A.J. Foyt Racing parts ways with technical director Cannon
11/12/2024 08:35 AM
A.J. Foyt Racing and technical director Michael Cannon have parted ways. The change comes two years after the Canadian joined the team led by Larry Foyt.
Cannon's introduction spurred the team's recent rise in competitiveness, including Santino Ferrucci's charge to third at the Indianapolis 500 in May of 2023, the forging of a technical alliance with Team Penske during the summer of 2023, and oversight of Foyt's engineering program which propelled Ferrucci to ninth in the championship last season with Penske-supplied race engineer James Schnabel.
Joining Foyt from Chip Ganassi Racing where he won the 2020 championship with Scott Dixon and earned back-to-back Indy 500 poles in 2021 and 2022 with the New Zealander, Cannon stepped into a team which was relegated to the bottom of the Entrants' standings and left with Ferrucci positioned as the top driver behind goliaths at Ganassi, Andretti Global, Team Penske, and Arrow McLaren.
"We're certainly going to miss Mike and it was really awesome working with him," Foyt told RACER. "I tried to get him for many years, so I’m really sorry that it’s not going to continue."
Foyt declined to speak to why Cannon left, but says he will not seek an immediate replacement.
"As far as the T.D., we're not in a huge hurry to fill that role," he added. "I think with everything that’s working with Penske that we’re fine, and we’ve got enough engineers in the building to do everything we’re hoping to do."
The Foyt team will swap race engineers for 2025 with Schnabel moving from Ferrucci's No. 14 Chevy to the sister car piloted by team newcomer David Malukas. Michael Armbrester, who engineered Sting Ray Robb in the No. 41 last season, is moving across to the No. 14 where he'll be reunited with Ferrucci.
"We’re all going to be in the same room and everything’s very open with what the way we run things," Foyt said. "Believe it or not, Santino has actually worked with Armbrester before when he did a drove at Rahal (in 2022) and they know each other well. And having James with us, and how James and Santino worked together this year was awesome, I think he and David will be really good together. He’s a fantastic engineer, for sure."
Also related to the No. 14, its popular crew chief Didier Francesia – a central figure who united the team under the tent – is headed to Arrow McLaren in a new shop-based role. Foyt has hired from within the paddock to fill the vacancy as the team prepares to field both cars from its shop in Indiana for the first time after moving the No. 14 from Texas to Foyt's base in Speedway, IN.
"We have hired a crew chief," he said. "But we haven’t necessarily decided which chief will be on which car; we have a couple chiefs in house, but we did hire Steve McKenzie from Rahal, who is a nice fit."
