Kansas
By A.J. Foyt


I thought we were going to have a pretty good weekend with Vitor Meira and the ABC Supply No. 14 at Kansas Speedway because he's always run good there and we've won there.


But everything turned sour, including the weather.


After qualifying on Saturday, I had dinner with my son Larry. When we got back to our hotel (across from the Speedway), a lot of people were in the lobby watching the TV news. There was a tornado about a mile from the Speedway! I watched the TV for a little while and then decided I wasn't going to wait and hope the storm didn't hit us. Not when I had a car and I could drive away from it. So I got my son Larry and we headed off for clear sky.


We actually drove to the place where the tornado was when the TV was reporting on it but by then it had moved on.
When we got back to the hotel, I joked around about being a storm chaser but the truth is, I'm scared of those storms and the further away I can get from it, the better. I've had my fair share of trouble without going out looking for it.


The tornado never hit at the Speedway which was a good thing because I didn't realize at the time that Vitor was sitting it out in his coach at the track. He was flipping through the TV channels when he saw the warnings--about two minutes before it was supposed to hit. Unlike me, he did just sit there and hope...and probably prayed.


We had a pretty good car for Kansas. It's not our '500' car which is still being massaged for Indy but it was
definitely a top 10 car. We were starting 14th but we had concentrated on race set-up; it doesn't really matter where you start at Kansas Speedway since there is room to pass high or low.


We made some changes in the race morning warm-up which Vitor liked; in fact, he was happy with the car. At the start of the race he really liked it because he went from 14th to 10th in one lap. He was challenging for ninth when the car developed a 'push.' He started to fade a little and lost the lead pack.


Vitor running out of the draft of the lead pack allowed the second pack to close in on him which it did. He got passed by Marco Andretti and then the 27 car [Hideki Mutoh] chopped him off bad. Vitor had to get out of the throttle because the 2 car [Raphael Matos] was outside of him.


Then here comes Helio Castroneves slamming full bore into the back of Vitor like he wasn't even there! I could not
believe my eyes, or should I say, Castroneves’ eyes. He never even lifted. Vitor went spinning into the wall and we were done after 14 laps.


Castroneves wasn't driving any further than his nose--inexcusable for a driver of his experience. He made a bad
mistake and we had to pay for it. I'm pretty upset with him because that's the second time he wrecked my car by
doing something stupid. The last time was a while ago; it was when my grandson Anthony was driving for me and
Castroneves did apologize. But I'm not going to tolerate it anymore. When I see him, I will have a talk with him.


We tried to fix the ABC Supply car but by the time the car got back to the garage and we finished the repairs to the rear suspension and rear wing mounts, too many laps had gone by to make it worth the risk. So we packed it up and headed home.


We're looking forward to going to Indy with Vitor. He finished second there twice with two different teams so we're planning to go it one better. It'll be the tenth anniversary of our last win in '99 and as they say, the third time's the charm.