A.J. Foyt Racing has hired veteran IZOD IndyCar Series driver Bruno Junqueira to the team for the Indy 500. He will race the No. 84 car as a teammate to fellow Brazilian Vitor Meira.
The team now has a strong core of drivers in May and it hopes to make some noise in the race.
Sure, the team hasn’t always had the best results and clearly A.J. Foyt Racing is NOT Team Penske. But, with the two of them, the team really could make an impact because they have a knack for quickly finding speed (especially in the case of Junqueira) and a knack for being near the front at the end of the race (especially in the case of Meira).
Junqueira has had mixed results at the Speedway over the years.
The low point of the time for Junqueira at the track had to have been in 2005, when he was involved in an accident that ended his 2005 campaign in Champ Car because of his injuries.
And last year has to be mentioned. He was called a “dark horse” by many, but crashed before he could even reach lap 10.
But, the high points of Junqueira at IMS make him a great choice to fill the seat. He was the 2002 pole winner for the race and has two top five finishes (2001 and 2004). Even more impressive than that is what he has been able to do with little seat time.
Last year, he literally had no more than 20 laps of practice before qualifying for the race on Bump Day, after getting a last-minute deal with FAZZT Race Team.
The same happened in 2009, when he also made the race with little practice, although he was eventually replaced with Alex Tagliani based on a team decision at Conquest Racing.
Who knows what he’ll be able to do with actual practice time?