To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of A.J. Foyt`s retirement are somewhat exaggerated.
Foyt fought back last year from serious foot and leg injuries for what he said was going to be his final season behind the wheel. Now, he has decided he`s not ready to call it a career.
The 56-year-old Texan, who has won just about every major event in motorsports, is entered in the Feb. 16 Daytona 500 and says he might also race in May in a record 35th consecutive Indianapolis 500.
Foyt says he has lost 20 pounds and that his legs and feet, injured in an Indy-car crash at Elkhart Lake, Wis., in September of 1990, are feeling great. What could probably be called another comeback will start Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, where Foyt will race in the stock car division of the Copper World Classic.
”I`m just going to creep back into it,” Foyt said. ”I`m ready to hang it up, but I`m not ready to hang it up.
”I really enjoy it and I was hurting so bad trying to make myself do something last year. I probably shouldn`t even have tried to come back last year at all. I should have waited a year.”
