Chicagoland: AJ Foyt Racing preview

Ryan Hunter-Reay: ABC Supply No. 14 Dallara/Honda/Firestone

* Ryan Hunter-Reay on Chicagoland: "I enjoy racing at Chicagoland; it makes for some great racing as the fans will tell you. The key for us is to go back there with a car that's similar to the one we had at Kentucky and make a good race car out of it. I think the most interesting part of this weekend will be to see what teams are doing with the 300 lbs. of available downforce. At Kentucky there were quite a few different approaches and ours was somewhere in the middle. As far as the track goes, I've heard there are some new bumps. Chicagoland races like a big track whereas Kentucky races a little bit smaller. I think it's because Chicagoland has more banking, but I'm not sure. I just know that some 1.5s feel like they're a mile long and others feel like they're 2 miles long."

* RHR on racing at night: "I think it's great for the fans. On the track, it's the same for the drivers--night or day--but for the fans, everything looks a lot faster at night. There is one challenge associated with racing at night, though. On the in and out laps, it's hard coming off the oval at 200 mph onto the access road which isn't really lit up very well. You have to be very fast around the access road coming into pit lane and when you come off a very well lit oval onto a darker area that is flat with no banking, it is definitely difficult. One advantage to racing at night is that the track changes less because you don't have as much of a temperature fluctuation."

* Vitor Meira to be at Chicagoland: Meira, who hasn't missed a race in the States since his first one back at Watkins Glen, will be at Chicagoland this weekend. Although he isn't driving, Meira works as a teammate to Hunter-Reay; they discuss the track, car set-up and race strategy with team owner A.J. Foyt and chief engineer Adam Schaechter.

* IZOD spokesman Ryan Hunter-Reay will be appearing at the Macy's department store located at 111 North State Street; Chicago, IL 60602 on Thursday, August 27 from 5:00 - 7 p.m.

* On Sunday morning A.J. Foyt will fly to Indianapolis along with some of his crew to watch their first Red Bull Indianapolis GP motorcycle race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Foyt had planned to go last year but Hurricane Ike hit Houston hard and he cancelled his plans to attend. It appears that weather won't be a factor in this year's race on Sunday.

* Past performance at Chicagoland Speedway: Hunter-Reay finished ninth last year after starting 16th. In his first appearance at the track in 2007 he started 12th and finished seventh. The Foyt team's best finish came in 2001 when Donnie Beechler finished fifth and A.J. Foyt IV posted the team's best start in 2004 which was sixth.

-credit: ajfr