14 • RACECONTROL RACE CONTROL • 14
A
t St Pete for the season opener A.J. returned to the track
to watch his team compete for the first time since the
Kohler Grand Prix at Road America on June 24, 2018 last
season. He underwent back surgery in July, after which
he incurred his third staph infection, causing him to miss the rest of
the season and the big Texan was deeply missed in the pitlane so it
was great to see him back again at the track.
We asked him a few questions upon his return...How are you feeling?
“I feel pretty good. I’m gaining every day. I’m not a hundred percent but
I’m a good eighty-five or ninety (percent).”Have you had any close calls in the off season?
“Oh yeah! (laughs) A couple weeks ago, I was going to get on my ‘dozer
and move a tree, and another guy said, ‘I’ll do it for you A.J.’ I said okay
because I was doing some other stuff. Then I saw that bees attacked
him. I was in another tractor with a closed cab and saw them chasing
him and he was slapping at them and going backwards to get away.
And I thought, Man I’m glad I’m not in that one. He got stung pretty
good—his face was swollen and he got a black eye. He was lucky they
were honey bees, not killer bees, because he could get away from them.
I felt sorry for him.”Did you go swimming with your bulldozer again?
“Well, a couple months ago I was digging on the edge of this pond at
one of my ranches and the dozer just slipped down. It was real muddy
and I tried to go faster to get up and out but the machine just slipped
further down. So I stopped before the whole thing went under. I had to
have two guys help pull me out because I was in quicksand, I couldn’t
climb out myself—and I lost a shoe.”Switching gears, you made some changes to the team
this year?
“We hired some new people and switched some others around.We’reA new feature in this issue. It comes to you all from our friends
at A.J. Foyt Racing. We will check in with them in future issues as
well and we are lucky enough to get the inside scoop on what
the ABC Supply Team is up to first hand straight from the team
itself and yet an insight to the bigger picture of racing.