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Young driver running first of three races for BAM Racing
Larry Foyt and the #59 BAM Racing Dodge team head to the 1.5-mile Lowe’s Motor Speedway, located in Concord, N.C., for Saturday night’s UAW-GM Quality 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race.
Foyt joins BAM Racing with an extensive background in both stock car and open wheel racing. Part of the lineage of the legendary A.J. Foyt, Larry Foyt raced in the 2003 NASCAR Nextel Cup season for A.J. Foyt Racing, as well as in this year’s Indianapolis 500. Foyt has a variety of racing experience from USAC, ASA, NASCAR Busch, and Nextel Cup series.
The team is owned by Beth Ann and Tony Morgenthau, investors from Coral Gables, Fla. Ms. Morgenthau, whose initials make up the name of the team – BAM Racing – is the only female car owner in motorsports to become involved without prior family connections. General manager Eddie Jones is a veteran of the NASCAR Nextel Cup wars, enjoying a championship career as a crew chief, mechanic and team leader. Business manager Gus Larkin is a successful veteran motorsports marketer, and leads the corporate sponsorship activities.
The thoughts of BAM Racing Dodge driver Larry Foyt heading into Charlotte:
“First off, I just want to make clear how excited I am about coming on board with BAM Racing. This is a great opportunity for me and my career; to be able to race for an established organization, which I’ve seen grow - which we’ve all seen grow - over the past two seasons. I’ve grown to know Beth Ann and Tony Morgenthau over the past several years and it’s been good to see their program improve. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to not only prove myself but to help the program take that next step.
“This will be the first time I’ve driven for a race team owned by someone outside of the family. It’ll be a neat experience, something different that I’m looking forward to. Having two cars is something I know BAM Racing is looking forward to in the near future, so it’s important for us to perform well this weekend. The only other time they’ve fielded two cars in the same race was at Infineon and both cars finished well out there. Hopefully, we can duplicate the same performance this weekend.
“With the exception of Texas, I can’t think of a better place to start my first race for BAM Racing than at Charlotte at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. It’s a good track to race on with plenty of tradition and character. You have to be as careful as you can not to overdrive the car or you’ll end up in the wall - especially over the bumps that are pretty drastic there. If you aren’t conscious of your entry and you enter the turn over aggressively, you can be in a world of trouble.
“We know that there will be a lot of cars trying to qualify for the race Saturday night… and that’s good. We’ll get a good gauge of where we’re at in our first race together, and we’ll go from there. Hey, if it was easy, everyone would do it. I’m looking forward to the challenge as is everyone on this BAM Racing team. I’m also looking forward to having Kenny Schrader as a teammate. He and A.J. Foyt know each other pretty well and he has said often how A.J. helped him throughout his racing career. Hopefully, a Nextel Cup veteran like Kenny can return the favor.
“As for now, we’re planning on running three Nextel Cup races with BAM Racing before the end of the year; starting in Charlotte, then Atlanta, then the season finale in Homestead. After that we’ll see. We’re actively working on securing sponsorship for the 2005 Nextel Cup season. It’s my job to make the most of this opportunity that the Morgenthaus have given me. I think we can be competitive this weekend and as a team we won’t accept anything less.”
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