Yahoo Autos Foyt team living the high life again
A.J. Foyt Racing is performing at a level it hasn’t experienced in more than a decade.
Its legendary No. 14 entry, driven by 26-year-old Santino Ferrucci, has been the revelation of the season. Thanks to key technical changes and overall maturation within the program, the Woodbury, Connecticut native heads into this weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto street race holding 10th in the drivers’ standings.
It’s something the team hasn’t known this late into the season since 2013, when Takuma Sato held 10th after 11 races. The squad’s rise started in 2023 by adding championship-winning race engineer Michael Cannon to the program as its technical director and, halfway through that season, it forged a technical alliance with Team Penske, which has supplied race engineer James Schnabel to oversee Ferrucci’s car.
After the No. 14 took a nosedive when longtime sponsor ABC Supply left at the end of 2019, the blend of Cannon, Ferrucci, Schnabel, plus the hiring of Craig Brooks as its team manager in 2023 to assist team principal Larry Foyt, has transformed the outfit’s fortunes.
The team’s story for far too long with the No. 14 has been one of turnover, signified by its use of four drivers — Tony Kanaan, Dalton Kellett, Sebastien Bourdais and Kyle Kirkwood — from 2020-22, and shortcomings. Bourdais’ run to 16th in the 2021 championship was the lone highlight among finishes that were deep in the 20s during the other seasons.
Ferrucci’s arrival in 2023 was encouraging as he dragged the No. 14 from 24th in the standings the previous year to 19th. And without yet another change in driver, the team began finding its groove in its second year together with Ferrucci given a chance to settle and show the full breadth of his talent. IndyCar’s oldest team, which performed like a relic not so long ago, is now the top challenger among the series’ giants.
“When Santino and I talked at the beginning of the year, top 10 in the championship was the goal and, and obviously to win the Indy 500, so those were the two things on our radar,” Foyt told RACER. “We missed it a little bit at Indy, but the overall competitiveness of the whole team has been really nice and put us in this position where we know we have things to work on.”
From 10th, Ferrucci’s next target is Penske’s Josef Newgarden in ninth, and then it’s Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi in eighth. From there, it’s all Penskes, McLarens, Andrettis and Ganassis. Saying such a thing, even 12 months ago, would have been impossible.
“We haven’t qualified as well as we’d like to at a lot of places, but Santino has been doing a great job on race day to get it up in the top 10,” Foyt continued. “And the crew has been great as well. So all those things together? Yeah, it’s been a lot of years since we’ve been this high in the championship this late in the season.”
Some have been quick to hail any of Foyt’s improvements with the No. 14 as being due to the Penske alliance. It’s a hard situation to be in, but Foyt hopes his loyal crew will receive the recognition they deserve for improving the car’s consistency and reliability to complement the added speed they’ve had to use.
“Certainly you’re not going to make everyone happy, and that’s fine,” he added. “We’re still a long way from perfect or where we want to get, anyway. It’s always a work in progress, but it has been very nice and we’ve definitely benefited from the program with Penske. It’s really great working with those guys and girls, but we also have some really good people on this team. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at our group as a whole, and we’ve had what I feel is just a really talented group.
“Some of the engineers that have come to the team, second year here with Cannon, and the whole group is just really a solid group right now. And then you just put that with also being able to work with Penske, and it’s been a really nice upgrade for us.”
Within an ever-strengthening IndyCar field, both Ferrucci’s No. 14 and Robb’s No. 41 are moving up. Josh Tons/Motorsport Images
With its best championship finish since 2002 — when Airton Dare placed ninth — in sight for the No. 14, the approach Foyt is taking to the six remaining races is simple.
“We’ve just been talking about keeping it rolling on,” he said. “Just keep doing what we’re doing. I don’t want to sit here and say, ‘Oh, we have to be in the top 10 in the championship, or this is a failure of a season.’ It’s not at all. I think we’re. as a group, just continuing to grow, continuing to jell together, and we just want to keep this top 10 momentum going.
“And could we sneak the car into the top five at a couple of these events? Absolutely, even at a road course event. I think that we have that potential right now to be there. The series is so deep right now, you really have to perform and to deliver the full weekend to get it done. So we’re trying to put together a full weekend.
“And Sting Ray just keeps on improving. We’re thankful he’s OK and has been cleared [following his last-lap wreck in Iowa]. He went by the race shop today, which was really good news. Man, if he can just keep doing what he’s doing, we’ll try to get that No.41 back in the Leaders Circle.”
