Despite Mishap, Foyt Finishes 3rd and Isn’t Ready to Call It Quits

No one wants to go out a loser, but when you’re winning it’s too much fun to quit.

That may be what A.J. Foyt is facing. Super Tex is 50 now, and rich enough to settle back on his horse farm and watch the world go by. But that wouldn’t be Foyt.

He wants to be in the thick of the battle. And he’s still winning. So he’s still with us. And racing is better for it.

The sight of Foyt striding out of Gasoline Alley and onto pit row at any track in the country is still one of the most electrifying sights in racing. The first glimpse of those powerful shoulders, that more-than-ample midriff, the rolling Texas stride and the scar-faced smile--or scowl--produces instant recognition for fans.

The result is applause for this old warrior who has spanned the decades from an era when racing was a sit-up-in-the-seat-and-be-seen show and the drivers wore bandannas around their necks, to the modern era of high-tech computerized racing in which only the top of a driver’s helmet is visible.

But there is no doubt that age has mellowed Anthony Joseph Foyt.

Friday, in the 100-mile International Race of Champions at Daytona International Speedway, Foyt was trying to hold off Cale Yarborough coming out of the final turn when Tom Sneva nudged Yarborough, sending him into Foyt. The three of them spun wildly down the high bank and through the grassy infield.

Darrell Waltrip, who had been running fourth, slipped untouched through the mess and took the checkered flag.

Foyt finished the race in the grass and ended up with his cream-colored Camaro on pit row facing the wrong way. He was given third place, behind Waltrip and Sneva, who slid across the finish line backward.

An incident like that would have brought a younger Foyt out of his car with fists flying. No one nearby would have escaped his wrath.

Friday? He came out laughing.

“Hey, wasn’t that something?” he said to an angered Yarborough, clapping Cale on the shoulder. “That oughta make ‘em a show.”

Only later, when asked what had happened, he reverted to form. “Sneva ran out of brains, as usual, and ran into the back of Cale,” he said. “Ain’t no sense for that bull. Ain’t no reason for it at all.”

Foyt led 35 of the 40 laps, and the $5,500 he won, much of it lap-prize money, was $500 more than Waltrip got for winning.

It was the second time this week that Foyt and Yarborough had been involved in a track incident. Wednesday, during practice for Sunday’s Daytona 500, Foyt was running “about 202” with Yarborough drafting right on his bumper when Foyt’s engine let go. Foyt slowed abruptly, and Yarborough came within inches of hitting him.

“I had my hands full, but I knew Cale was cussin’ me out back there but wasn’t nothing I could do about that engine,” Foyt said.

“There wasn’t nothing I could do, either, but say, ‘Whew,’ ” Yarborough said.

Friday’s last-turn accident wasn’t the only IROC excitement.

Trans Am champion Tom Gloy was running along toward the rear of the 12-car field with the other sports car drivers when he was tapped in the rear by Jochen Mass, an endurance car driver from West Germany. Gloy’s car twisted sideways, and when it hit the slick grass it lifted into the air and did a half-roll before landing on its roof.

It stayed upside down and slid about a quarter-mile down the track, sending sparks flying in all directions.

When it stopped sliding, smoke began to drift out of the car. The crowd of 40,000 watched in stunned silence, but when Gloy crawled through the window and walked away, wild cheering ended the silence.

“Jochen barely tapped me but it was just enough to send me slightly sideways,” Gloy said after having been checked out at the infield hospital. “The last thing I saw was the horizon as I started going up in the air. That first hit on the roof was a bad one. I landed so square on the roof that the car just kept sliding . . . and sliding . . . and sliding.

“I had my right foot on the brakes so hard that my thigh muscle hurt. Then I thought, ‘Gloy, you dummy, the brakes aren’t going to stop you when you are sliding on your roof.’ I guess that puts me in rather exclusive company in the Daytona Flip Club, with Cale and Ricky (Rudd) and A.J.”

Foyt got airborne in 1978 at almost the exact spot where Gloy took off Friday. Yarborough flipped after a 200-m.p.h. lap during qualifying in 1983, and Rudd took off like a Frisbee during last year’s Busch Clash.

Although the accident deprived Foyt of possible victory in the IROC, he won here two weeks ago in the Daytona 24-hour race, driving with Bob Wolleck of France, Thierry Boutsen of Belgium and Al Unser in a Porsche 962 owned by Preston Henn.

“Ain’t nothin’ like winning to make a man feel younger,” A.J. drawled during a lull in the Daytona garage area. “Maybe it’ll get you guys (reporters) to quit buggin’ me about when I’m going to retire. Every year I tell people I’ll let them know but not to expect me to retire anytime soon. Just seeing me entered should make ‘em stop asking. And when I win, I’m for damn sure not quitting.”

Friday’s race was Foyt’s 68th at Daytona. He has won eight--the 1972 Daytona 500, the 1983 and 1985 24-hour races, the 1964 and 1965 Firecracker 400s, the 1964 ACC 250, the 1968 125-mile qualifier and the 1983 Paul Revere 250.

Although Foyt is not a NASCAR driver in the truest sense, only five drivers--Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Richard Petty, Buddy Baker and Yarborough--have started more races at Daytona. Allison is the leader with 102 starts.

Sunday, A.J. will climb through the window of Jim Gilmore’s Oldsmobile and start his 22nd Daytona 500. He is in the eighth row, although his qualifying speed of 201.275 m.p.h. was fourth fastest in the field. It also was a record speed for an Olds.

Starting positions in the 500, other than the front row, are determined by where a driver finishes in one of the twin 125-mile races. Foyt finished eighth.

“I love it down here in Daytona,” Foyt said. “I love the place and I feel at home with these NASCAR boys. I have a lot of friends runnin’ stock cars and I get a kick out of runnin’ with them. They’re tough, though, but they’re a great bunch of guys.”

Foyt’s luck in the 500 has not been so good in recent years. He won a 125-mile qualifying race in 1978, the year he crashed in the 500, and finished third in 1979. Since then, though, he has failed to finish in the top 10.

Three races here at Daytona are the start of an ambitious year for Foyt, at least the way he has it partially planned.

“I’ll be at Miami next Sunday (for the Lowenbrau Grand Prix), then maybe run six or eight more NASCAR races, and if things work out, I may run the whole CART (Indy car) schedule. Then Preston (Henn) is trying to talk me into going to LeMans again.”

Foyt won the 24 Hours of LeMans with Dan Gurney in 1967 and hasn’t been back since.

“I always said there wasn’t no use to go back after beatin’ them guys the one time I went, but Preston keeps buggin’ me about it, so maybe I’ll just take him up on it.”

For Indianapolis, where he will be going for his fifth win in the 500 on May 26, Foyt will test two new Marches and two Lolas before deciding which he thinks will get the job done best.

Foyt says he is racing more this year because he no longer has to worry about his parents, each of whom died in the last three years.

“When Momma and Daddy were sick, I just couldn’t keep my mind on my racing,” he said. “I’d be at a race, or something, and they’d get worse and I’d fly home to check on them. Now that they’re gone, I’m going to give it more of my time. I love racing too much to set it aside.