Comments on: Will Hunter-Reay Click With Foyt?

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:19:16 +0000

I allege that Dale Coyne Racing gets better results with shoestring budgets. AJFR is sucking wind. I wonder if A.J. told Paul at Milwaukee, “You just got passed by a GIRL!”

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:15:42 +0000

Soldiering on the remainder of the season, finishing eleventh to sixteenth, will not help Ryan to garner a better car elsewhere next season. Sad… I’d like to see Ryan replace Princess if AGR can’t find financial sponsorship to hire Paul Tracy. Sounds good. Tony and Ryan could likely get along well.
Or maybe KV Racing could pick up Ryan. Jimmy raced with Ryan years ago at ASTJ.

By: Dale Nixon

Dale Nixon — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:00:36 +0000

Not sure if it’s fair to maintain that AJ Foyt Racing (the team) has been a total failure…I have an issue of AutoWeek with Kenny Brack on the cover as Indy 500 winner in a Foyt car. I guess in a glass-half-full scenario the argument can be made that no team does more with less. And Paul Tracy certainly didn’t help the cause huffing and puffing from being out of shape at Milwaukee.

As for RHR, I don’t think it will be a good mix. He’s a sensitive driver and hasn’t proven very adept at improving the car.

He’s good in a good car.

The argument can be made that the success he had @ Rahal last year was as much a result of the restructuring of what had been a three-car team in 2006 (in which the Ethanol car was distinctly third on the totem pole behind Danica and Rice) downsized into one last year. The Watkins win was fortunate for Hunter-Reay, and there seemed to be a non-factor result for every inspired drive.

As far as disappointment in the tenure at Vision, I’d point out that he had the same engineers he worked with at Rahal behind him, so it’s not like they cut corners in that regard.

AJ expects hard drives, and RHR still has something to prove. It will be interesting, to say the least.

By: Brad Black

Brad Black — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:54:21 +0000

Nice article George, I too lost a little something for Hunter-Reay not so much what he was saying it very well might be correct. But it would have been much better to say in private and work towards resolving the problems. I thought he came off kind of like a spoiled kid, just my opinion. There is no doubt he has talent winning races in both Champ Car and IndyCar, so i think there was a problem somewhere there whether it was him, the car, the team, or a combination of some or all. I don’t know how well he will do in the #14, I do think that for the good of the league he needs to run well and make Izod a happy camper….anyway nice article

By: tim nothhelfer

tim nothhelfer — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:23:58 +0000

The prospect of RHR failing and his talent becoming invisible in the #14 makes me queasy. On the other hand IF he can archive some good finishes I will be happily surprised….

By: H. B. Donnelly

H. B. Donnelly — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:55:43 +0000

The really important question: will they put A.J. Foyt in an Izod commercial?! Seriously…if they can find a shirt in their stock big enough for ol’ A.J., they gotta put him in there…

“Everything’s gonna beeee alright….”

“Daggum, no it ain’t! The damn transmission is fallin apart, the fuel usage is terrible, and I been attacked by wild, fire- and sulfiric acid-spittin’ white tigers while tryin’ to drive my lawnmower out of a volcano!”

….all kidding aside, they could use someone calling race strategy in those ads…A.J.’s a pretty good candidate. And that car looks terrible…they need to fix that up.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:31:24 +0000

I agree, RHR was a sour puss all May, but I think we need to cut him some slack. The guy has been through a lot of adversity in his career, and May seemed to be the first (and so far only) time he displayed such a demeanor in public. I have a feeling there was a lot more going on behind the scenes at Vision than we know about. I am of the opinion that there was some friction between Tony George, and RHR in addition to his frustration with the incompetent Vision JV squad. I think that his move to Foyt was precipitated by a mutual divorce between him and Vision. Everyone is trying to hard to put a happy spin on it.

You sum up the faults of the Foyt operation pretty well. But I still don’t I don’t expect we’ll see RHR acting like Marco during his time at Foyt. He’s a professional, and has proven he can succeed in a variety of different teams. However, I also don’t think we’ll see him break the top 10 in a Foyt car, which is unfortunate. I expect he’ll soldier through the remainder of the season and hope to land in a better seat next season. Hopefully they don’t set him on fire.

Now in an ideal world RHR would move to AGR to replace the Princess, and the l’enfant terrible (Marco) would move over to Foyt. Tell me it wouldn’t be fun to watch SuperTex slap the smirk off that spoiled brat’s face? That would be fun to watch.