Kentucky
By A.J. Foyt


Rain…tires…pits…wings. All played a part in our IndyCar race weekend at Kentucky Speedway.


First the rain. It didn’t really rain much on Friday and not in the afternoon at all, so it must have seemed strange to the fans that showed up for the practice and qualifying sessions that we were delayed due to moisture on the track. But that was the case. The past seven days of rain raised the water table and the ground water came seeping up through the seams in the race track. So we sat ready to go and watched the track officials try to patch the areas where it was happening (mostly in the turns).


They didn’t get it done on Friday so qualifying was cancelled and we put the cars away Friday night. We’d line up according to owner’s points, which isn’t good for our ABC Supply team…it meant Ryan Hunter-Reay had to start 17th.


And it rained again that night.


The Saturday schedule had to be changed around some but they were able to get the Indy Lights race in and also a 75-minute IndyCar practice in for us. But then the Firestone tires became an issue. I know Firestone doesn’t really like to see their name in this column because it’s usually not good news. When it comes to me and Firestone, no news is good news for us.


The problem cut into our practice time as we tried to isolate what was causing a vibration in the right rear of the car. But I have to hand it to Firestone in this case because they knew they had a problem and they worked with us to make it less of one for the race. We weren’t the only ones ‘with issues’ but it was big enough on our car that they needed to change the way the tires were mounted. (It wasn’t a safety issue though). Part of it too may have been that Ryan is more sensitive to the feel of the car than some other drivers because it’s been an issue all year but this is the first time we lost practice time because of it. Anyway, Firestone made it better.


Starting 17th, Ryan got off to a pretty good start, moving into 14th by lap four. But as he closed in on traffic, the car picked up a push so once the tires’ newness wore off and the grip level went down, he couldn’t challenge for position. I told him to hang on until the first pit stop which would come around lap 50. We could make a wing change and that would help.


It was that pit stop on lap 48 that changed the race for us, especially since the race had only one caution period for five laps around lap 120.


On that first stop…he came in, got fuel, tires and a front wing adjustment—one turn of more front wing. Leaving the pits, he didn’t get it into first gear immediately so he had to pop it again and actually went into second. That slower acceleration (and possibly with the wing change), delayed his exit enough that he got caught up in the accident between the two youngsters, rookie Mike Conway and 20-year-old Mario Moraes. Both are fast, brave and impatient, which is probably why neither of them has a top-five finish this season even though they’ve had the car to do it. If they do figure it out though, they’re going to be tough to beat.


Back to the pit stop. As Ryan is leaving, I see Conway leaving his box (behind us) and I tell Ryan “outside, outside.” And then here comes Moraes from way outside trying to beat them both to his pitbox which was just ahead of ours. How he thought he was going to make it, I don’t know. Well, he didn’t.


Ryan, who, as I said was a little slow leaving because of the gear thing, jammed on his brakes and was able to stop in time. There was a small amount of damage on the leading edge of the left front wing and the right front wing endplate. We’d lost enough time as it was so we told him to try it and see if he could live with it. He did and said it was ok.


Despite all the confusion in the pits, the officials didn’t throw a yellow, so we went down two laps right away. We lost enough track position that we went down another lap before it was over with. We were able to adjust the car where he could run with the leaders towards the end of the race despite the chipped wing, but we couldn’t make up the laps we needed to. He finished 15th but he did finish.


The aero changes and options that the IRL officials gave the cars really helped the show because the cars were able to run side by side for laps at a time. The fans got to see some great racing, more like what they had come to expect from the IndyCar Series but hadn’t seen much of this year up to now.


Ryan Briscoe edged out Ed Carpenter (who’d led quite a few laps) right at the line by thousandths of a second. I was happy for Tony George and his entire team as second is their best ever finish in the series. It was a heckuva show.


As far as the push-to-pass button in the engine management system went, Ryan said he didn’t see much of a difference. It could have been because of the gearing we had in the car or when he decided to use it. We’ll be looking at that closely so he can take full advantage at Mid-Ohio.
We head to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this weekend. It’s supposed to rain, but at least we’ll still get a chance to qualify because the Indy cars run in the rain on the road courses. We’ve had some pretty good runs there in the past (and so has Ryan) so I’m looking forward to a good weekend for my ABC Supply team.


You can see how good it is by watching on VERSUS this Sunday afternoon starting at 1pm EDT.