The Official Blog of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

This was AJ Foyt’s first 500. Dad and I were in box seats on the outside of turn 4. What a rotten start to this race.

Like Rick Wampler said, this photo says a whole lot more. It could have been named “The Calm Before The 58 Storm”. This was back in the days of ‘Tall Cars & Short Walls & Fences’, when the box seats really were the ‘In Place’ to see the race, up-close & personal. The old tree still stands inside of Turn 4, until that dark November day of progress in 1965. Rusticles belie the age of the outside wall before white paint spruced up the main straight. Don’t forget that rookie from Texas in the 8 car… yeah, A.J. Foyt was about to ‘see th’ elephant’ for the first time this day. Oh those passenger cars, I’ll just about bet ya they belonged to the technicians hooking up the ‘Worlds Largest Public Address System’ as they used to do every race morning all along the grass, behind the pit wall. Yes, this is a very busy photograph of the things we never thought about, in 1958.