SAME OL’ A.J.

When A.J. Foyt was driving race cars, his passion for winning was legendary.

Parnelli Jones says of him, “A.J. wasn’t the best driver I ever saw, but he had more will to win than anyone else.”

Super Tex is 63 now, has been out of the driver’s seat for five years and is on the sidelines as an Indy car owner. So, has that passion dimmed?

“Hell no,” he bellowed, in typical Foyt fashion. “I don’t look at it any different, not one bit. Most of the time when I was driving, I was driving for myself, so there’s not much difference, really.”

Foyt doesn’t just own the cars Kenny Brack and Billy Boat drive in the Indy Racing League, he all but drives them. He makes the decisions, then makes sure the decisions are followed.

“Working for A.J. puts a lot of pressure on you,” said John King, chief mechanic for Brack. “He demands perfection, he expects perfection. If you can’t perform, then you’re not the right person for the job. He knows what’s happening all the time. You can’t fool him, so don’t even try.”

Well known is Foyt’s remarkable record at the Indianapolis 500--four victories and 35 consecutive starts, but not so well known is that he has won 20 major championships, either as a driver or car owner.

It will be 21 if Brack, 32, from Karlstad, Sweden, can finish eighth or better in Sunday’s season-ending Las Vegas 500, or finish ahead of defending champion Tony Stewart and Davey Hamilton. Brack won three consecutive races, at Charlotte, Pikes Peak and Atlanta, to take command of the series.

Brack leads Hamilton in the points race, 312-281. Stewart is third at 271.

“This [championship] is just as important as any of the others,” Foyt said during an interview in Houston, where he was appearing as a spokesman for the United Way campaign. Only a few blocks away, CART’s Texaco Grand Prix of Houston was about to start, but Foyt, nettled that a race could be going on in his hometown without his being part of it, headed for Del Rio and his ranch in West Texas for the weekend, 400 miles away.

“I told [CART officials] that I’d bring my cars downtown and race them if they’d let me,” he said. “I’d just make a few changes in the gear box and my guys would beat them. They keep talking about how they have the best cars and the best drivers, but you know, they’d have a different tune if we met on equal grounds.

“There are some drivers in the IRL who are very good, good enough to race with anybody. I don’t see much chance of each side [CART and IRL] getting together, but if they did, our guys would surprise some of their hotshots.”

In typical Foyt hyperbole, he added, “If they’d let me run my cars, I’d put 10,000 more people in the stands.”

They couldn’t have handled 10,000 more, though. The stands Sunday were crammed to capacity as Dario Franchitti won a rain-shortened race.

Realistically, there wasn’t any way Foyt’s cars could have run in the CART race because the engine rules are radically different. When Tony George, owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, broke with CART three years ago and formed the IRL, the new organization switched from highly sophisticated turbocharged racing engines to normally aspirated production engines from Oldsmobile and Nissan.

George’s stated reason was to reduce costs, from about $2 million a year for one team’s CART engines leased from Ford, Honda, Mercedes-Benz or Toyota, to about $80,000 each for IRL power plants, which were bought by teams.

“You’ve heard it, that ‘Money buys speed,’ but it’s not always true, not in the IRL,” Foyt said. “Our operation doesn’t have near the money some of the other guys spend. You can also win with hard work, with knowledge that comes from years of experience that money can’t buy. That’s how we’re doing it.”

Both CART and the IRL acknowledge that the split has diluted interest in open-wheel racing, but little has been done about a reconciliation.

“I just don’t see how it can be worked out,” Foyt said of a possible merger. “Sure, I’d love to see them running with us, especially at Indy, but I don’t see it happening. If they want to run, they can come and run with our rules any time they want.”

To which Mario Andretti, like Foyt a retired driving legend, derisively answered, “You can’t run ‘spec’ cars at this level of racing, and that’s what Tony [George] is trying to do.”

Mario’s son, Michael, one of CART’s top drivers, may be the closest to seeing the problem. He said, “It’s sad. If we were all together, we could be as big as NASCAR.”

Instead, the IRL will be in Las Vegas this weekend and CART will be in Surfers Paradise, Australia, next week.

In Las Vegas, Foyt will have his own problem--keeping Brack from taking chances that might cost him a nearly $2-million payday. If Brack wins the championship, it’s worth $1 million in bonus money, and if he also wins the race he will collect an additional $600,000.

“The hardest thing about being an owner is trying to tell one of your drivers to take it easy,” Foyt said. “It goes against all their upbringing. But sometimes you’ve got to do it. All Kenny needs to do is finish ahead of two drivers [Stewart and Hamilton] to win the championship, and that’s what we want most of all.

“If it comes down to backing off, to save the engine or keep out of trouble, that’s what Kenny’s going to have to do. Then, if Stewart and Hamilton are out of it, he can go for the win.”

Another stated reason for forming the IRL was to give young American drivers, up from the sprint car and midget ranks, an opportunity they could not get in CART, where most of the drivers are foreigners.

“I liked what I saw when Kenny was driving [last year] for Rick Galles, so when the time came, I went with him,” Foyt said, dismissing the notion that he had to have another American driver. Boat, Brack’s teammate, is from Phoenix.

“People thought I was crazy when I let Scotty [Scott Sharp] and Davey [Hamilton] go last year and signed Brack, but you know, in this business you can’t stay stagnant, and we weren’t going anywhere where we were.”

Which isn’t exactly true. Sharp had been co-champion with Buzz Calkins in IRL’s first season, and Hamilton had finished only six points behind Stewart last season.

“The first thing I heard was that Kenny was buying his ride, and that just ain’t the truth,” Foyt said. “Of all the guys I’ve had, the only one who brought money for his ride was Marco Greco.

“I liked Kenny because I saw that he was a very smart racer, but he had a car-control problem. He makes smart moves. Now and then, he still makes me pucker, the way he tries to get away with things he shouldn’t have tried. Like at Indy, where he kept brushing the wall, rubbing ‘Goodyear’ off his sidewalls. I told him if he kept rubbing the walls like that, that wall was going to get him.

“But you saw what he did. He went out and qualified on the front row. He’s tough that way. He does things you aren’t sure he can do. He wants to learn, and he wants to win. What more can I ask?”

Brack’s background includes winning the Renault Clio Scandinavian title in 1992 and the Zerex Barber Saab championship in 1993, his first year in America. In 1996, before signing with Galles Racing as a substitute for the injured Davy Jones, Brack was runner-up in the International Formula 3000 series.

Foyt said he will send Boat out early on Sunday as a rabbit to set a swift pace, while holding Brack back.

“I told Kenny I’m not going to let him ding-dong for the lead and maybe have him break. I’ll send Billy out early. He doesn’t mind, he wants to win the race and he figures if he’s out in front early, that might be the way to do it. They’re both very competitive, they want to race each other, but I’m the boss and they’ll do what they’re told.”

Brack is quick to credit Foyt for his success in only two years of Indy car racing.

“A.J. means so much to Billy and me because he has so much experience setting the cars up for different tracks,” Brack said. “Whenever we have a problem, or think we do, he can easily relate to it and make whatever changes are necessary.”

Foyt admits he sometimes acts on hunches, hunches that come from years of tuning and driving his own No. 14, the number Brack carries.

“Take the last race, at Texas [Motor Speedway], for example,” Foyt said. “Kenny said he felt like he would win easily, but he said he felt a vibration. I told him to pit, that if he stayed out he was going to hear a big bang. He pitted just as the track was going green [after a caution period] and it cost him a possible win, but if he hadn’t come in, he wouldn’t have made two more laps.

“When we inspected the right rear tire, we found it had a bad cut. It was just a hunch I had, just a vibration to Kenny, but it’s the kind of little thing it takes to win a championship. Kenny finished only fifth, but it was better than Hamilton or Stewart, and at this time of the season that’s what matters most.”

If Brack wins the title, he will become the first Swedish driver to win an Indy-car championship. The only other serious Swedish competitor has been Stefan Johansson, retired as a driver and now the owner of a karting center in Indianapolis and an Indy Lights team.

Foyt’s success this year, with Boat winning the first race at Texas and getting five poles, including the Indy 500, and Brack winning three races, tends to obscure his otherwise unimpressive record as an owner. Certainly it is nothing like his driving record, which included U.S. Auto Club national champ car titles in 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1975 and 1979.

Until Boat won last June, Foyt had only one victory in six years as a full-time car owner, Sharp’s 1996 victory at Loudon, N.H.

Among his many drivers were such talents as Bryan Herta, Robby Gordon, Eddie Cheever and John Andretti. But there were others, such as Brian Bonner, whom Foyt once advised, “Just go out there and don’t hit anything, son.”

“Maybe I ask too much out of my guys, but I don’t think so,” Foyt said. “What’s changed is the drivers. I guess it’s the same way in everything. It’s a different breed today.

“There are some guys you have to treat real tender. If you say something harsh to them, they pout. I guess I’m like Mike Ditka. When I came up, if somebody did you wrong, you got out and whipped their ass and went on about your business, or they whipped your ass.

“Today you can’t do things like that. I kinda think that’s hurt the sport a little bit. There’s just too many prima donnas today. Do you think I’m saying it too rough?”

No sir, A.J. You can say it any way you like.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

INDY RACING LEAGUE / Las Vegas 500

* Site: Las Vegas.

* Schedule: Saturday, qualifying, noon (Speedvision, 6 p.m.); Sunday, race, 1 p.m. (TNN).

* Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway (tri-oval, 1.5 miles, 12-degree banking in turns).

* Race distance: 312 miles, 208 laps.

* Defending champion: Chile’s Eliseo Salazar.

* Fast facts: Sweden’s Kenny Brack can win the series title with an eighth-place finish, or any finish ahead of Hamilton and Stewart. The series champion will receive a $1-million bonus.

This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP, Winston 500

* Schedule: Today, first-round qualifying, 1 p.m. (ESPN2); Saturday, second-round qualifying, 8:45 a.m. (ESPN2, 9:30 p.m.); Sunday, race, 10 a.m. (ESPN).

* Track: Talladega Superspeedway (tri-oval, 2.66 miles, 33-degree banking in turns, 18-degree banking in tri-oval).

* Race distance: 500 miles, 188 laps.

* Defending champion: Terry Labonte.

* Next race: Pepsi 400, Oct. 17, Daytona Beach, Fla.

*

CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS, Kragen-Exide 150

* Schedule: Saturday, qualifying, 2:45 p.m.; Sunday, race, 2 p.m. (ESPN2).

* Track: Sears Point Raceway (road course, 1.949 miles, 11 turns).

* Race distance: 150.073 miles, 77 laps.

* Defending champion: Joe Ruttman.

* Next race: Dodge California Truck Stop 300, Oct. 18, Bakersfield.

*

NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSN. Pennzoil Nationals

* Schedule: Today, qualifying, 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. (ESPN2, 2:30 p.m.); Saturday, qualifying, 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.; Sunday, final eliminations, 9 a.m. (ESPN2, 4:30 p.m.)

* Track: Memphis Motorsports Park.

* Defending champion: John Force.

* Next race: Revell Nationals, Oct. 23-25, Ennis, Texas.