Foyt Hospitalized :(

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A.J. Foyt has been hospitalized in Houston for complications from knee surgery and will skip the 50th anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The 77-year-old Foyt had knee surgery two weeks ago, and an infection sent him to the hospital Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner said Friday that Foyt may stay in the hospital through the weekend. She said he had been up and walking since the surgery but developed an infection this week.

Foyt is the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500, the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Foyt was scheduled to be the grand marshal Saturday at Daytona International Speedway

At Daytona Beach,Fl.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A.J. Allmendinger had tried to win the Rolex 24 At Daytona for six years. In fact, he hadn't won a race anywhere for five years.

His friend and Grand-Am Rolex Series car owner Michael Shank -- whom Allmendinger thinks so much of he'll be Shank's partner in an IndyCar Series program this season -- had eight previous Rolex 24 attempts that were steeped purely in frustration.

You win a race, especially as big as the 50th anniversary of the Rolex, it's just confidence. And that'll take a race-car driver or anybody for that matter in any career further than he can expect.

So their victory Sunday in the 50th anniversary of Daytona International Speedway's season-opening event provided enormously equal parts relief and satisfaction -- even if it has nothing to do with Allmendinger's full-time job, racing Cup Series stock cars for legendary owner Roger Penske.

"I'm going to cherish this," Allmendinger said in a moment of reflection. "It's such a prestigious race. It's one of those races you want on your resume and you want to say that you were part of a victory."

Shank was stoutly in Allmendinger's camp even though he'd made a deal with his buddy. If they won the race, Shank said he would shave Allmendinger's personal flame-tinged "AJ" logo into the side of his head. In the post-race media briefing, their affinity was obvious.

"I'll be doing [that] this week," Shank said of his promise. "I'll tell you what [Allmendinger] calls me. He calls me Shankapotamus. I guarantee you, Roger [Penske] won't get anything shaved in the side of his head, I'm pretty sure. That's why [Allmendinger] likes me better."

That was just one of several mirthful post-race moments for Shank's two-team ensemble. For the previous 24 hours they were all business, and Allmendinger was chairman of the board, leading 69 of the race's final 90 laps, and 90 in total.

Allmendinger put an exclamation point on his seventh consecutive attempt with Shank, the former open-wheel driver turned team owner, by driving the final 167 minutes in a car that included Shank's full-season sports car ace, Ozz Negri and his teammate, John Pew along with IndyCar Series regular Justin Wilson. Negri led 67 laps and Wilson, 92.

The victory capped a month in which Allmendinger was named the driver of Penske's No. 22 Dodge in the Sprint Cup Series, a car that's qualified for the Chase in five of eight seasons. Allmendinger initially laughed, but quickly got serious when he was asked about his recent history.

"It's always cool to be me," said Allmendinger, who burst from his No. 60 Ford Riley in Victory Lane waving an American flag. "No, I'm just kidding. The last five years it's actually sucked to be me."

That included a precursor when he won five of the final nine races in the 2006 Champ Car World Series before making an ill-fated jump to the startup Cup Series Red Bull Racing Team in 2007. Allmendinger missed 22 of the first 39 Cup races he attempted.

"2007 was hell, honestly -- the worst year of my life when it came to my career," Allmendinger said. "There was plenty of times in my bus on Friday missing a race that it was either, 'should I go back to IndyCar or slit my wrists,' honestly. It sounds kind of over the top, but I knew I wanted to be in the Sprint Cup Series. That's where the best of the best was."

Four years later, Allmendinger's arrived, and the Rolex win was significant icing on his cake. He credited Shank for a considerable part of it.

"It's been a tough time," Allmendinger said. "But the fun thing was a guy like Mike Shank, no matter how I felt about myself after a tough year or tough season, he never wavered on whether he wanted me in the car. Every year we said we were doing this.

"That's why I love this guy so much. He's always been there for me. I would do anything for him, and I'm just happy that I can be a small part of this victory for him, and it's really cool not only to win the race but to have two cars on the podium."

Shank's team car, which included Allmendinger's fellow Sprint Cup driver Michael McDowell on its roster, finished third, sandwiching Starworks Motorsports' pole-winning Ford Riley. The two NASCAR men were able to reflect on racing in multiple series.

"As Michael McDowell said, I think Sprint Cup racing is the toughest in the world right now," Allmendinger said. "I mean, it's so hard to win. You know, I look at this year as my best opportunity to go win a Cup race. But that's easier said than done.

"Right now I'm just going to take this for what it's worth, not think about anything for a couple days, and just enjoy it. Right now it's the biggest win I've ever had because we've worked for seven years to get to this point with Mike Shank, and we've been so close so many times. It's funny, the last three hours when I got in the car, it was just like, 'OK, we've been here before, and something has happened to take us out.' "

It didn't happen this time. Allmendinger was virtually flawless.

After 23-and-a-half hours of racing, Allmendinger, who earlier in his stint had swapped paint with sports-car stalwart Allan McNish while battling for the lead -- which he swapped nine times in his final 92-lap stretch -- turned the fastest laps on the track more often than not as he maintained an advantage on Ryan Dalziel that varied from more than 11 seconds to 5.198 seconds at the checkers.

"Honestly, that's probably the most fun three hours of racing that I've ever had," Allmendinger said. "Part of it is because we won, so if we would have lost it would have sucked. I knew those last three hours I was going to go flat out because the [Starworks] car, the [defending champion] No. 01 at that point were really fast.

Allmendinger said he's ready to get taken down a peg when Daytona reopens in two-and-a-half weeks for Speedweeks. But until then he's going to enjoy what he called "the biggest win for me that I've ever been a part of."

"They'll knock me back down when I get to Speedweeks, don't worry about that -- when I get to the Cup garage and they remind me I haven't won again," Allmendinger said, before mentioning there was one important element winning the Rolex did bring -- in addition to a very pricey Rolex wristwatch. "It's not what I learned or technique, it's just confidence.

"You win a race, especially as big as the 50th anniversary of the Rolex, it's just confidence. And that'll take a race-car driver or anybody for that matter in any career further than he can expect."

The event was also a huge success for Roush Yates Engines, which will try to defend its Daytona 500 victory with Trevor Bayne in four weeks. RYE built the powerplants for the top-three cars.

This Rolex 24 was a disappointment for former 24-hour winner Juan Montoya, his Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Sprint Cup teammate Jamie McMurray and Chip Ganassi Racing, the event's defending champion and winner four of the past seven years -- twice with Montoya.

The car shared by Montoya, McMurray and Ganassi's IndyCar champions Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon suffered a broken shifter in the middle of the night and never recovered, finishing fourth, a lap down. Ganassi's defending champion car, led by Scott Pruett, led 96 laps in the first 22 hours but had to replace a gear stack and fell to sixth, four laps behind.

Andy Lally, the 2011 Cup Series rookie of the year, scored his second consecutive GT class victory and his third in the past four years, but with a twist. Lally won the 2011 Rolex 24 and ran most of the Sprint Cup season for TRG Motorsports owner Kevin Buckler. But "philosophical differences" led the longtime partners to split near the end of the season. Lally prevailed in the rookie of the year race despite skipping the NASCAR season finale and joined TRG's rival Magnus Racing for the 2012 Rolex Series season.

Jimmy Johnson

Without the obligations that come from being a NASCAR champion, Jimmie Johnson spent more time during the offseason with his wife and 1 ½-year-old daughter. It also allowed him to correct a mistaken impression that "December only had two weeks in it."

It was a tough loss because I feel we had the equipment but the people didn't do the job. And we kept beating ourselves.

That's an understandable error, given that Johnson had five consecutive Decembers in which he went directly from the Sprint Cup banquet to a constant and unyielding barrage of sponsor meet-and-greets, media availabilities, photo ops and celebrity whistle stops while someone else did the Christmas gift shopping.

Home-cooked meals can be a welcome change from chicken dinners on the road. But Johnson wants his fans to know that even though it was fun to let Tony Stewart enjoy the hubbub that goes with being champ, he really wouldn't mind getting back in the same old rut in 2012.

In all seriousness, during his free time Johnson has spent much of the past seven weeks trying to figure out what went wrong in 2011 -- and how to fix it before the season kicks into gear next month at Daytona.

"I started racing at 5 and I've probably won seven or eight championships, so there's a lot of losing years in there," Johnson said. "When I look at 2005 -- before our run started -- we had a tough loss that a lot of growth came from.

"This wasn't necessarily a tough loss because we were close. It was a tough loss because I feel we had the equipment but the people didn't do the job. And we kept beating ourselves. So there is a good lesson in last year. And I think -- I know -- it's going to make me stronger and this team stronger. And hopefully we won't make the same mistakes twice."

Johnson is of the opinion that you learn more from failure than from success. And he plans to put that to the test this season.

"When you're winning, it's easy in a lot of respects," Johnson said. "When you have tough moments -- moments which you're not proud of, make mistakes, whatever it is -- I personally learn a ton from all of those situations. And there were mistakes made last year in the Chase, and I'm learning from them."

Kurt Busch

Kurt Busch has found a new ride -- in the No. 51 car of Phoenix Racing.

The 2004 NASCAR champion will drive James Finch's car next year on the Sprint Cup tour. Steve Barkdoll, general manager for the Spartanburg, S.C.-based team, confirmed Thursday that Busch would be the team's driver. Busch, reached later by telephone, said he had a one-year deal to run the full schedule.

"Christmas came early for me, and it was nice that we were able to sit down [Wednesday] night, have a beer and then have a handshake deal at the end of it," Busch said. "James Finch is exactly what I'm looking for, as far as getting back into the race car to have fun."

Truex and pressure??

CONCORD, N.C. -- Patience is running thin at Michael Waltrip Racing. The owner wants to see improvement. The sponsor wants to see improvement. But perhaps the least patient man in the entire organization is the guy behind the wheel of the No. 56.

Martin Truex Jr. knows the pressure to perform may be greater this season than it's ever been. But the pressure on him from the outside pales in comparison to the pressure he's putting on himself in 2012.

You can't call it a make-or-break year. They're all make-or-break years. This year is obviously very, very important with making [the sponsors] happy.

"I know my team is capable of winning races and I know we're capable of making the Chase," Truex said during NASCAR's preseason media tour. "If we don't do that, I'm not going to be happy either. So it doesn't really matter what else happens.

"I'm not here to float along and hang around if I'm not competitive. I know what I can do in a race car, and Michael knows what I can do in a race car. And everybody here knows what I can do in a race car. And that's all that matters to me."

The team showed improvement in 2011, recording more top-five and top-10 finishes, and leading nearly twice as many laps compared to the previous season. On the other hand, Truex didn't win a race, missed the Chase and finished 18th in the points.

Truex knows the team is capable of better -- and proved that with four top-10 finishes in the season's final five races, including a third-place run at Homestead.

But with all three contracts set to end this season -- Truex, sponsor NAPA and Waltrip's deal with Toyota -- improvement on the track may be more important than ever.

"You can't call it a make-or-break year," Truex said. "They're all make-or-break years. This year is obviously very, very important with making [the sponsors] happy and hopefully keeping them here. I love driving their race car and love driving here at MWR.

"Now it's just about getting it done. We can do it. There's no doubt in my mind. We showed it at the end of the year. Now we just need to go do it consistently."

That's been the biggest issue for an organization that made wholesale changes during the offseason -- replacing David Reutimann with Clint Bowyer and adding Mark Martin as a part-timer. The underlying message is clear: Running in the middle of the pack every week is unacceptable.

Nobody needed to tell Truex. He knows what's expected of him.

"If we can perform as well as we did the last six or seven races of the year, there'll be no question," Truex said. "Our goals, obviously, are to do that right out of the box. Our goal this year is to go out and win races and do what we can do to, not to run up front all day and finish 30th, or have something happen. We need to finish the deal this year."

What gives Truex added confidence is his equipment. It's now better than anything he's had at MWR up to this point.

"We brought out some new cars [toward the end of the season]," Truex said. "The engineering staff -- all the guys here -- worked really hard throughout a lot of last season on trying to get this new car finished that we've been working on for a while. And it has some things incorporated in it that we've been needing."

Truex credits major gains in aerodynamics for much of the improvement during 2011.

"We gained a ton of downforce and performance in our race cars, just in the aero department last year towards the end of the season," Truex said. "It took them a while to get the cars built. It took them a while to come up with a piece that they were happy with, and something they knew they could put on the race track and not worry about pieces and parts breaking, things not being tested enough."

That means Truex expects to be in contention from the time the team takes the car off the hauler at Daytona next month.

"In this case, we've done the testing, we've run the cars in races and they're better than what we've had," Truex said. "And going into this year, we knew that. So this winter, they've been able to tweak some things and perfect a few things. Overall, I feel like we'll be more competitive out of the box than we were last year."

With new equipment and a renewed determination, Truex has no patience for continued mediocrity.

"Well, you can really never have patience, because the guys that you're racing aren't waiting," Truex said. "The hardest thing in racing is to catch up. When you get behind, it takes a long time to catch up. We see it in organizations all the time -- they have off years. It's just one of those deals.

"But I feel like at the end of the year, where we were is close to where we wanted to be, not where we wanted to be. I know Michael and everybody here won't be happy until we're running up front like that every weekend and we're contending for wins more consistently.

"You can't be patient, you constantly have to push. Even when you're winning, you have to be pushing forward and trying to be better, because the guys you're racing against aren't [patient]."

Danica Patrick

CONCORD, N.C. -- Danica Patrick will be spending the Memorial Day weekend in Charlotte this season, which means she won't be racing in the Indianapolis 500 for the first time since 2005.

"I'm going to do the Coke 600 this year, I'm not doing the Indy 500," Patrick said. "I hope to do it in the future, and maybe it'll be a double. But at this time, after a lot of conversations, it's just going to be the Coke 600."

Patrick has six top-10 finishes in seven career Indy 500 starts -- including finishing fourth as a rookie when she was passed for the lead with seven laps to go by eventual winner Dan Wheldon.

She said a deal could not be struck to allow her to return to open-wheel racing in May, but didn't rule out future attempts.

"As far as the business side of things, it didn't work out," Patrick said. "Again, I'm hopeful to do it again in the future, but for this year, it just didn't happen."

Patrick plans to compete in at least 10 Sprint Cup events for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2012 -- and now has added NASCAR's longest race to her schedule.

"I think it's going to be a big challenge but I'm looking forward to it, especially as it's a hometown [race] for NASCAR," Patrick said.

Ganassi and 2011 showing!!!

CONCORD, N.C. -- There are two things you need to know about Chip Ganassi: He hates to lose, and he's exceedingly blunt about the reasons why he doesn't win.

"Hopefully this is the last time I have to say we finished 21st and 27th in the points last year," Ganassi said Tuesday during NASCAR's preseason media tour session with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. "... [That's] pathetic for a team with our ability and resources."


"Hopefully this is the last time I have to say we finished 21st and 27th in the points last year. ... [That's] pathetic for a team with our ability and resources."


It didn't take long for Ganassi to clean house. In the week following the season finale at Homestead, Ganassi released long-time employees Steve Hmiel, Tony Glover and Ed Nathman. He then hired away Chris Heroy from Hendrick Motorsports to handle crew chief duties for Juan Montoya's No. 42 Chevrolet.

"You either have it or you don't," Ganassi said. "If you're working, good. If you're not, you'd better make some changes."

The good news for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing? Sales and marketing landed additional sponsorship, selling out all available primary space on the two-car team for 2012.

Now it's a matter of getting the on-track performance to match.

"As for 2012, the great thing is you get to start all over again," Ganassi said. "Certainly after the year we had, we had to start over in a lot of areas. We made some changes in the team. We feel pretty good about them. Like so many other sports, racing's about momentum. We want to start out fast, and certainly success can breed success."

And Montoya is buying into the boss' blunt assessment. After breaking through with a road-course victory in 2010 -- and coming within a pit-stop violation of a Brickyard 400 win -- Montoya regressed in 2011, recording just two top-fives and eight top-10s.

"We just need to run well everywhere and see what happens," Montoya said. "Once we get everybody together and the results start coming in, the attitude is going to change, the approach is going to change. I'm excited."

Ganassi is willing to take some of the blame for the poor performance by Montoya and Jamie McMurray last season, particularly in light of how well the team ran in 2010. Part of that was his inability to respond when things began to spiral downward.

"The one thing about sports is that it's constantly changing," Ganassi said. "You have to change with it and you have to change fast. I like to think I can shift gears and change directions as fast as anybody, but we got a little bit behind the curve -- in terms of performance -- and it's because we didn't change with the sport."

What makes it particularly tricky, according to Ganassi, is finding the one piece of the puzzle -- be that in performance or personnel -- that can turn your program around.

"You're always working to get your recipe just right," Ganassi said. "Sometimes you can have 100 or 200 items in your recipe, but sometimes [one thing] can make all the difference in the world to the other 99 ingredients.

"It doesn't mean to take away from the other 99 things, but that one thing may be the difference between winning and losing."

For now, Ganassi is content to stick with a two-car operation, even if additional sponsors want on board.

"As tough as the sponsorship market is today, that's probably still the easiest part of the puzzle," Ganassi said. "It's putting the rest of the team together, and getting the rest of the group that would mesh with the current two cars that we have. That's the hard part.

"I think I'm going to be back in the mode where we need to get these two cars running right before we start thinking about a third. And I've sort of changed on that."

As bad as 2011 seemed, it failed to dampen Ganassi's enthusiasm for the sport -- and his drive to succeed in NASCAR.

"I live for racing. There's no other place I'd rather be than a race track," Ganassi said. "I like being around our drivers. I like being around our teams. I like hanging out with these new guys -- and they'll have to get used to me calling them at 7, 8, 9 o'clock at night, wanting to talk about racing, because that's all I like to do."

At the same time, it's all about the bottom line. And for Chip Ganassi, that's running up front -- early and often. With that, he issued a challenge to his team.

"I think it's about time to put some numbers up," Ganassi said.

Danica Patrick

CONCORD, N.C. -- Danica Patrick will be spending the Memorial Day weekend in Charlotte this season, which means she won't be racing in the Indianapolis 500 for the first time since 2005.

"I'm going to do the Coke 600 this year, I'm not doing the Indy 500," Patrick said. "I hope to do it in the future, and maybe it'll be a double. But at this time, after a lot of conversations, it's just going to be the Coke 600."

Patrick has six top-10 finishes in seven career Indy 500 starts -- including finishing fourth as a rookie when she was passed for the lead with seven laps to go by eventual winner Dan Wheldon.

She said a deal could not be struck to allow her to return to open-wheel racing in May, but didn't rule out future attempts.

"As far as the business side of things, it didn't work out," Patrick said. "Again, I'm hopeful to do it again in the future, but for this year, it just didn't happen."

Patrick plans to compete in at least 10 Sprint Cup events for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2012 -- and now has added NASCAR's longest race to her schedule.

"I think it's going to be a big challenge but I'm looking forward to it, especially as it's a hometown [race] for NASCAR," Patrick said

How much technology is too much?

Jeff Gordon recognizes that NASCAR racing, of necessity, has embraced technological enhancements, but he would be loath to go too far down that path.

Yes, we're behind them in technology and cost and all these things, and I think it's a good thing.

"If you look at other forms of motorsports and the evolution of technology -- and I mention Formula One -- yes, we're behind them in technology and cost and all these things, and I think it's a good thing," Gordon said Saturday after a press conference at the NASCAR Hall of Fame celebrating DuPont's 20-year sponsorship of his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

"We're heading in that direction, because that's just evolution. It's going to happen. Once you learn, and you create knowledge, you can't take it away. In Formula One, what's important? Qualifying. Qualifying becomes extremely important, because it's almost impossible to pass. Strategy, and how you strategize your pit stops. Speed of pit stops. And I'm saying that's the extreme. That's where we're headed."

In a question-and-answer session after his induction into the Hall of Fame on Friday night, eight-time champion crew chief Dale Inman addressed the current parity in NASCAR racing.

RAB Racing attempting debut in Daytona 500

CONCORD, N.C. -- RAB Racing with Brack Maggard announced Saturday it will attempt to make its Sprint Cup Series debut in the 54th annual Daytona 500 on Feb. 26, with driver Kenny Wallace behind the wheel of their No. 09 American Ethanol Toyota Camry.

With Wallace behind the wheel of its Nationwide Series Toyota in 2011, the No. 09 team finished seventh in the driver championship standings, a career-best for the team after posting 11 top-10 finishes.

Wallace will attempt to make his 11th Daytona 500 start. His last start in the 500 came in 2008, when he raced his way into the starting lineup via an eighth-place finish in the first Gatorade Duel.

"The Daytona 500 is the race I grew up watching every year as a kid in St. Louis. It's a very important race to me," Wallace said. "I take this opportunity very seriously. I want to thank everyone at RAB Racing for working so hard in preparing this American Ethanol Toyota Camry. Earning a starting spot in this year's Daytona 500 would be a dream come true, not only for myself, but for Robby and everyone else that's worked so hard to make this a reality. Speedweeks is my favorite time of the year, and I can't wait to get down there in just another couple of weeks."

The crew chief for the No. 09 American Ethanol Toyota Camry will be announced at a later date.

Sprint Cup 2012

Stacy Compton's Turn One Racing to the list of small teams attempting to make an initial foray into Sprint Cup racing in 2012. Compton confirmed Friday that he has formed an alliance with Richard Childress Racing that could result in a minimum eight-race schedule.

Compton has been in communication with RCR general manager Mike Dillon in his efforts to create a Cup program, with the idea of starting small and growing as sponsorship money becomes available.

"We ended up buying five cars from Childress," Compton said. "Probably before the end of the season, we'll end up getting a couple more cars. What Mike and I talked about, pretty much every month, we'll try to get another chassis from them. Obviously if we tear something up, that could change.

"We don't want to buy a ton of stuff, because obviously a lot of stuff's going to change next year. But we want to make sure we've got everything we need this year, where we don't put ourselves in a bind by the end of the year."

Compton's goal at this point is to concentrate on short tracks -- namely Martinsville, Bristol, Richmond and Dover.

"Obviously, we're a small team," Compton said. "And to go to these mile and a half tracks with the technology that the Hendricks and the Roushes and the RCRs have, it's going to be tough for us to compete, harder than it will be on the short tracks. So we've got to make sure the tracks that we pick and choose, hopefully we can have the best results."

Compton said at least one sponsor is on board with the project, but he declined to identify it at this point.

"It's a partner that we've had in the past and has supported me for many years," Compton said. "They want to make sure they get their ducks in a row first before we make any announcements on it."

If more sponsorship can be obtained -- and Compton indicated there were talks under way -- the team could run as many as 15 races.

So who will be behind the wheel? Compton said that's still to be determined.

"I don't mean this the wrong way, but drivers are a dime a dozen right now," Compton said. "We just need to make sure it's the right fit. One of the sponsors will probably dictate that. ...

"First, we need to make sure we have some sponsorship put in place and then make sure we have really good equipment. If we can do that, I think we can pretty much figure there are a few [drivers] out there that could fit our program."