Foyt Easily Qualifies for His 29th 500, but Not Leader of the Pack

Will there ever be an Indianapolis 500 without A.J. Foyt?

The cantankerous old Texan, now 51, made it easily into his 29th consecutive 500 Sunday, but the four-time winner didn’t let it come without a growl.

Foyt, who was not permitted to attempt a run Saturday because of an illegal sidepod, ran four laps Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that averaged 213.212 m.p.h. If he had done it Saturday, A.J. would be starting fifth, in the middle of the second row, on May 25.

Doing it Sunday, however, gets him only a place on the outside of the eighth row, in 24th position, alongside Geoff Brabham, who qualified a day earlier at 207.082.

“It’s a pretty hard call when something as thick as your finger nail costs you 20 places,” Foyt said after his run. “The bracket on the right side started to crack and it moved twenty-five thousands too much. Now I ask you, is that going to make or break you in anything?”

It is problematical if Foyt could have run as fast Saturday because it was much hotter. He passed on his first attempt Saturday when his No. 14 March developed a manifold problem during practice and the crew had to change motors.

When he reappeared about 5 p.m., U.S. Auto Club inspectors had A.J. push his car out of the qualifying line after it failed to pass inspection.

Foyt was livid at the time.

“It (the sidepod) was something that would have taken 30 seconds to fix, but they wouldn’t let me,” he snapped. “I had the car running 212 just before we got in line. It’s a dirty shame we didn’t get to qualify then.”

Chief steward Tom Binford said that rules forbid working on a car once it has entered the inspection box in preparation for qualifying.

“All you can do is bite your lip and get on with it,” Foyt said.

He said that his biggest concern for race day was the start, where he feared having traffic problems in the middle of the pack.

“You got to be careful in traffic and keep your nose clean for a few laps and wait for your turn to get up there,” he said.

Foyt said he had no intention of retiring--but he said he realized why some people might have thought so.

“I think my crew might have thought I’d lost the heart for racing because I didn’t spend the time with them. I’m a little different from most race drivers.

“A lot of times, I’m helping out in the engine room, working the dyno, helping build a lot of my motors, but I haven’t done that lately. I used to spend 24 hours a day on racing, but what with my horses, my dealership, and other businesses, I don’t have the time, but when you’ve been with people who were with you 15-16 years and they see you show up two days a week or twice a month, they get to feeling I don’t really want my race cars like I used to. But we’re all pulled back together now.”

His other businesses include oil investments, the largest car dealership in Texas, a thoroughbred farm, a partner in a hotel chain, a member of the board of the largest funeral business in the country and a limited partnership in the Houston Astros baseball team.

Foyt’s last Indy 500 win was in 1977 and his last Indy car win was in 1981 at Pocono. That was the first time a March chassis won an Indy car race.

This year, Marches fill the front row and there are 15 of them among the first 21 qualifiers.

“They say the older you get, the slower you go, but goddamn, since 1958 here, I’m getting faster with age.

“I felt more comfortable today running 213 that I did when I ran 145. It’s just that it’s hard for me to feel that I don’t never have to lift (on the corners). You just go right down into that corner, and damned if it don’t look awful tight, but you drive right on through it.”

Foyt has picked up more than 70 m.p.h. in his qualifying speeds. He ran 142.648 in 1959, his second year, compared with Sunday’s 213.212.

“When I get where I don’t feel good or not healthy, that’s when I’ll quit and just become a car owner. They think (Roger) Penske’s tough, well I don’t think he’s near as bad as I’ll be.”

Foyt, who has broken his back twice, fractured his feet and leg, cracked his ribs and shredded his ligaments, said the thing he always feared most was fire.

“You can get broke up, and get fixed back the way you was, but fire puts the fear of God in you. I always said fire can make a dead man walk. I think Goodyear coming out with the fuel cells has really made automobile racing safe.”

Foyt’s fear of fire was formed early. When he was 11 he burned his hands trying to put out a fire in his dad’s midget racer--after he had sneaked it out of the garage when his parents were away. Later he suffered facial burns in accidents at Milwaukee and DuQuoin that have left him with permanent scars.

Looking back at his 51 years, Foyt said that despite all his accidents, he wouldn’t trade it.

“To make a living and enjoy making a living doing what you want to do is something unusual,” he said. “I have so many friends that’s made lots of money and all you hear ‘em do is complain about their jobs. I’ve had my ups and downs in racing but really, when you weigh it out, I have really enjoyed it.

“If I was ever reborn, I wouldn’t want to change my life at all.”

Although he seemed to feel that USAC should have bent the rules in his favor Saturday, Foyt had no compassion for a problem that caused Dick Simon’s two cars to be kicked out of the starting lineup.

Simon, a Capistrano Beach businessman, and Raul Boesel, his young protege from Brazil, had qualified two Lolas only to have them declared illegal in a post-qualifying inspection.

“I think it was a lousy call,” Foyt said. “I think that anytime you get caught with something underneath the pop-off valve, that the car’s automatically disqualified--same as any other race.

“This is my personal opinion--anytime you get caught cheating, I don’t care if it’s A.J. Foyt or Roger Penske, the car should be out. I only know what was told to me, that the cars were impounded, and there’s some shims or a small hole put on the valve.”

Simon, who is a year older than Foyt and at 52 would have been the oldest driver in Indy 500 history had he stayed in the field, insisted that A.J. had been listening to scuttlebutt, and not fact.

“It was just a technicality of construction,” Simon said. “If I had been cheating, we would expect to be disqualified, but the first technical inspection didn’t catch it, and the second didn’t, but the third did. Unfortunately, the third was after qualification.”

Simon, like Foyt, was concerned that his illegality was such a minute thing.

“The opening of our pop-off valve was too small by only .080 of an inch and actually only a portion of the opening was that much in violation of the rule.

“I just wish Foyt would find out what really happened before he goes popping off,” Simon added.

Boesel came back Sunday to join Foyt as one of five second-day qualifiers. The tiny Brazilian ran 211.202, faster than his illegal run of 209.362 on Saturday.

Simon had planned to make another run, too, but had to call it off when a broken shock could not be replaced before the 6 p.m. deadline. Simon, along with others such as Gary Bettenhausen, Jim Crawford, Mike Nish, Johnny Parsons and Steve Chassey were left waiting in line and will make attempts to fill the 33-car field next weekend.

A new crop of drivers, looking for rides in fast backup cars, may also attempt to qualify. That group includes George Snider, Howdy Holmes, Derek Daly, Michael Chandler and two-time champion Gordon Johncock, who is expected to come out of retirement Tuesday in one of Penske’s leftover machines.

After Foyt, Boesel, Scott Brayton, Chip Ganassi and rookie Phil Krueger qualified, there were 28 cars in the field.

Krueger, a former resident of Anaheim who first passed his driver’s test here in 1981, was making his fifth attempt to get in the 500. He crashed in 1981, ’82 and ’83 either while attempting to qualify or in practice. Last year he was here but did not make an attempt.

PARTIAL INDIANAPOLIS 500 FIELD

No. Driver (Hometown), Car-Engine Speed 4 Rick Mears (Bakersfield), March-Cosworth 216.828 1 Danny Sullivan (Louisville), March-Cosworth 215.382 18 Michael Andretti (Nazareth, Pa.), March-Cosworth 214.522 SECOND ROW 3 Bobby Rahal (Dublin, Ohio), March-Cosworth 213.550 2 Mario Andretti (Nazareth, Pa.), Lola-Cosworth 212.300 11 Al Unser (Albuquerque, N.M.), Penske-Chevy 212.295 THIRD ROW 7 Kevin Cogan (Redondo Beach), March-Cosworth 211.922 33 Tom Sneva (Paradise Valley, Ariz.), March-Cosworth 211.878 5 Roberto Guerrero (Colombia), March Cosworth 211.576 FOURTH ROW 30 Al Unser Jr. (Albuquerque, N.M.), Lola-Cosworth 211.533 66 Ed Pimm (Dublin, Ohio), March-Cosworth 210.874 40 Emerson Fittipaldi (Brazil), March-Cosworth 210.237 FIFTH ROW 21 Johnny Rutherford (Fort Worth), March-Cosworth 210.220 12 *Randy Lanier (Davie, Fla.), March-Cosworth 209.964 15 Pancho Carter (Brownsburg, Ind.), Lola-Cosworth 209.635 SIXTH ROW 9 *Roberto Moreno (Brazil), Lola-Cosworth 209.469 81 *Jacques Villeneuve (Canada), March-Cosworth 209.397 25 Danny Ongais (Santa Ana), March-Buick 209.158 SEVENTH ROW 55 Josele Garza (Mexico), March-Cosworth 208.939 16 Tony Bettenhausen (Indianapolis), March-Cosworth 208.933 61 Arie Luyendyk (Netherlands), Lola-Cosworth 207.811 EIGHTH ROW 24 Dennis Firestone (Los Alamitos), Lola-Cosworth 207.471 8 Geoff Brabham (Noblesville, Ind.), Lola-Cosworth 207.082 14 A.J. Foyt (Houston), March-Cosworth 213.212 NINTH ROW 22 Raul Boesel (Brazil), Lola-Cosworth 211.202 71 Scott Brayton (Coldwater, Mich.), March-Buick 208.079 42 *Phil Krueger (Indianapolis), March-Cosworth 207.948 TENTH ROW 59 Chip Ganassi (Pittsburgh), March-Cosworth 207.590

Note: Qualifying continues Saturday and next Sunday. Average speed of field: 210.651 m.p.h. *Rookie driver.