His plan was to be back in the saddle for the first oval race of the ’91 CART season, in April at Phoenix Raceway. That would be a terrific warm-up for Foyt’s real goal, the Indianapolis 500 in May. Thirty years earlier, in 1961, he had scored the first of his four Indy triumphs.
“I was confident that he was going to be in great shape for Phoenix,” said Trammell, who performed some of Foyt’s surgeries and maintained contact with his star patient. But at some point, Trammell told Joe Siano of the New York Times, Foyt “sort of quit.”
Maybe it was post-injury depression, not an uncommon thing. Or maybe Foyt was just tired; the daily workouts were torture. Whatever it was, Foyt started gaining weight “and his cardiovascular fitness went downhill,” said Trammell. “I climbed all over him. I was calling him every few days, making sure he was going to therapy.”
A.J. crossed Phoenix off his schedule, but redoubled his focus on Indianapolis. When the press asked if he really thought he could win a fifth 500, he said, “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t come back.”
He arranged a private practice session at the speedway “to see if I really want to do this,” he told Hinton. He reached 216.6 mph, faster than the qualifying speeds of 10 cars in the previous year’s 500. Foyt’s want-to was intact, even if he wasn’t.
Three-time winner Johnny Rutherford told Siano the 500 was “tough enough when you’re all in one piece. But A.J.’s in several pieces that have been glued together.”
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