The Has Been Who Never Was
Foyt returns to Indy, smaller fuel cells, Harvick wins IROC title, and the Brickyard 400 from Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Foyt's Return to Indy.......
Storied race driver A.J. Foyt's return to The Brickyard as a Winston Cup car owner this season has left the famous veteran caught up in his continuous habit of scratching his head, wondering what went wrong.
Word came out last week that Foyt was fielding a second No. 50 Pontiac entry for P.J. Jones, the son of famous race driver Parnelli Jones. The No. 50 recorded the worst qualifying time for the event, over a full ten miles per hour off of the record setting pole speed of 182.960 set by Tony Stewart. It was revealed during the qualifying attempt that the only reason that Jones was hired was that Foyt has tested the No. 50 at Indianapolis, and if he didn't enter it in the race, he would be subject to a heavy fine from the sanctioning body.
The fact that Stacy Compton was released recently kind of put a monkey wrench into Foyt's works. Word has it that he originally planned to put Mike Wallace into the second car, then when he lost the use of Compton, he was out of a driver for the No. 50. Wallace's qualifying time was the worst of anyone entering the race. As a matter of fact, some of the entries who were sent home had much better speeds than Wallace did, but they didn't have the owner's points to allow them a provisional start. Wallace's speed of 173.849 for his 43rd starting position is a big joke, along with A.J. Foyt's foray as an owner in Winston Cup. Ron Hornaday went home with a speed in the 177 range along with Derrike Cope and Scott Wimmer. Tony Raines and Jim Sauter went home with speeds in the 176 range and Stuart Kirby went home with a speed of 175.5.
Smaller Cells?
Yes, that's right, switching to smaller fuel cells is the latest brainstorm to come out of the NASCAR think tank, if anyone would choose to call it that. The powers that be feel that with 12.5 gallon fuel cells as opposed to the regular sized 22 gallon cells, the field at restrictor plate races will be broken up so that there won't be the dreaded packs of racecars racing in close proximity, waiting for the "big one."
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