Foyt’s Baranouski at 450 races

We tend to think of racing drivers with long careers, the ones with hundreds of starts like Scott Dixon and Will Power, as the ironmen of the IndyCar Series. But the honor also extends to crew members like AJ Foyt Racing’s Craig Baranouski, who celebrates his 450th consecutive race in the series that got its start in 1996 as the Indy Racing League.

The native of Quincy, Mich., arrived in the CART IndyCar Series in the 1980s when he served as a mechanic for the home state Brayton Racing team before moving onto Patrick Racing and then to the legendary four-time Indianapolis 500 winner’s team in January of 1987.

“Craig is a big asset to our team and to me,” Foyt told RACER. “Anytime I ask him to do something, whether it’s for the race team or the ranch, he can’t do it quick enough. He’s an all-around mechanic and can work on my ranch equipment too and I respect him highly for that.”

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Across his 38 years with Foyt and the previous teams, Baranouski’s done more than 500 IndyCar races, but there were select CART seasons where his legendary boss contested partial campaigns. The unbroken streak of 450 in the IRL, which changed its name to the IndyCar Series in 2005, is a specific point of pride for Baranouski, who became Foyt’s team manager early in the 2000s.

“I'm just counting IRL races and I've never missed IRL race,” he said. “We only did limited races then in ‘87, because A.J. did the sports cars and the stock cars, but I'd been at Patrick for a year and then when I went down there to Foyt and I also got to do some stock car races, sports car racing, and decided this was the way I really wanted to go with A.J.”

Baranouski’s been though all of the peaks and valleys with Foyt team as it was a powerhouse in the early IRL years where it won the inaugural championship with Scott Sharp, took pole at the 1998 Indy 500 with Billy Boat, won the 1998 IRL title with Kenny Brack, and took the 1999 Indy 500 victory with Brack.

Wins would come at a premium afterwards as Airton Dare reached victory lane once in 2002 and Takuma Sato claimed a popular win at Long Beach in 2013, and since then, it’s been a case of trying to deliver more triumphs for Baranouski’s 90-year-old boss with young chargers Santino Ferrucci and David Malukas.

“He's been good to me over the years,” he said of Foyt. “I mean, he's more like a father. Now that Malukas came along, he’s made it even better because this the first year we've had two really good drivers, instead of having to rely on one driver to head us in the right direction. I think it's helped Santino, and it's helped his whole team overall.”

The pairing of Ferrucci and Malukas is more than capable of winning for Foyt, and while it would be a challenge at Baranouski’s 450th IndyCar Series race where both drivers are starting mid-pack at Mid-Ohio, he has a few more years of racing ahead to see it happen.

“December of 2027 is my retirement,” he said. “That should be 491 races. And then I'll still be coming and taking care of A.J. – because that's my number one priority, is just make sure when he's at the track, he's getting taken care of.

“It doesn't seem like that many races until you stop and add it up. But the league itself is gonna be 30 years old here pretty soon. It's still a youth-related game, but the nice thing about me is I can step back, watch, and I can make suggestions because that's where your experience comes in. We've got some good young guys and some talented people working for us right now. It's just making it all pull together.”