IndyCar notes: Foyt happy to share No. 14 with Stewart

EDMONTON, Alberta — Tony Stewart has always talked about being a big A.J. Foyt fan, and it turns out the feeling is mutual.

“Tony and I have been friends for a lot of years. I think it’s an honor for me to have somebody like that run No. 14,” Foyt said in reaction to Stewart’s announcement Friday in Indianapolis that he will use Foyt’s traditional number on the NASCAR Sprint Cup car he will field for his new team next year.

“You know, I’ve had a lot of fun with that number through the years, and so have a lot of people,” added Foyt, whose IndyCar Series team is in Edmonton for Saturday’s race. “I think it will be great, great, great.”

There are a lot of similarities between Foyt and Stewart.

Both are known for hot tempers, saying what they feel and winning on the racetrack.

Stewart is a two-time Cup champion, a former IndyCar Series champion and two-time winner of the NASCAR race at Indianapolis. Foyt, long retired from the cockpit, won races in open-wheel — including four Indy 500s — sports cars and stock cars, including a Daytona 500, in a driving career that spanned nearly 40 years. He also became a team owner at age 30, about seven years younger than Stewart.

“What’s going to make it easier for Tony being a car owner, he’s still a driver and he’s still competitive,” Foyt said. “So he’ll know what he wants, the crew that he needs. So that makes it a lot easier instead of just a guy going in and not knowing what to do.”

Darren Manning drives the No. 14 IndyCar for Foyt, who said he first adopted the number in 1966.

“I just decided I wanted a number that people would remember me by,” Foyt said. “Even after I won the (open-wheel national) championship in ‘67, I still went back for 14. Everybody was asking, ‘Why didn’t you want (No.) 1?’ I told them I just wanted to stick with one number.”

Foyt also pointed out another tie-in to Stewart, who currently drives the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

“No. 20 used to be my father’s old midget number years back … back when I was a little baby,” said Foyt, the first four-time Indy 500 winner. “I’m just glad to see him have two of the numbers we’ve run through the years with the Foyts.”

Foyt said he had a phone conversation with Stewart earlier Friday and Stewart asked him to be at Daytona next February for his debut as the owner-driver of Stewart-Haas in the No. 14 Chevrolet.

“I told him I’d definitely be there and I think he’s going to hold me to that,” Foyt said, laughing.

GETTING IT RIGHT: Bruno Junqueira’s Dale Coyne Racing crew got less than two hours of sleep Thursday night, working on the Brazilian driver’s spare car until 5 a.m. Friday.

Junqueira slid off the track during Thursday’s final practice, damaging his primary car.

“The car was loose and got a little air under it,” Junqueira said. “It slammed down so hard it cracked the tub. We had to go to our older backup car, which is 30 pounds heavier. The team did an incredible job, staying through the night to get the car ready for practice and qualifying.”

They switched the tub and had to change it from an oval setup to a road course setup, changing the bell housing, gears, suspension and fuel pump. The crew of Mario Moraes, Junqueira’s teammate and countryman, stayed until 2:30 a.m. to help.

The work paid off as Junqueira made it through the first of three rounds of qualifying Friday and nearly made it into the final round, earning the seventh starting position for Saturday’s race.

SUITS ME: Tony Kanaan’s race-day uniforms are special-ordered from Italy, complete with the name of that week’s race embroidered on the side. After each race, that’s week’s uniform is auctioned off for a charity.

On a normal week, the uniform arrives on Friday or Saturday, in plenty of time for the Sunday race.

This week, however, the race is on Saturday and the blue design of Frank’s Energy Drink has replaced the green of Kanaan’s regular sponsor, 7-Eleven, as primary sponsor on his No. 11 Andretti Green Racing Dallara and on his uniform. Somehow, with those changes, the delivery has not gone smoothly.

Kika Garcia-Concheso, Kanaan’s associate, said she called to find out where the uniform was before leaving their home base in Miami on Thursday and was told the uniform for the Rexall Edmonton Indy was still in Italy.

She asked the uniform be shipped overnight to Edmonton. When she checked Friday, the box was in Canada, but was being held by Canadian customs officials because there was duty due.

“I gave them a credit card number and that should have been enough,” Garcia-Concheso said. “But, when I called to see when it would be delivered, I was told, ‘Monday.’ Obviously, that won’t work.”

It cost another $150 to change the delivery time to Saturday morning, about five hours before the race.

“It’s going to arrive at our hotel, which is right down the street, by about 10 o’clock,” Garcia-Concheso said. “I’ll hop on my scooter and dash over there and get it. Now I just hope it goes to the right hotel.”