IndyCar Media Conference
Saturday September 2, 2017
Larry Foyt
Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: We're joined now in the media center by A.J. Foyt Enterprises president Larry Foyt, who is here to talk about the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, set up by the Greater Houston Community Foundation, which the team has selected as a beneficiary of some shirts they have made with the Race for Houston cause. You may see some decals on some of the team helmets and team cars around the paddock. The paddock has really come behind this cause Race for Houston to support victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Larry, I know first of all it sounds like everything at the team shop is okay, but is everything clear, no flooding, nothing affecting the shop or even your homes and the homes of the crew and the team?
LARRY FOYT: Right, we were very lucky. I think of our whole team, we only had one person who had some damage. He was actually shop based, so he was able to be home and see to his issues.
No, we all got very lucky. We were at Gateway racing, couldn't go home just because there was no way, even A.J. Even if we could have flown to a surrounding city, there was no way to get to either my house or A.J.'s home. We knew my mom was okay and my wife was okay.
We stayed on the road and went to Indy to work with the teams. It was just a really helpless feeling to not be able to go home and having to watch all the images on TV of all the people. We just wanted to try to help any way we could, even though we couldn't be at home.
I knew some people who knew Mayor Turner and Judge Emmett, who set up the GHCF, run that, set up the Harvey fund through there. We knew it was a credible place to help people.
A big thank you to IndyCar. With our team we have a little bit of reach. But when IndyCar jumped onboard with us, helped us really push it and helped us with the T-shirt campaign, it reaches a whole new group of IndyCar fans and racing fans. Just really appreciative of their efforts.
THE MODERATOR: As somebody that has family in the area, has deep ties in that area of Texas, what does it mean to you to have the paddock really respond to this, but also outside of IndyCar, other national athletes, other celebrities that are getting involved in supporting this cause?
LARRY FOYT: I think for a lot of us, I know in my lifetime, this is probably some of the worst devastation I've seen in the United States, for sure, probably the worst.
Just great to see all the teams really, because sometimes when you're away from it, you're not affected, it can take a backseat. But everybody has been so supportive. It was really cool that last practice session, I was watching cars drive by on pit road, seeing the big decals, really pushing the campaign. Really thankful for that. Hopefully we can raise some money.
A lot of people obviously. J.J. Watt and some big celebrities. I'm sure there will be some more benefits. But the amount of damage, the numbers we're hearing, in the billions, just staggering. Everything we can do from everyone will help.
THE MODERATOR: Those T-shirts can be found at ShopIndyCar.com and also at all the merchandise tents here at the track. And to support the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, you can go to GHCF.org.
Larry, thank you very much. Thank you for getting behind this cause and getting the IndyCar paddock activated around it. Best of luck to you and all the families. Hopefully the shop stays above water.
LARRY FOYT: Thank you, all. Thanks for pushing this.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Rev #2 by #392 at 2017-09-02 18:33:00 GMT
