FOYT ON KIRKWOOD
AJ Foyt Racing president Larry Foyt (above) is confident that Kyle Kirkwood can shine despite being a rookie, and that the team can raise its game to match his efforts – partly thanks to having Sebastien Bourdais in the #14 car last year.
“Working with a proven champion like Sebastien was a benefit,” he says. “He’s still quick and also had the experience to highlight areas where we needed to make gains. But it really boosted our morale to be able to get such an accomplished rookie as Kyle. He’s been on my radar for years because he’s such a special talent.”
And the one day of testing they’d had together at the time of this interview endorsed that view: “His approach, his calmness, what he understood already, meant that the progress we made from where we started to where we got to was great. Listening to Kyle’s feedback, watching him drive the car, I could tell it wasn’t a case of the car driving him, which you sometimes get with rookies. He was on top of it, really knew what he was looking for, and was very articulate in his feedback. It just seemed to come quite easy to him, and so we’re excited to have a rookie who’s already mature beyond his years.”
And Foyt doesn’t take it as an insult that Kirkwood says there’s not as much pressure on him at his new gig as there would be at teams with better recent results. “That’s actually kinda how we sold it to him!” he chuckles. “Kyle did have other things he could have done. But I told him, ‘This is a chance for you to have a low-pressure situation, if it doesn’t go well it’s going to be blamed on the team, and if it goes well we all win. So let’s do this together, try and surprise people and get you some good experience.’
“Let’s be honest, Kyle knows that even if we struggle, he’ll still have other options at the end of the year. But we genuinely believe together we can go and prove some of our naysayers wrong, so everyone will benefit.”