Tuesday, March 7, 2017

IndyCar Season Preview: A.J. Foyt Racing

With the IndyCar season under a week away, Hoosier Speedsource will begin previewing each team's season over that time.

A.J. Foyt Racing

Foyt comes into 2017 as basically an entirely new program, with a switch from Honda to Chevrolet power/aero kits, and a healthy amount of changes in the staffing area of the team.  Additionally, the team has two new drivers, with Carlos Munoz and Conor Daly replacing Takuma Sato and Jack Hawksworth, respectively.  

2017

#4 - Conor Daly - 18th in Points in 2016, One Podium at Detroit - ABC Supply



#14 Carlos Munoz - 10th in Points in 2016, Two Podiums (Indianapolis 500 & Mid-Ohio) - ABC Supply



Foyt, like Coyne could have flashes of brilliance this season.  Having switched to Chevy, they now have the superior car package for the vast majority of the schedule.  Additionally, with the new engineering manpower on the team, there exists a possibility that the seemingly blind squirrel could find a nut.  For Munoz, the possibility of him winning at Indy may be over, as it is quite clear the Honda teams have the superior package there, but he can now be a force at pretty much every other track on the schedule, which he has not been in previous years, mostly due to Andretti's woes on the road/street courses.  It's quite possible that Munoz could be on the podium several times this year.  As for Daly, he needs to use this year as a learning year.  With guys like Super Tex and Munoz at his disposal, Daly has a large amount of resources available to help him improve his oval racecraft, which is still rather raw.  However, I expect Daly to be competitive the majority of the time on the road & street courses, and he may challenge for a win more than once this year.

Indy

In the past few years, Foyt has run three cars at Indy.  However, with the switch to Chevy, Larry Foyt said that he wasn't comfortable running three cars at Indy while trying to learn a new aero kit.  Because of this, expect two Foyt cars at Indy unless if the field absolutely needs a third.

Predictions

Daly - 17th in Points
Munoz - 13th in Points

Images from IndyCar.com and Motorsport.com

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