Raceday In The Pits
by Steve Zautke
5/24/2009

Speedway, IN (May 24, 2009) - There's a term, 'if it was easy, everybody would do it.' The largest single day sporting event in the world is the Indianapolis 500 and is not easy. The legendary A.J. Foyt started his first "500" as a rookie in 1958. On the first lap, A.J. Had to work his way through a first lap fifteen-car wreck that took the life of his friend, Pat O'Connor. Later in the race, A.J. Spun out of the race in turn one on his 148th lap and wondered to himself, maybe Indy was too tough.

As we know, A.J. Returned in 1959 and later won the first of his four Indianapolis 500 wins in 1961. However, the following year in 1962, two loose wingnuts caused his right-side wheels to come off after a pit stop during the 1962 race causing A.J. To spin out of the race in turn one. A.J. Was eliminated in the big seventeen-car starting line crash in 1966, only to return a year later to win the "500" in 1967. Indy is not easy. There's a saying at Indy, it's not if you ever have hit the wall at Indy, it's when.

Since he ran his first Indy 500 in 2003, ABC Supply / A.J. Foyt Racing's driver Vitor Meira has never finished lower than 12th. In his rookie year in 2003, he finished one-lap behind, however ever since, he had finished on the lead lap of every race. Last year he backed up his 2005 second place finish with another.

This year the ABC Supply/ A.J. Foyt Racing Team had two cars in this year's field. In the admired No. 14 car was the popular Brazilian Meira who hoped to continue his amazing streak of finishes. In the No. 41 entry was A.J. Foyt's grandson, A.J. Foyt IV returning to the team where he made his first three Indianapolis starts beginning in 2003 when he was the youngest driver ever to start the Indy 500 on his 19th birthday.

The ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Team was confident going into the race as both cars were qualified on the first weekend of qualifications. Together they were able to spend the second week of practice working on race set-up for their Dallara-Hondas. Chief Engineer Adam Schaechter, Team Manager Craig Baranowski and A.J. Foyt worked throughout the final week of practice, tweaking the cars to get the utmost speed and making the cars comfortable for drivers, Meira and Foyt .

Raceday saw Meira starting 14th and Foyt 19th. After a ragged start, the field reformed with Team Director, Larry Foyt saying he would call the green flag since he had a great sightline to the starters stand. The green flag came out, and as the cars came through turns one and two, spotter Larry Arnold alerted Meira to "Yellow, stay low" because Mario Moraes and Marco Andretti had gotten together between turns one and two. Meira has a great start, as he moved up to tenth place.

During the first yellow, the crews of both Meira and Foyt remain static, as it is too early to make a pit stop. The only movement is longtime crewman, Cecil Taylor checking tire pressures on Foyt's next set of tires. Taylor has been with A.J. Since 1966, semi-retired, the Kansas City native manages the tires making sure the sets match-up, tire pressures are correct and adjusting the pressures when changes are made for better handling. Taylor is old-school, even down to his leather United States Auto Club (USAC) belt.

Schaechter and Larry Foyt are directing Meira's strategy as Baranowski and A.J. Direct the No. 41 of Foyt (Anthony).

By lap 13 Meira has had worked his way up to ninth place as both radios are silent. No radio chatter is usually good, as the drivers are happy with their cars and the crews aren't asking the drivers why they're falling back.

A bit later Baranowski asks Taylor to make a pressure change as Anthony tells his crew he's "too loose in turn one." A.J. Relaxes Anthony by saying, "Well adjust it, at the next stop, it'll be fine."

After the first stop, Baranowski goes over to the Panther Team in the pit box to the North and talks to David Cripps and John Barnes about pit entry as Anthony and Dan Wheldon had a close call entering and leaving the pits. The quick conversation is amicable, because it's advantageous to both to cooperate to have a good race.

Anthony did not have a great stop, due to that he has fallen to 28th. A.J. Is quick to pump up his driver by saying to him on the radio, "Let's get a good start here, perhaps we can get a couple of spots back."

Meanwhile behind the pit stand a Foyt crewman monitor the cars, RPM's, tire pressure, speed, weight jacker settings, and most importantly fuel mileage. Sometime after the green flag, once a lap target or pit window is figured out, a piece of paper is handed up to the race strategist and pit strategy for this cycle begins. This scenario is played out after every pit stop.

During one pit sequence, Schaechter advises Meira who has complained of "no grip in the front of the car" that the crew will make a "down wing" adjustment on the next stop. However later Schaechter advises, no adjustment, just tires and fuel. The reasoning? Schaechter lets Meira know that he made a tire pressure adjustment to fix the dilemma, plus track position is becoming very, very important. It is hard to pass today, the ABC Supply No. 14 needs stay in the top-12.

Lap 134 is when Indianapolis shows how tough it is. Under yellow, Meira comes in for his scheduled pitstop. However a problem with the fuel buckeye on the fuel hose causes leaking ethanol on the car to catch fire. Almost the entire car goes up in a clear flame that has a orange tint. Meira showing his incredible coolness stays calm and remains in the car as crewman and firemen douse the motionless car in water. After four tires and a front wing adjustment, 95 seconds later the ABC Supply No. 14 car is back on track.

Lap 163 Meira, takes on four tires, fuel, tire pressure, front wing adjustments and ten seconds later is away. Anthony takes on four tires and fuel and is away in twelve seconds.

Just when you think it cannot get worse it does. Making a risky move, rookie, Raphael Matos crowds Meira as they lock wheels entering Turn one. Meira spins towards his right, makes heavy contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 1 with the front of the car. The car goes onto its right side and slides through the turn on its right-side along the wall before landing on its wheels and coming to a rest at the entrance of Turn two. Matos makes contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn one with the right side of the car and comes to rest mid-track. After initial assessment by the Delphi Safety Team, Meira is gingerly assisted from his car and sits on the sidepod. Moments later he walks to the ambulance to be evaluated. Matos escapes injury.

Meanwhile Anthony soldiers on, and completes the race, completing 200 laps and comes home in 16th place. After the race he comments , "It's hard to say you're really happy with a 16th-place finish but just coming in for the one race here, I was pretty happy with the car. We worked on it a little bit throughout the day and got it good there at the end. We really never could get any track position to show how good the car was until there at the very end. That's when we ran our quickest laps . Back there with the slower cars, I myself was probably a little rusty. I couldn't get my timing down to make some passes that I should have been able to make on the restarts, but we finished all 200 laps and we held our own against whoever we were racing against, so we've got to be a little bit happy that we brought the car home in one piece. I just hope Vitor is OK."

Meira is transported to Methodist hospital where he undergoes an MRI and is discovered to have broken two vertebrae in his lower back during a crash with Matos. He'll spend at least two days in an Indianapolis hospital and looks to be fitted with a back brace.

However, it's time for the ABC Supply /A.J. Foyt team to catch its breath and go to Milwaukee. The popular ABC Supply / A.J. Foyt 225 is next at the historic Milwaukee Mile. Since 1903, the Milwaukee Mile has been holding races and this year's race looks to be one of the best. For the third straight year, and 52nd time in IndyCar Series history, The Milwaukee Mile immediately follows the Indy 500 on the series schedule. Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves is headed to The Milwaukee Mile for this weekend's ABC Supply / A.J. Foyt 225 IndyCar Series race, set for a 2:30 p.m. CST green flag Sunday, May 31. For tickets go to www.milwaukeemile.com for details.





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