Hard Driver Forever

Edited by Jerry Kirshenbaum

May 24, 1993

A tearful A.J. Foyt (below) stepped out of his car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last week and, with a tip of the hat, announced his retirement to 200,000 of his closest friends. Foyt, 58, who has won four Indy 500s, has quit before but insists he means it this time. He will, he says, concentrate on his duties as a team owner. Anybody who thinks that Foyt has mellowed, though, wasn't listening to his radio instructions to his young driver Robin Gordon at the Long Beach Grand Prix last month after Gordon had been bumped by another driver, Eddie Cheever. Foyt growled, "You gonna take that, boy?" whereupon Gordon speared Cheever's car, knocking both Cheever and himself out of the race.