Father gets victory lane trip with son

Jacob Foxworthy and his parents waited patiently as their car crawled through pit road at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on this most unusual of graduation days.

When his turn came, the Speedway High School senior climbed out and walked across the race track’s iconic yard of bricks, his mother and father holding hands as they watched. He crossed the finish line like his 121 classmates to wrap up a school year like no other — without in-person classes, without a senior prom and without the traditional pomp and circumstance.

The Foxworthys didn’t need a cap-tossing celebration to express what this day meant.

Seeing Jacob in a cap and grown with his father in tow May 30 meant Ted Foxworthy had achieved a milestone of his own after a 4½-year battle with a rare form of cancer.

“I had one daughter graduating college and one daughter getting married, and I knew I’d be around for those two things,” Foxworthy recalled, explaining his thoughts when he was first diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma in 2016. “I knew my wife was going to be OK. She’s a fighter. So most of my focus was on Jacob. He was 14 and I didn’t want him to grow up without a dad. I wanted to be there when he walked across the stage. I didn’t want him going, ‘I wish my dad was there.’ ”

He was there Saturday, behind the wheel of the family car, driving through Gasoline Alley, and he was there for the family photo with the old race car that had been brought to the speedway from the high school lobby six blocks away.

And then, as school officials whisked other families on and off the track, he grabbed his son’s arm, pulled him tight and gave him the hug of a lifetime.

School principal Luke Zartman and speedway officials came up with a plan that worked within the state’s social distancing guidelines to give these seniors an unforgettable moment.

“When we realized we weren’t coming back and we realized the seniors would miss out on so many things at the end of the year, to imagine them not being properly celebrated at the end was heartbreaking,” Zartman said. “It just adds a bright spot to an otherwise dark time to to send them out the way they deserve.”

MICHAEL CONROY — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Ted Foxworthy, right, hugs his son Jacob Foxworthy as they walked off the track where he received his Speedway High School diploma during a ceremony at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis on May 30.