The 91st running of the Indy 500 commemorated A. J. Foyt’s 50th anniversary at The Brickyard. The race program contained a feature story on A. J. and a color fold-out of the young Super Tex, who was the first driver to become a 4-time winner of the 500.
And since then he added a number 5 as a team owner in 1999. A. J. delivered number 4 exactly 30 years ago. On that day he asked Speedway owner Tony Hulman to go on the victory ride around the track with him. It was the first time Mr. Hulman ever did that, and he died before the following year‘s race. So for his 50th, it was only fitting that A.J. asked Tony George to ride around the track with him before the race started. A. J. was the only big name owner to stay with Tony when he created the Indy Racing League.
For A.J., the race was special because it was the first year that his son, Larry Foyt, was his team manager, and that his grandson, A. J. Foyt IV, drove the 500 for someone other than A.J. [Vision Racing]. As it turned out both of the Foyt team cars were running at the end of the race, [driven by Al Unser Jr. and Darren Manning] as was A.J. IV’s.
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Alex Lloyd decided today that nobody was going to catch him, and they didn’t. Starting second on the grid he led every lap in today’s Freedom 100. Not only did he keep his undefeated string going for the 2007 Indy Pro Series [four wins], but he became this first driver in the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to win a race there on BOTH the 2.5 mile oval track and the 2.605 mile road course.
While the Pro Series started running on the IMS oval in 2003, their opportunity to race on the road circuit is more recent. The IMS road course was created and opened for the F1 U.S. Grand Prix in 2000. It was not made available for another venue until 2005 when the IPS held their first race on the F1 circuit, on the F1 race weekend. Given that the Indy cars have not yet raced on the IMS road course you can see that only a limited number of drivers have had the opportunity to even have a chance to race on both circuits – basically just Pro drivers so far.
Still, the list of those who have had a chance has been growing. Going into today’s race there were seven names [unless we missed a driver]. Ed Carpenter won the inaugural Pro race on the IMS oval in 2003, and drove in the inaugural 2005 Pro road race, even though he was driving in the IndyCar Series at that time.
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Phil Giebler sure knows how to get attention and good PR at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. If you can’t win the pole [too bad, as Helio Castroneves snapped up that one] then bump your way into the 33rd starting position on Bump Day.
As a development product from the Indy Pro Series, Phil is one of seven “grads” to be in the starting lineup for this year’s Indy 500. Of the group of seven, Phil has separated him from the other six [ Marco Andretti, Ed Carpenter, A. J. Foyt IV, Jon Herb, Marty Roth and Jeff Simmons] by being the only one of them who will be a rookie. And that gives him one of the greatest opportunities ever to be this years Indy 500 Rookie of the Year, which means lasting PR.
There is only one other rookie in the field, Milka Duno. 50-50 odds don’t get much better. The racing between these two drivers will be well worth watching. Two years ago Danica Patrick led the race and was the Indy 500 Rookie of the Year. So in the span of two years and one day we might have two female drivers winning the award. On the other hand, Marco Andretti led the race and won that title last year, thus in the span of one year and one day we may have two Pro Series grads winning – our math assuming that there is no rain delay.
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