AJ Foyt Racing is hoping to return to long-term stability within its IndyCar operations to help get the team back on form in the near future.
In recent seasons, rotating drivers and short-term sponsorship deals, some of which have fallen through mid-season, have left the team in a constant scramble to get everything organized.
Foyt recently announced that it has signed Benjamin Pedersen to a multi-year contract, ensuring that a program can be built around the young driver.
The hope is that the stability can boost the team’s recent poor on-track performance, which led to the team ending the season with the two lowest-placed full time drivers in the 2022 championship standings.
“It probably hasn’t been since ABC Supply [which was a primary sponsor of the team until 2019] that we could really sit down and make a multiyear plan,” said team President Larry Foyt.
“There’s just always been so many things changing year to year. This is going to be a big step, I think, in us turning around some of our competitiveness and just being able to build around a long-term program and put some pieces in place for multiyear years.
“Like I say, being able to announce this multiyear deal I think is very important for our company, just because you’ve got — IndyCar is so tight. Everything is so close, that if you can get the right driver and engineer working together, get them to really know each other, and we just haven’t been able to put together that consistency.
“We’ve had different sponsorships, different engineers and different things over the past couple years. That’s the biggest thing I’m excited about is getting to work with a driver knowing we’re going into a multiyear program, building the program around him, something that suits him.
“I think that’s going to take us a big step forward with the team. We’re very excited about that, and I think it’s going to be very big for us.”
Aside from Pedersen’s announcement, no other plans have been revealed for next season, and a big question mark remains if Foyt will choose to bring back Dalton Kellett for a fourth season.
There is also the possibility that the team will attempt to run three cars again next season, but that is dependent on finding an appropriate sponsorship deal as well as an available driver.
