Foyt Has Might, but Luyendyk Is Right

FORT WORTH, Texas — First, A.J. Foyt fought his own reenactment of the Alamo in victory lane of Texas Motor Speedway.

He had friends there, notably Billy Boat, his driver who had been declared winner of the True Value 500K. Nearby were Davey Hamilton, a Foyt driver listed as second, and about 300 folks who had come up from Houston to root Foyt’s team along.

It wasn’t as though he needed the help. At 62, Foyt had no trouble dealing with Arie Luyendyk when he tried to crash the Saturday night party, declaring he had won the race. A couple of punches and wrestling Luyendyk to the ground took care of things.

Then, after working through the night, Indy Racing League officials and those of the United States Auto Club--which runs IRL’s races--emerged from meetings with red faces and declared Luyendyk was right, Foyt was wrong and USAC and the IRL were wronger.

Luyendyk not only had won the race, he had driven two laps more than the 208 required.

“We feel very badly,” said USAC chief steward Keith Ward, the organization’s top rules arbiter and head of enforcing competition standards. “We’ve never had a problem of this nature. Certainly, this is a magnitude we have never seen. We’re embarrassed by it.”

Luyendyk’s lap count was thrown off during each of his first two pit stops, leading him to actually go 210 laps, two more than necessary. A new top 10 emerged based on who was where when Luyendyk finished No. 208.

Boat was second, Hamilton third and Foyt still angry.

“We are going through the protest process,” he said in a statement. “They [USAC officials] feel they are right and we feel we are right. We’ll let this play out.”

USAC discovered a huge mess had been caused when electronic transmitters used to register laps didn’t always count cars crossing the start-finish line in the pit area. Five of the 26 cars were affected, including Luyendyk’s.

He knew it. Foyt didn’t, and when Luyendyk charged into victory lane, Foyt responded by popping him twice in the head. Then an outbreak of pushing and shoving sent Foyt on top of Luyendyk. IRL founder Tony George helped separate them.

“All I know is I got hit from behind and almost choked by somebody and it turned out to be A.J. Foyt,” Luyendyk said Sunday. “I never did talk to him at all. And I don’t have to talk to him.”

Luyendyk was the only one happy with the officials.

“I have to commend them for stepping up to the plate and admitting, ‘OK, we were wrong. We’ve corrected it now,’ ” he said.

USAC said it would allow protests to be filed through noon Thursday.

The reversal gave Luyendyk consecutive victories, although both have been a bit confusing. The last lap of his Indy 500 win came with the starter waving a green flag while lights mounted on the track wall remained yellow.