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Larry Foyt Notes, Quotes: Miami 400
by Richard Williams, BAM Racing
15 November 2004
MIAMI, Fla. -- Larry Foyt and the #70 BAM Racing Dodge team head to the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway this week for Sunday’s Miami 400, the final race of the 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup season.
Foyt recorded the best Nextel Cup start (12th) and finish (16th) of his career the last time he visited the Homestead-Miami Speedway in November of last year.
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 Homestead:
“In the brief time I’ve had here in Nextel Cup, probably my fondest memory is the Homestead weekend last year. We had our share of troubles throughout the 2003 season, but it just was a spectacular weekend for us last year at Homestead. We had two career bests; our career best qualifying spot of 12th and our best finish of 16th in what’s been a pretty short Nextel Cup career so far.
“I don’t know if it’s anything special about the track, but, to tell you the truth, I don’t care. The fact that we’ve been successful there before is special enough to me. It gives us more confidence on qualifying and on race day. I’m sure it’s that way with anybody at tracks where they’ve enjoyed success before. If you’ve been fast there before, you believe in yourself and no matter what happens you can be fast there again.
“But, first things first; we need to make the show. We tested there and had a pretty productive test session. It was the first time I’ve really had the opportunity to do some quality testing with the team and I think we learned a lot. Testing and ‘gelling’ with a race team is so important for the continuity of a race team. Still, by running a new team or new number, we don’t have owner points and attempts to fall back on. Yes, we have a couple provisionals, but we’re going into this weekend knowing that Friday we have to be on top of our game, and qualify in one of the guaranteed top 38 spots if we want to race on Sunday.
“Every year about this time you start seeing a lot of new faces in new places. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about my situation with BAM Racing. I haven’t been on the Nextel Cup circuit much this year, and I’ve been talking with the Morgenthaus for quite some time. We’ve built a good relationship and, hopefully, together we can work something out for 2005. I’m just really excited about this opportunity. It’s up to me to be sure I make the most of it each time out with this group.
“It’s the end of the season and you’re starting to see some new faces in new places. For most it’s either a tryout of sorts, or an opportunity to get a head start for next year. For us, we’re working on sponsorship for 2005 and hopefully we’ll get something going, because I’d love to be with BAM Racing next season. This is a top notch organization with a great staff; from the owners, to the management, to the crew, to my teammate Kenny (Schrader). I know it would mean a lot to Beth Ann if we can qualify and give her two cars in the race at her home track, and we’ll be looking to do that on Friday and hopefully have a great, productive race weekend altogether.”
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