the track to avoid him and the No. 14 got into the marbles and brushed the wall hard enough to ruin the right side suspension.


The team replaced it in time for qualifying but it was good that he was next to last to qualify! Without another practice, Vitor was going to have to trust that everything was as he remembered. He qualified 13th! I was starting to see a pattern here, but Vitor assured me that the car was faster than that and if he’d known it was going to handle as good as it did, we would have been in the top 10.


He felt good about our chances in the race, and so did I.


And the race did turn out good. He passed a lot of cars and some, like Ryan Briscoe, three times! Part of it was that the Penske team beat us out of the pits, due partly to their pit location being so close to pit out. All things being equal as far as timing, the cars closer to pit out do have an advantage. But Briscoe also got his car better by the end of the race so that helped or Vitor would have passed him again! Briscoe finished fourth.


There were four cautions during the race and we pitted on the final three. We had one long stint where Vitor, who’d been challenging for eighth, had to drop off his pace because his tires gave out – the tire was down to the cords and he got a big push. He almost went a lap down but the yellow came out about five laps before his fuel stint was up so that was lucky. We finished the race as the last car on the lead lap. We picked up a couple positions when Dario Franchitti, who’d just retaken the lead, had a gearbox problem and Hunter-Reay had a pit stop problem.


So our unlucky 13th turned into a lucky seventh. The way Vitor was closing in on Scott Dixon the final 10 laps, it would have been sixth had it been the Iowa Corn Indy 255 instead of Indy 250. But we’ll take seventh because after 10th place finishes at Kansas and Texas, we’re headed in the right direction in the IZOD IndyCar Series.


On our way to New York next week, we’re stopping in at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for a one day test there on June 30th. We have some things we want to try on the ABC Supply Dallara/Honda for the road and street courses since that’s where we’ll be for the next five races through July and most of August.


Please tune in to ABC-TV on Sunday, July 4th to see the Camping World Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International. The action starts at 3:30pm ET.


Before I go, congratulations to Tony Kanaan on a well-deserved win after a two-year drought! Tony drives hard all the time—just like another driver I know whose time in Victory Lane is coming soon.