Q: Is it true that you didn’t understand the NASCAR yellow flag rule in the 1979 Daytona 500 and as result you finished third versus possibly beating Waltrip and Petty to victory. – @orion4214 (Instagram)
A.J.: “What happened was that Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison crashed on the last lap. In Indy car racing when you saw the yellow flag, the first thing you did was try to get your car slowed down because you were in an open wheel car and you could get hurt real bad. When I saw the wreck, I’m used to backing off so I backed off and when I did, they went right by me. And I thought, Oh damn, they race back to the start finish line. So I learned a lesson there. I felt like I would have won the race but I wound up running third and that was my own fault for not following the rules. Later on, NASCAR changed the rule because it was dangerous. [They eliminated the controversial rule during the 2003 season after an incident involving Dale Jarrett at New Hampshire Int’l Raceway.]
Q: What was Ray Harroun like in person? – @Ronnie_Burgers (Twitter)
A.J.: “After I won in 1961, Tony Hulman sent me and him to New York on that TV show, I’ve Got a Secret. I was only with him there a couple days. He was really a nice guy. I asked him questions and he answered them truthfully. He was soft-spoken. I asked him, ‘When do you know when it’s time to quit?’ and he was such a nice guy, and he said, ‘Well, it’ll probably just come to you all of sudden.’
Q: Who was your toughest competitor on dirt? And on pavement? @GregCriser (Twitter)
A.J.: “In Indy cars, as far as dirt, the toughest guy to beat was Rodger Ward with A.J. Watson. He was tough. Parnelli Jones was tough and so was Jim Hurtubise but Rodger Ward was the man to beat on dirt.
“On pavement, well actually he was on pavement too. Rodger Ward and A.J. Watson, that was a tough team to beat. They were older and ahead of us but to win races, you had to beat them. I remember one time they ran third and I said to Watson, ‘Man you all run third’ and he said, ‘Hell, it’s better than fourth.’”
Q: If you could go back in time what car would you love to drive to the edge one more time? – Keith W. (Facebook)
A.J.: “I think the most fun racing I ever had was running the midgets on the half mile dirt at Ascot in California. The Jack London car. Bignotti worked on it and it was a helluva race car and a lot of fun to drive. And my competition out there was Parnelli Jones. It was very tough competition.”
Q: What was more fun to drive? Front engine roadsters or the rear engine late ‘60s Coyotes? – dnick_22 (Instagram)
A.J.: “I really enjoyed driving both of them. They were completely different kinds of cars to drive but lucky enough I adapted to both of them. When I had to adapt to the rear engine car, the back end would get out a lot quicker than you realized and any time the back end got out on a roadster, you normally spun out. I didn’t ever spin one that much, but you had to watch the rear engine car because the back end could be out and you wouldn’t really know it as quick as you would on a roadster. With the rear engine car, when the back end came out, you could save it easier and more often. With the roadster, normally you didn’t save it.”
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