KANSAS CITY, Kan., July 7 (UPI) -- Team owner A.J. Foyt felt as if he had hit a double jackpot Sunday after his drivers won both races at Kansas Speedway, highlighted by Airton Dare's late charge to victory in the Indy Racing League's Ameristar Casino Indy 200.
Earlier in the day, Foyt's grandson A.J. Foyt IV won the first-ever race in the Infiniti Pro Series.
After Kenny Brack won the 1999 Indianapolis 500 for Foyt, the legendary driver and team owner, who has his own way of mangling the English language, said in victory lane that day:
"I'm so wonderful."
After his cars ended up in victory lane not once, but twice on Sunday, Foyt was reminded of his comment after winning at Indy in 1999 and then asked how he felt on this occasion.
"I'm always wonderful," Foyt said.
The 26-year-old Dare scored his first-ever IRL victory when he capitalized on a controversial late-race restart and blew by leader Sam Hornish Jr. That was on lap 198 and Dare was able to block Hornish and hold on to finish 0.1741 seconds ahead of the defending IRL champion with a speed of 178.527 miles per hour.
Despite hot and humid conditions, a sellout crowd of 80,000 fans filled Kansas Speedway for the IRL's second race at the facility.
"We were racing here for the victory and I'm pretty sure that everybody, all of the drivers, would do the same," Dare said of his maneuvers. "I didn't do anything wrong. I gave him some room. Actually, more room than he gave to me previously in the race.
"But he's the kind of guy that he wins a lot of races and you know he's not used to finishing second."
Hornish was visibly irritated about the chain of events that concluded the race. The yellow flag waved after race leader Tomas Scheckter crashed in the second turn wall on lap 191. Scheckter had dominated Sunday's race, leading four times for 101 laps.
IRL officials cleaned up the crash area and the field was set for a green flag restart on lap 196 with Hornish ahead of Dare and the lapped cars of George Mack and Raul Boesel in between. Mack slowed down, not wanting to be involved in a fierce battle for the lead and Hornish began to pull away from the field for the restart.
IRL vice president of operations and chief steward Brian Barnhart ordered the yellow flag to stay out in order to move Mack out of the way. Hornish was unaware that the green flag would wave the next lap and admitted he was in third gear on the restart.
Dare was able to get a charge on Hornish and passed him for the lead entering the third turn on lap 197. Dare was able to fend off Hornish to win the race and $115,200.
"Airton did a great job and I'm proud to be part of his win," said A.J. Foyt IV, who after winning the Infiniti Pro Series race had to return to his full-time job as the right front tire changer on Dare's pit crew.
Hornish thought Dare had scored a cheap victory.
"It's disappointing really," Hornish said. "He was two spots ahead of where he would have been and not in line. If he feels happy about himself, let him. Then he tries to run me down off the track in Turn 3.
"You try to play by the rules. I want to do everything by the rules and not say anything bad about anybody. The race was ours."
Actually, it appeared the race belonged to Scheckter. The 21-year-old rookie from Cape Town, South Africa was the class of the field before a tire problem once again shattered his dream of winning his first IRL race.
