Foyt Family Wines Continues Growth with Upcoming Release of the 2010 No. 67 Chardonnay

SEBASTOPOL, Calif.  May 9, 2012--The month of May brings welcoming weather, beautiful flowers and plans for the upcoming summer.

For the Foyt family, May brings an event that all open wheel racing fans spend each year looking forward to: the annual running of the world’s most famous automobile race, the Indianapolis 500. Foyt family patriarch, A.J. Foyt Jr., labeled the King of Indy, is probably best known for his dominance of that race for decades, starting with his first Indy 500 win in 1961.

So how does this tough Texan, known for his prowess at Indy and on race tracks across America, find his name on bottles of fine wine? Foyt Family Wines was created by Larry Foyt and A.J. Foyt IV because of their passion for fine wine, but it quickly became a means of paying tribute to A.J. and his amazing career. Each wine offering has been labeled with a number significant in A.J.’s career, either a car number (No. 14 was the first) or a year in which he won an important race.

“My dad has done so many things for open wheel racing and ultimately the IndyCar Series, and with so many new drivers and younger fans coming into the sport, it’s important for us to pay respect and acknowledge what he has accomplished and what his name means to American motorsports, the Indy 500 and its fans,” Larry Foyt said.

The response to the brand has been tremendous not only because of A.J.’s success and popularity throughout his 60 years of racing, but also because of winemaker Tom Meadowcroft’s skill and Larry’s and A.J. IV’s palates. When a consumer tries a Foyt Family Wine, their reaction is usually along the lines of, “Wow, I’m impressed, this is not what I was expecting.”

And the Winner Is…

HOUSTON May 4, 2012--The votes are in and the race fans seemed to have had as hard a time as A.J. Foyt in deciding which A.J. Foyt Legends shirt they liked the most!

As of around 12 pm ET, the tally was:  Shirt 2 with 30% (210 votes) of the vote to win the design contest.  As for the other designs, Shirt 1 (all Coyote Red) and Shirt 4 (all Black) were running neck-and-neck throughout with Shirt 1 edging ahead with 27.7% (193) of the vote to Shirt 4’s 27.6% (192). Shirt 3 (Coyote Red bottom) was fourth with nearly 15% (102) of the vote.

Look for the winning design to be sold at IndyCar official stores at the tracks and online at Indycar.com and ajfoytracing.com later this month. Thanks to all who voted!

The Indianapolis Colts “Foyt Family Wines” Inaugural Golf Classic
Presented by BullWear® Is Set for May 22 at The Brickyard Crossing

Proceeds To Benefit The Healing Place

INDIANAPOLIS May 2, 2012 – Football, auto racing and golf? The inaugural Indianapolis Colts “Foyt Family Wines” Golf Classic presented by BullWear® offers sports fans a unique opportunity to fraternize with celebrity athletes while enjoying one of America’s favorite pastimes.

Foyt Family Wines owners Larry Foyt and A.J. Foyt IV will host the inaugural golf tournament at the Brickyard Crossing golf course on Tuesday, May 22nd. The Foyt Family, including 4-time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt who will be making a special appearance, along with several IndyCar drivers and celebrity guests, will be helping to raise money for The Healing Place, one of the nation’s most effective long-term, social model recovery programs.

Public registration for this event is limited. Golfers interested in participating can register online at foytwines.com/foytgolf. Onsite registration for this exclusive golf scramble begins at 7 a.m. with the shotgun start kicking off at 8 a.m. A foursome for the outing is $1,300, which includes green fees and four tickets to the Foyt Family Wines “Wine Down” reception immediately following the scramble.  All (100%) of the proceeds from the event’s silent auction will also be donated to The Healing Place.

“I am very excited to have the Indianapolis Colts and BullWear’s support of the Foyt Family Wines Golf Classic during Indy 500 week. Seeing all of the support from these different entities coming together to help raise funds for The Healing Place is pretty cool. We hope to start a lasting tradition synonymous with the 500 mile race,” said Foyt IV.

Wade Cunningham Is Hired To Drive for AJ Foyt Racing at Indy

WALLER, TX April 18, 2012—IndyCar rookie Wade Cunningham will drive for A.J. Foyt in the No. 41 ECat/ABC Supply Dallara as the ABC Supply team prepares its two Honda-powered entries for next month’s Indianapolis 500. Alfe Heat Treating will be an associate sponsor on the No. 41 car for the second year in a row.

“Driving for A.J.? He’s a legend!” Cunningham answered when asked about driving for Indy’s first four-time winner. “A.J.’s from a different era but he’s raced front engine roadsters at the Speedway and ended with the turbo-charged CART Indy cars, so he’s had an amazing career, and his is a very storied team, so it’s quite an honor to drive for him.”

“I think Wade will do a great job for us at Indy and I think he’ll be a big asset to our team,” Foyt said. “I’m really looking forward to working with him.”

“Indy means more to me than anything else,” the 27-year-old revealed. “Winning at Indy in the Firestone Indy Lights Series is the only thing that kept my career on track so it’s important to me to go there and do well in IndyCar and prove that the results can translate.”

Foyt certainly hopes those results will translate because in five of Cunningham’s six starts in the Firestone Freedom 100, he won three times, and placed second and third! Incidentally, Foyt fielded the winning car for Ed Carpenter in the inaugural running of the race in 2003.

Mike Conway Is Third Fastest Among Honda Drivers; Eighth Overall

SEBRING, FL March 9, 2012—Mike Conway wrapped up his second day of testing in the No. 14 ABC Supply Honda/Dallara at Sebring International Raceway Friday.

“We struggled all day to find speed,” Conway said. “We need to go quicker because 4 tenths is massive around here. We learned some things but we have more work to do. We just have to keep working at it.”

Conway’s disappointment in Friday’s sessions is indicative of his competitive fire. Despite being four-tenths of a second off Scott Dixon’s time of 51.79 seconds (the only sub-51 second time), Conway was fourth in the afternoon session. His 52.2243 was one ten-thousandth of a second behind Chevrolet's Rubens Barrichello’s 52.2242 seconds, and 2 tenths behind Dario Franchitti’s 52.0157 clocking.

The team lost much time in the quicker morning session dealing with several new car/new engine issues, however the issues were resolved. Additionally, they explored a different setup from Thursday but it did not produce the quicker times they were expecting. However, that segment of testing also helped them rule out certain approaches.

Mike Conway and ABC Supply Team Enjoy Productive Day of Testing at Sebring

SEBRING, FL March 8, 2012—It didn’t take long for Mike Conway to acclimate himself to the twists and turns of Sebring International Raceway. In the morning session of the IZOD IndyCar Series Open Test, he was second quickest in the Honda-powered No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara. Scott Dixon was quickest.

“Overall the day went quite well,” said Conway. “We seemed to be in the front of the timesheets most of the day but it was more about getting through the program we had ahead of us and really dialing in the car because there’s still a lot of unexplored areas for us with the car. It takes time.”

In the afternoon session, Conway posted the fourth quickest time - 52.2230 seconds for a speed of 115.122 mph around the 1.67-mile short course. The Honda-powered Target Ganassi team claimed the top two spots with Dixon clocking in at 51.9674 (115.688 mph) and Dario Franchitti at 52.1401 (115.305 mph). Driving KV Technology’s Chevrolet/Dallara, Formula One star Rubens Barrichello was just .0002 seconds quicker than Conway with a time of 52.2228 (115.122 mph).

“I’m a lot more comfortable with the way the car’s feeling and the setups we’re exploring,” Conway said. “All in all, the ABC car was pretty quick but there’s still more time in the bag. Once we explore that with another day of running, we’ll definitely be in better shape.”

Mike Conway posts quickest lap on first day of testing at Barber Motorsports Park

LEEDS, AL Feb. 21, 2012—After all the test times from Barber Motorsports Park were turned in last evening, Mike Conway posted the quickest lap of all with a top time of 1:10.7 seconds around the picturesque 2.38-mile road course outside of Birmingham.

Conway’s time was the quickest of the ten Honda-powered cars that attended the test. Reportedly, Will Power was the quickest of Team Penske’s two Chevrolet-powered cars with a lap time of 1:11.2.

“We had a really good day of testing yesterday,” said Larry Foyt, team director of AJ Foyt Racing. “It was a lot of long nights of hard work to get ready for this test as all the teams are trying to figure out this new car as quickly as they can. Our guys did a really good job as the ABC Supply car ran well all day. I love the communication going on right now between the driver and the engineers. Mike was really smart, pushed the car to where it needed to be but didn’t go over that fine line. We made some good changes and learned a lot about the car.”

The teams continue to test today.

A.J. Foyt, who is still recovering at home from the staph infection he contracted following surgery on his artificial knee last month, received encouraging news from his physicians this week. He is expected to return to action in time for the first race in St. Petersburg, Fla. on March 25

Alfe Heat Treating Expands Its Sponsorship with AJ Foyt Racing for 2012

WALLER, TX February 16, 2012 — Alfe Heat Treating returns in 2012 as an associate sponsor of AJ Foyt Racing and is increasing their involvement with the team. What began as a limited race sponsorship starting with last year’s Indianapolis 500, has evolved into a full season associate partnership this season.

“We’re going to be sponsoring the full season this year which is an exciting opportunity for us compared to last year where we only ran five races,” said Kurt Westman, president of Alfe Corporate Group. “The company, its customers and employees really enjoyed the opportunities they had to visit the team, see the car, and talk to the driver. I know they’re looking forward to more opportunities. We’re going to try and be at certain races for each of our plants and entertain customers and employees. Everybody at the company is looking forward to it, as am I.”

“It’s great that Alfe Heat Treating is back with our team this season,” said A.J. Foyt. “We really enjoyed our association with Alfe last year—they’re super people.”

“Our team is really looking forward to working with them throughout the season to make this sponsorship work as well for them as it will for us,” said Larry Foyt, team director of the ABC Supply Racing team.

Don Halliday Joins AJ Foyt Racing as Chief Engineer

HOUSTON January 27, 2012—Don Halliday, one of the most respected engineers in open wheel racing, has signed with AJ Foyt Racing as chief engineer of the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara powered by Honda and driven by Mike Conway.

Halliday’s connection with Foyt can be traced to one of Foyt’s former drivers, Kenny Brack, who won the IndyCar championship in 1998 and followed that up by winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1999.

“Kenny and I were talking about A.J.’s situation,” Halliday explained. “Kenny and A.J. have remained in touch ever since Kenny drove for him, and Kenny is a very good friend of mine, so there was a connection,” said Halliday.

Contact was made with Larry Foyt, team director of AJ Foyt Racing, who has been working the phones since October interviewing several drivers and engineers as he began reshaping the team in preparation for the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series season.

“It’s really exciting to have Don on board with us,” said Foyt. “The chief engineer is obviously a very important piece of the puzzle when you talk about building a race team, so getting to know him and watching him interact with our group as we started to work together makes me very optimistic. I really enjoy his approach to engineering a race car and his methodology, and I think it’s going to fit in really well with our team. So far everyone has jelled very quickly and we’re all really looking forward to getting on the race track and going racing.”