Foyt Shifts Gears, Hedges on Indy Retirement

So how was A.J. Foyt’s last Indianapolis 500?

There may be an answer to that sometime around 2011.

Foyt’s 34th consecutive Indy start was widely ballyhooed as his last, but the man who used to rule the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with an iron foot didn’t sound very retiring Sunday.

“Usually when we make a decision, I stick with it. I just hate to go out of here like this,” he said of a secondary accident that took him out of the running after only 25 laps of the 200-lap race.

“There’s always a chance things could happen. A lot of it’s going to be up to (his sponsor and racing manager). It’s a part of my life. I love it. I know the speedway pretty well. I feel I’ve got a lot of savvy here. We definitely want to train a young driver for a lot of the road races. If it’s possible, we could run two cars here . . . and maybe I just run the big race.”

His recent drives in “the big race” have been only shadowy reminders of his onetime dominance, but this May, coming off a serious injury that nearly settled the retirement question last fall, he was very much his old sensational self.

In a qualifying run that few believed possible--he was the first out in unfavorable qualifying weather--he put his car in the middle of the first row, right up there with the fast guys, Rick Mears and Mario Andretti. It gave him his first start from the front row since 1982.

And he didn’t do badly Sunday, while he was running. He was in the top 10 in the early going, then fell back when the air-jack malfunctioned on his first pit stop.

“I was disappointed ‘cause I felt like we had a good shot today--I really did,” he said. “The pit stop really killed us. It got us in the back (of the field). I was going to hustle real quick to try to get back up and make up the difference, but then we got caught in the wreck. We shouldn’t have been back there.”

Foyt wasn’t involved in the accident that took Kevin Cogan and Roberto Guerrero out of the running, but he was caught in the aftermath.

Foyt was able to nurse his disabled car around the track and back to the pits, waving to the fans all the way around. Was he waving goodby?

Don’t count on it.

“I just felt I owed them a salute,” he said, adding later, “I think I’ve got another win (here) in me.”