Intro | 86-87 | 88-93 | 94-97 | 98-99 | 00-01 | 2002| 2003

1998

I thought it was a friend trying to pull my leg when A.J. Foyt called me one afternoon from a hotel in Las Vegas. But soon I realized it really was A.J Foyt. He wanted me to fly over immediately and meet him for breakfast the next morning. I said "sure but I am only going to fly Vegas if you are prepared to sign me. He said "ok get your butt over here!" I hung up, only to realize that he never told me which hotel he was staying in! Calling hotel after hotel in Vegas I always got the same answer. "We wish Mr. Foyt was staying here, but unfortunately he is not." A couple of hours later I found his hotel and rushed to the airport. The next morning I went down to meet A.J. in the breakfast room. After a couple of minutes I asked the waiter for a yogurt. A.J. immediately stopped eating - stared me in the eyes and asked. "What? Did I hear you ordering yogurt?" Yes, I answered looking down at the table. Disgusted, he continued, "I tried that once but I didn´t like it". Then he cooled down and finished his Texan breakfast consisting of pork chops and pancakes. One hour later, I was contracted by one of motorsport´s greatest legends. A.J. did not waste any time teaching me one or two things. I just listened and went on to win the championship by winning three consecutive races, which then was a record in modern open wheel racing, and by completing more laps than any other driver.

1999

Straight after Las Vegas last year, I decided that the main goal this year was to win the Indy 500. To do that I knew that I and my team needed to prepare ourselves better than any of our competitors. I started to gather all kinds of information from previous races. I watched videos during long hours, wrote down notes about everything from weather to speeds in different parts of the race. I created a crystal-clear picture in my head of how you need to go about winning the most difficult race of them all. The next step was to tailor a training program in order to mentally implement the strategy I had chosen. The goal was to carry out the perfect race. It could only happen through perfect overtaking, perfect gear shifts, perfect restarts, perfect risk calculations, perfect pit strategy and by checking my competitors' pit boards on every lap in order to be aware of their next move. And most important of all, I always had a mental picture of myself in car number 14 passing the finish line first.
When we arrived at Indianapolis, we trained pit stops several times a day. We meticulously adjusted our calculations on fuel over and over again, to make sure that what happened to us last year and to Robby Gordon this year would not happen again. I walked around the 2.5 - mile track so many times that it was more familiar to me than my mother's kitchen.

When the race was about to start, we were ready and I was not a bit nervous. It was an unbelievable feeling to see the checkered flag drop over car number 14, knowing that I had succeeded in reaching the goal I had worked toward for so long.

I also felt very privileged to be invited to compete in the IROC, International Race of Champions. To compete against the best drivers in America in identical cars is a great challenge and a lot of fun. It is all about "man and machine" - no big teams, no pit stops - just full speed ahead. However it is not like anything I have experienced before. Therefore, I have taken every possible opportunity to practice on the track, to learn more about these cars and how to strategically plan my race. I managed to beat all the open wheel drivers from IRL and CART and finish 6th in the championship. However, I still have alot to learn in this type of racing from the top NASCAR drivers.

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