A.J. Foyt believes he and team driver Takuma Sato have established a lot of momentum this season -- their first working together -- and expects the duo to remain intact for next year.
AJ Foyt expects to retain Takuma Sato, Honda power in 2014
The four-time Indianapolis 500 race winner expects to have Takuma Sato in his car for a second-straight season.
Jamie Squire
Despite feeling a little behind the Chevrolet teams with his Honda-powered program, he also confirmed that he expects to stay with the Japanese engine manufacturer next season as well.
“We’ll be with Honda, and we’ll probably be with Sato,” Foyt said in a Wednesday teleconference. “We’ve got a pretty good combination going. I think we’re going to work out everything. I definitely know we’ll probably be with Honda. They’re coming out with some new stuff.”
Foyt believes Honda has the ability to bridge the gap to Chevrolet, especially given that they are pretty much even on road and street courses. Of Honda’s eight victories this season, seven of them have come on the twisties.
It’s the ovals that Foyt hopes to see Honda overcome.
“They’ve got a little bit to catch up with the Chevrolet products on the superspeedways,” Foyt said. “Now on the road courses and all that, Honda holds their own. But on some of the big tracks, I think maybe the Chevrolet has a little bit more power than we do.
“At least it’s proven that way, but they’re working hard. Honda’s a very good company, and they’ve been good to us. So it looks like we’ll be with Honda.”
Sato won his first-career IndyCar Series race earlier this season at Long Beach and entered the Indianapolis 500 as the championship leader. It’s been an uphill challenge from there as Sato has only finished in the top-10 once over the last 12 events -- at Milwaukee.
“We really started off good and ran into a bad luck streak, and that’s racing,” Foyt added. “It’s not going to be rosy all the time, and you’ve got to accept that. I think he’s done a great job for us.
“It’s just a couple mistakes that were made that really hurt us, and then we had a couple of other problems that weren’t the crew’s fault or his fault. But you’re going to have that in racing today. As long as the good offsets the bad -- that is the biggest thing.”
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