Season Opener
By A.J. Foyt


The new IndyCar Series opened the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway Saturday night with some fast-paced, wheel-to-wheel racing and I would say everyone was pretty satisfied overall. There were a few accidents but everyone walked away (and in the case of Tony Kanaan, he drove away after doing an unbelievable job in avoiding what could have been a bad accident).


It was a difficult adjustment for the champ car regulars but they are a talented group. They face a big challenge but I wouldn’t underestimate their ability in adjusting to the new cars, the new tracks and the new competition in record time.


Darren Manning started 12th in the ABC Supply Dallara/Honda/Firestone on the 25-car grid. I have to be truthful though, we struggled for consistent speed last weekend. In the race we were running tenth in the beginning but as the race went on, the car seemed to lose overall grip. It was toughest in the middle part of the race. By then Darren was in a classic catch-22 because he had to move over for the leaders which meant he’d get junk on his tires (from being off the racing line) and have to spend a couple laps getting them clean while trying to regain his rhythm.


We made some adjustments on our third stop that improved the car and he picked up a second on his lap times but it was too little too late. We finished 13th. The good news was that we tried some of our boys in new positions on the pitstops and they did a good job.


My cars, chief mechanic and engineers are off to Marietta, Georgia for some wind tunnel testing. I had planned to go but had to be back in Houston for some meetings.
We’re looking forward to this weekend in St. Petersburg because Darren ran great there last year (until that little spin late in the race). Darren’s a really strong road racer and I expect him to run good again this year even though there will be a few more veteran road racers from the champ car series.


The Honda Grand Prix will be run through the streets of St. Petersburg Sunday afternoon. It will be televised live by ESPN starting at 2:30pm eastern time. I hope you tune in.