Tony Stewart hops in A.J.'s 1961 Indy-winning car

The long-rumored pairing finally came together and one of the best-kept secrets of 2017 came to light: Tony Stewart is driving for A.J. Foyt at Indianapolis.

Actually, he did it Wednesday in front of a handful of friends and family, as well as RACER.com and ABC affiliate WRTV-6. But it was short and sweet.

Stewart hopped in the roadster his hero drove to victory in 1961 at Indianapolis and took a couple of memorable laps.

"That was awesome; it would have been fun to race it," Stewart said after taking a couple of laps in the Bowes Seal Fast Offy that was taken out of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum and prepped by IMS restoration magician A.J. Fairbairn.

"It sounded good and it looked good," declared Foyt, who beat Eddie Sachs to the checkered flag in '61 for the first of his four 500 victories.

The IMS Museum is paying tribute to Foyt this month with an amazing exhibition of the cars, photos and memorabilia from his unparalleled career.

"It's very flattering what [museum director] Ellen [Bireley] and the museum folks have done and looking at all those cars was pretty special," said the legend whose résumé includes 35 consecutive Indy 500 starts, 67 IndyCar wins and seven national championships.

"And having Tony drive my car today made it even better."

A two-time Brickyard 400 winner and three-time NASCAR champion, Stewart was always fast in his IRL days at the Speedway (1996-2001) but never made it to Victory Lane in an Indy car.

And he looked right at home in the front-engine creation of Floyd Trevis.

"I've said all along that I was born 20 years too early, maybe 30 been more appropriate for what I needed," said Stewart, who is running his first-ever Little 500 at Anderson the night before the 101st Indianapolis 500, where his foundation is sponsoring the car driven by Jay Howard under the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports banner.

Looking up at A.J., the multi-USAC champion then cracked: "Of course it's probably in your best interest I wasn't driving back then or you might not have won four times."

To which Foyt responded: "You'd have had to run second in a few of 'em."
Both legends agreed there was something about the 1960s and 1970s that no longer exists.

"I was on the pole here in 1974 and three days before the race I ran a sprint car at the Fairgrounds and won both 50-lap heats and my daddy and all were mad because Indy was in three days, but I was my own boss," said Super Tex.

"That's why I'm doing what I'm doing," said Stewart, who retired from NASCAR last year after 18 years. "I'll go run a different type of car and I can go anytime, anywhere if I get opportunity."

There's almost 40 years separating their ages but they're old-schoolers who speak the same language.

Click on the thumbnails below for larger images.

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