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Just a little bit.

Foyt, a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner as a driver and also victorious as an owner in 1999, recently hired his son Larry as the director of his IndyCar Series team. It's quite a change for the legend, one of the most hands-on drivers and team owners in motorsports history.

"I'm kind of getting up in age, and I'd like to back off a little bit," A.J. Foyt said. "But I'm still going to keep my hands on probably 100 percent, and not 110 percent like normally, and start him off with 10 percent and let him go right up to 110 percent."

The hiring of Larry Foyt is one of two major changes for the team as it works to return to its Indy 500-winning form. Two-time Indianapolis 500 starter Darren Manning was hired to drive the No. 14 ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt Racing entry for the 2007 IndyCar Series season, including the 91^st Indianapolis 500 on May 27.

Manning will attempt to reverse a slide in "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" for the proud Foyt team that started earlier this decade. Foyt Racing placed three cars in the top six of the 1999 Indianapolis 500, including winner Kenny Brack, and took third and fourth in the 2000 race. But Foyt's team has recorded only one top-10 finish at Indy since 2001.

"We have been making a ton of changes here at the team and are very excited in hiring Darren Manning," Larry Foyt said. "It's one of our biggest steps here that we're making and hope that it is in the right direction to get this team back up and racing back at the front of the field."

Other changes made by Larry Foyt include more testing, more time in the wind tunnel, more research and development at the team's base near Houston, and the hiring of new personnel.

"I think it's nothing major, but a lot of little things that our team used to do when we were winning the championship and winning races," Larry Foyt said. "We are going to do every bit we can. We've just kind of missed a few in the past, which I think we fell behind a little bit. We're just picking up this program where it was a few years ago to get us back to the front."

That drive toward the front will center on Manning, who started the 2004 and 2005 Indianapolis 500-Mile Races for powerhouse Target Chip Ganassi Racing. But Foyt's team traditionally has fielded at least two entries at Indianapolis, and that should continue under the guidance of three-time Indy starter Larry Foyt, possibly with him behind the wheel.