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 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 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 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