Richmond
By A.J. Foyt

After a good finish at Iowa Speedway the week before, my ABC Supply team was looking forward to racing at Richmond. However, the set-ups we had been developing for the 14 car on the ovals this season, which seemed to be working for us everywhere else, didn’t work that well at Richmond. So we ended up switching our set-up to a more conventional one which Darren seemed to prefer for the banked short oval.

After all the rain we had in central Texas (where I have a lake house), the last thing I wanted to see in Richmond was more rain. But it rained hard Friday afternoon and washed out qualifying. We started the race by points so Darren started 13th in the ABC Supply Dallara/Honda. And although there was a full moon that night, it was a pretty calm race. The most important factor was track position because it was very hard to pass there.

Darren slipped to 14th early but then he managed to pass a couple cars by the time of our first pitstop on lap 63. We got him out in 11th and things were looking pretty good. Then he came up on my grandson A.J. Foyt IV who was a lap down. Anthony didn’t cut his old car (or good friend) a break though. I preached to him when he was driving for me to make the faster cars go around him on the outside. Apparently he was listening.

He listened well because he was too fast for Darren (or even the leader and eventual winner Dario Franchitti) to pass him on the outside and Anthony made sure no one got under him. Unfortunately for Darrenhere was a brake check up ahead of Anthony and by the time the chain reaction made its way back to Darren, he had to swing wide to miss hitting Anthony in the rear. Darren went into the marbles and he had all he could do to keep it off the wall.

He lost a position to Vitor Meira, lost track position to everybody and a lap to the leader Franchitti. The way the race played out, there wasn’t an opportunity to get the lap back. On top of that, a little miscommunication to Darren by me caused him to stay out when the leaders pitted on lap 159.

When he did pit a lap later (he had to because we were at the end of our fuel window) he came out behind Marco Andretti and Anthony! Darren dropped from 12th to 14th which is where he finished.

It was my fault and I told him so. I also told him he drove a good race and I appreciated his not wrecking the car earlier when he got in the marbles. It could have happened pretty easy on that track.

I know Darren is looking forward to running at Watkins Glen International this coming weekend because he grew up racing on road courses in England and Europe. He had a good race going earlier this year at St. Petersburg so I’m sure he’s anxious to get back on a road course.

He also had a good test session at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course a couple weeks ago so we feel we have a good baseline set-up for the natural terrain road courses which we can now fine-tune for the Glen.

The race will be televised live by ABC Sports Sunday afternoon starting at 3:30 pm. I hope you’ll tune in.

In the meantime, I am watching the weather reports and hoping the lake doesn’t keep rising like it has for the last week. Hopefully things will turn around—and soon!