Catchfence

MILWAUKEE June 15, 2012—Mike Conway has nowhere to go but forward in tomorrow afternoon’s Milwaukee IndyFest at the Milwaukee Mile. He will start last in the 25-car field.

After Conway struggled with too much understeer in both practices, the ABC Supply team made some major changes to the No. 14 car before qualifying in a final effort to find the car’s sweet spot.

“We tried a lot of different things in the two practices and we couldn’t get rid of the push in the car so we had to make a more radical change,” said team owner A.J. Foyt. “We knew we were going to lose 10 spots no matter where we qualified [because of an unscheduled engine change Thursday]. I didn’t want him to hustle it in qualifying because it wasn’t worth the risk. The car reacted the way we expected it to and we got rid of the push finally. With some minor changes, I think we can give him a good car for the race.”

Conway turned his quickest laps of the weekend in qualifying with an average speed of 159.7mph but it was well off the pole-winning speed of Dario Franchitti who clocked in at 168.7mph. Franchitti’s time was half a mile an hour faster than second-quickest Justin Wilson, who because of an unscheduled engine change, will start 12^th.

The challenge for Conway will be to stay on the lead lap because the leaders are able to run fast on a clear track and usually begin lapping cars within 10-15 laps. However, if the team makes the right changes for the race, Conway can make his way to the front as he did in the Indy 500 when he started 29^th and was running as high as fourth before his accident.

The 225-lap race gets underway at 12:30 p.m. local time with ABC-TV coverage starting at 1 p.m. ET.

Source: A.J. Foyt Racing, Press Release