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Learning curve Foyt says every year, Indy teaches something new
Updated: Tuesday May 22, 2001 8:16 PM
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- For more than four decades A.J. Foyt has defined Indy-car racing. He won four Indianapolis 500 races as a driver, and won another Indy 500 in 1999 as an owner. He's entered cars in nearly half of the first 84 races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Foyt has seen just about everything in more than four decades of racing at Indianapolis, but he believes there are things that still sometimes surprise him at the track. "Every day, I learn something new here," he said Friday when rain washed out practice for the first time in more than four years. "I've come here and tested here and done well here, and the next moment you start struggling and you have no idea why." Foyt might be the most capable person of trying to explain what occurs at this track. He started a record 35 consecutive races, was the first four-time winner of the event, and led in 13 Indy 500s -- more than anyone else. And, as his driver Eliseo Salazar said Thursday, Foyt's probably forgotten more than most people know about Indianapolis. But even with all that knowledge, Foyt believes only one thing is certain -- at Indianapolis, expect the unexpected. "If you had ever told me that Al [Unser] Jr. and Emerson [Fittipaldi] would be driving for Roger [Penske] and would have missed the race in '95, I would have said that's impossible," Foyt said. "But that's what makes it Indianapolis." Foyt's own version of inexplicable moments starts with his first Indy victory -- in 1961. "Eddie Sachs and I had a real good duel going that year," Foyt says with a smile. "But at that time, we didn't have computers or radios, and near the end of the race, the pit board said to stop because I wasn't full on fuel, and then all of a sudden I thought I'd lost it.
"But Eddie was running so hard that his front tire wore out, and then I won it." While much has changed since Foyt's victory that May, the track has not. Events still change quickly, as Foyt witnessed again last weekend when Salazar, an Indy veteran who ranks among the Indy Racing League points leaders, crashed Friday in practice, then crashed again Saturday. On Sunday, after Foyt's team rebuilt the No. 14 car twice, Salazar finally got in a qualifying attempt -- only to blow an engine on the last turn of the last lap. For Foyt, it was just another moment to ponder. "Sometimes, it can be rosy, like it was for [Roger] Penske or [Chip] Ganassi, where everything just goes bang, bang, bang," Foyt said. "The next year, it's like everything goes to hell and you wonder what you've done." When Foyt started his first race at Indianapolis in 1958, many people thought he wouldn't survive long. They called him wild and aggressive, too aggressive for his own good. Foyt disagreed. "I never felt I was wild," he said. "I didn't crash that much, I didn't spin out that much. When I had a problem, it was usually because the car broke. It wasn't that I was guessing." Instead, he kept everyone else guessing about where he would turn up next. Foyt won not only at Indianapolis, but at Daytona and at Le Mans, becoming the only driver to win those three races. He captured seven Indy-style championships and 12 major driving championships, and his 67 Indy-car victories still rank as the most ever. His fondest memory, however, was not a victory at all; it was his first race in Indianapolis. "I remember coming here in '56 and saying 'I hoped that someday I would get in the race here,'" he said. "When I qualified, that was one of the happiest moments of my life." Since then, Foyt's life has seemed to revolve around Indianapolis. He's competed here every May -- as a driver or car owner -- since '57, except for three years, from 1993-95. Now, Foyt is back, still logging the miles, building the memories and learning the lessons of a track that made him a superstar. "I'm probably the only guy that ever came here with their own motor and their own chassis. No one's ever done that. I qualified 35 years straight, and it's been 40 years since I first won, which is hard for me to believe," Foyt said, laughing. "I've been rolling up the miles, rolling up the age and I've had fun. "But every day I learn something new here."
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