INDIANAPOLIS — It’s been a rough few months for the Foyt family. Earlier this year, AJ Foyt had a pacemaker installed. On April 5, Foyt’s wife of nearly 68-years, Lucy, passed away. That caused more pain that Foyt could ever dream of dealing with and he’s dealt with his fair share of injuries.

It was difficult, but Foyt came to Indianapolis this month to be around support. Foyt has always said, “Indianapolis made AJ Foyt.”

Foyt is one of our drivers in the prestigious four-win club here and was the first to do so in 1977. He also has another Indy 500 win as an owner too. Now, as we get to the dawn of the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 (11 a.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network), Foyt has a very realistic shot of taking the ride north from Santino Ferrucci’s pit box to a what is sure to be an emotional victory circle on May 28 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

AJ Foyt Racing hasn’t won an NTT INDYCAR SERIES race since 2013 (169 races). They’ve not won an Indy 500 since 1999. However, this team looks primed to contend for a victory on Sunday afternoon.

Both cars qualified ahead of all three Team Penske’s with Santino Ferrucci coming from the Inside of Row 2 (4th) and his rookie teammate, Benjamin Pedersen starting on the Middle of Row 4 (11th).

Ferrucci said on Thursday that he feels like AJ Foyt Racing is his home now. It feels like family. It feels right. He’s showing just how good of a driver he is and is hopeful that he can win race No. 6 for Super Tex (AJ Foyt), 4 as a driver and 1 more as an owner.

“I definitely want to get that that sixth win for him and my first in this in this car be so freakin special,” Ferrucci told me.

Ferrucci has never been known as a great qualifier here. He started 23rd as a rookie in 2019. A year later, he qualified 19th. The last two years prior to this one, he’s started 23rd again and 15th respectively.

However, on race day, he didn’t stay there long.

He went from 23rd to 7th in 2019, 19th to 4th in 2020, 23rd to 6th in 2021 and 15th to 10th a year ago in a car that he ran as high as fourth in on Lap 158.

Now, he’s starting in fourth and already up front.

“I’ve always hated qualifying,” Ferrucci admitted. “I was shaking after my first qualifying run. I was happy it was done. So I just I don’t know. It doesn’t matter me I’ve just I’ve never started well here. I’ve never qualified well here I’ve got a 23rd to 19th and a 15th in qualifying and all the top 10 finishes so yes, I would much rather start on the outside row five or six then have to manage being upfront. When we got up from the Dryer car, started 15th last year and we stayed up front all day till the very end, so it’s one of those things where we can definitely do it. My focus is always race car.

“I’m not afraid to pass people I’m not afraid to you know, be on the limits in the pits.”

What happens now that we know that he only has three cars in front of him on Sunday.

“I’m still never a fan of qualifying,” he admitted even after the fact that he made last week’s Shootout. “I’m a racer through and through. Getting these four laps out of the way was amazing for us and the team to be as fast as we are. It’s incredible, a major feat.

“Personally as a driver, yeah, it’s definitely something I’m happy to check off the list, happy I don’t have to pass as many cars come Sunday. But, yeah, I’m more looking forward to the race than anything else.”

What’s scary to the field is, Ferrucci admits that his actual “race” car is better than this qualifying setup.

 “I actually feel a lot more comfortable in the race car than I have been in the qualifying car. Our car definitely has some more in it.

Ferrucci also notes this year he can get back to taking more risks as a full-time driver. Last year with DRR, it was just a one-race deal. He babied the car because of that. This year, this is his ride and his ride only. He’s going to go back to the old Ferrucci approach of being overly aggressive.

“You know, last year the team did really save me a bit,” he said. “I didn’t have the greatest restarts which is kind of unusual. I was definitely taking more of a step back being on a you know, just a one ride time to deal because I really needed to finish. So, this year you know I can go a little bit more out ahead of my skis per se and really be aggressive but also just being comfortable. So starting in the back for me people make mistakes trying to push the frontier early and I just you know I’m more of the last 75 laps kind of guy.”

That’s music to the ears of his boss, AJ Foyt.

2 of Foyt’s Indy 500 wins, the final two at that, he started fourth, the very position Ferrucci is coming from. Ferrucci says that he’s actually won a lot of races in his career from the fourth starting position.

This could be a match made in heaven.

Ferrucci is just a younger version of AJ Foyt. Brash. Doesn’t care what people think about him. Fast. Races anything. Makes everything that he does race in competitive. He’s raced sprints, he’s raced midgets, he’s raced an INDYCAR a NASCAR, you name it. He also likes to work on his own cars just as his new boss.

Foyt sees a lot of himself in this young racer too and now the 24-year-old is back in Indy Car with a potential to bring AJ Foyt Racing back from the ashes and into the national limelight again.

Ferrucci lives in Texas. That’s where Foyt lives. That’s where this 14 car resides. Ferrucci’s lucky number?

14.

Ferrucci’s favorite driver he idolized growing up?

Tony Stewart.

Now, he’s in the 14 car at Indy.