Larry Foyt – The Pit Window by Mike Silver

Kimball Joins Foyt for May in Indy

February 11, 2021 thepitwindow

Photo of Charlie Kimball by Joe Skibinski, Indycar

Charlie Kimball will return to A. J. Foyt Racing for two races in 2021, entering the GMR Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 15 and the 105th running of the Indianapolis 500 May 30. Kimball brings his Tresiba sponsorship to car number 11 this season.

In a full time ride with Foyt in 2020, Kimball had best finish of eighth in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg finale. He ended 2020 18th in the final standings. The COVID-disrupted scheduled cost Kimball and the team valuable input from Sebastien Bourdais, who was cheduled to begin the year with Foyt and help get the cars set up. Bourdais is with the team full time for the new season.

Kimball will be attempting to qualify for his 11th 500 mile race. In 2020 he finished 18th after starting 29th. He finished third in 2015 and fifth in 2016 and has two other top 10 results in the 500.

Today’s announcement brings the confirmed entry list for the Indianapolis 500 to 28. Dale Coyne with Rick Ware Racing should announce their two drivers fo May, which raises the total to 30. Getting to 33 should not be an issue. I’ll discuss the field and possible entries more next week.

In a teleconference this afternoon, Larry Foyt said he was happy to get to work with Kimball again.

“Charlie was awesome to work with last year. We know Charlie and we trust Charlie.”

KImball hopes to build on how last season ended with Foyt.

“The results at St. Pete showed the progress we made as a team. We hope to be able to build on results of that last race.”

Kimball added, “I’m very comfortable heading back to Foyt. I feel I have unfinished business. We have built a solid foundation”

Kimball regrets that series races at long Beach and Toronto were cancelled last season.

Foyt said there are no plans to run a full time third car in 2021.

“We’d love to have Charlie full time, but going to 3 full time cars would have to be a really good situation. We are just focused on results this year.”

In the past few years, Foyt said the team has had ” too many changes, no consistency in drivers or engineers. I feel like its all headed in the right direction now. The Indycar field is really strong. Getting top 5s and top 10s is the goal.”

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Indycar field is really strong. getting top 5s and top 10s is the goal.

Kellett and Foyt Hope Full Time Ride Leads to Success

December 15, 2020 thepitwindow

Dalton Kellett and Larry Foyt both believe that a full time ride in 2021 will allow Kellett to develop his skills at a faster pace. because of the constantly changing schedule in 202, Foyt thinks that Kellett didn’t get the seat time he needed.

“2020 was even tougher for him than we expected it to be being a rookie with limited track time and having to deal with shorter race weekends,” Foyt said in this afternoon’s press conference.

Kellett added, ” (I) Learned a lot last year,and that was with limited track time, limited testing. So being full time in the 4 car is going to be a great opportunity.”

Having Sebastien Bourdais as a teammate should help Kellet develop. He was impressed with Bourdais at the Barber test.

“…having Seb on board is going to be a great asset to the program. I’m really looking forward to working with him. We had a great test earlier in the off-season at Barber Motorsports Park in October, and seeing how he works with the engineers and how exacting he is with his feedback and what he wants out of the car was pretty eye-opening.”

As for goals for 2021, Foyt set realistic expectations.

“Top-10s are the goal here at first and solid qualifying. I think we lacked some pace on some of the permanent road courses that we’d like to add.”

The team has added some mechanics to try to shore up weaknesses in the team.

Foyt added that a third full time car is not likely.

“I would say no in 2021; barring I win the lottery or something like that. It’s something on our radar for sure. I’m a big person who thinks growth is important to any business, but it has to be done the right way.”

He did say that a third car for the 105th running of the Indianapolis 500 is possible.

Foyt said that he had just a brief introductory conversation with former F1 driver Romain Grosjean.

This team has a lot to prove. having Sebastien Bourdais all season should help their development. I hope Bourdais can mentor Kellett and that he can improve his driving skills. We should know pretty quickly where A. J. Foyt Racing is headed in 2021.

Foyt Looking to Reset with Kimball

January 22, 2020 thepitwindow

Photo from Charlie Kimball’s Twitter page

“Let’s hit the reset button,” Larry Foyt said, We want our effort to start showing results.”

Foyt explained one of the reasons the team signed Charlie Kimball for the full season ride in their car number 4 for 2020. He is impressed with the feedback Kimball provides. “I enjoyed the challenge of bringing my Indycar experience to Carlin,” Kimball said. He hopes to do the same thing at A. J. Foyt Racing.

Kimbal is looking forward to running a full season after a brief part time stint with Carlin in 2019. “I would not have survived a,a,partial schedule again. It was really tough on me watching races from the sideline,” he said.

“Running a full schedule allows me to stay in rhythm,” Kimball added. He said he felt other drivers were ahead of him when he drove since they were driving every race.

Kimball thanked his sponsor Novo Nordisk, his sponsor for the last twelve years. The company which has been with Kimball since his Indy Lights days will be the primary sponsor for six races during the upcoming season.

Foyt said last year the team went the wrong direction on dampers. “Our setups showed well off the track, but they didn’t work when the track changed. Our setups weren’t working with the dampers.” He hopes Kimball’s mechanical feedback can help point the team in the correct direction.

Team goals for 2020 are second round qualifying on road and street courses and fighting for the top 10 in the championship. Kimball sees no reason the team can’t qualify in the top 12 at Indianapolis or perhaps be in the Fast 9.

Foyt said the number 14 car is a “work in progress.” An announcement may come in a couple of weeks. Asked about Tony Kanaan, Foyt answered, I’m sure he will be part of the team.”

Thoughts

Whatever some may think of Kimball’s driving ability, I have to tip my hat to any driver who runs a partial season after being a full time driver then bounces back with a full time ride the following season. That doesn’t happen very often.I’m not su

Kimball Has a decent record in the Indianapolis 500 with four top 10 finishes in nine races. He was third in 2015 and fifth in 2016. Foyt’s cars have run well at IMS. This could be an interesting combination in May.

I think Foyt’s team goals will be difficult to achieve. The top 10 is a tough club to break into. I could see some good results and some road/street qualifying success, but I’m not sure we’ll see the consistency he’s looking for this year. His goals are admirable and I hope the team gets a sniff of them.

Rumors are that the 14 car will be shared by Sebastien Bourdais, Dalton Kellett, and Tony Kanaan. Kanaan is slated for the ovals, I’m hearing. Kimball will need to provide strong feedback to the drivers, especially the rookie Kellett.

The Foyt cars may be hard to spot for a couple races without the familiar ABC Supply Co. logos. I’m glad they will return for the Indianapolis 500. Iwill misss them the rest of the season.