Last year they kept saying that this was the season AJ Foyt Racing was going to “turn around”. They signed Tony Kanaan and Matheus Leist and claimed this was the season. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. But they’ve resigned their two drivers for a second season, breaking their tradition of not keeping drivers for more than a season.
Has anyone else noticed Tony Kanaan real quick to jump in if someone has said he’s had a bad season? Here’s the thing, it’s not been a great season for Tony. I’m not saying he should quit. I’m saying they had some figuring out to do in the off-season. In the 2017 season, Kanaan had seven top tens with one of those being a first-place finish (Texas). This past season, he had one top ten finish.
I don’t want to lay all the blame at Kanaan, as those familiar with our show know, I’ve spared no mercy when discussing the decisions of AJ Foyt. It’s disappointing to see such finishes from a great individual, a man who does triathlons for fun, and the best ambassador INDYCAR has. We all as a fan-base enjoy seeing Kanaan do well because we all appreciate him. A lot of things will be reviewed over the off-season, and I am hopeful that next year we see a better season from Tony.
Tony has apparently moved from Florida to Indianapolis (I have no confirmation of this, but I really think I heard it at the Rev Kick Off event). The team is split into two different locations for the cars, one in Indy and the other in Texas. Perhaps being in the same city as one of the cars will help.
Matheus Leist. God. What a season for the kid. You want to like him because he really seems genuine and good. Looking purely at the numbers – well he wasn’t the lowest place full-time rookie. He didn’t seem to improve his finishing position, but it didn’t suddenly trend down either. It was just a ‘meh’ season. It was his first season though.
Then if you look into the races themselves you realize that he’s had shit races. Phoenix and the Tire-less Donut. Texas and the Fire.
We’ll see what happens in 2019 with Matheus and the team.
God help them if I hear one more person say they are “turning it around”.
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