Owner, No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Toyota/Firestone
A.J. Foyt, Jr. is one of the most accomplished men to ever drive a
race car. His Indy car driving records remain intact despite being
out of the cockpit for over 10 years.
The first four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 holds records for
most victories (67), most national championships (7), most victories
in one season (10), and most consecutive starts in the Indy 500
(35). He is the only driver to win all three crown jewels of
motorsports: the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 and the 24 Hours of
LeMans.
Foyt, whose name was made in Indy car circles, evolved into a
motorsports legend by winning in NASCAR, USAC stock cars, midgets,
sprints, IMSA sports cars and of course, LeMans. Foyt won 12
national titles and 172 major races in his driving career, which
spanned four decades and three continents: North America, Europe and
Australia. He has won in five countries--U.S.A., France, New Zealand,
Canada, Great Britain--and in 15 of the 19 states in which he has
competed.
Yet it was through his adversities that A.J.'s qualities burned
brightest. His determination and toughness set him apart from his
competition and led to a career that made him auto racing's most
honored champion.
Foyt was born in the post-depression years to a hard-working family
in the Heights, a poor section of Houston. His father was an auto
mechanic by trade whose passion was auto racing. Foyt grew up
working on his father's midget cars while listening to the stories
of the old timers. He learned the value of a dollar and a strong
work ethic.
Foyt focused solely on racing. He dropped out of high school several
months before graduation to get a jumpstart on his professional
career which began in 1953 at Playland Park in Houston.
It wasn't long before his career took him out of Houston and out of
Texas. But the traveling was tough. He slept in his tow vehicle and
washed up in gas stations to save money on hotel rooms. After a
disappointing month of USAC midget racing in the 1957 Florida
Tangerine Tournament, he had to ask his parents to wire him money so
he could travel home.
Despite the lack of results, his talent didn't go unnoticed. Soon he
left his own race car at home and began driving for better funded
teams. But those rides came at a price. He remembers plowing fields
during the week for car owner (and farmer) Bob Higman so they could
go racing on the weekends.
Foyt's rise to the top levels was meteoric by today's standards. In
August, 1957 (the same year he borrowed money to get home) he landed
a ride in championship cars.
The following year he began competing in the Indy 500. As a rookie
attempting to make the race, he still couldn't afford a hotel room.
Many homes in the Speedway area rented cots to up-and-coming
drivers. Foyt took full advantage of this. He made the race,
finished 16th and earned $2,969.
Over the years, Foyt proved he was physically and mentally tough.
The equipment used at that time did not have the safety features of
today's cars and gear. It wasn't a matter of if you got hurt, it was
a matter of when. Foyt battled back from career-threatening
accidents to not only race again, but to win again.
In 1965, he broke his back, fractured his ankle and sustained severe
chest injuries in a stock car race on the road course at Riverside,
California. The track doctor pronounced him dead at the scene but
fellow driver Parnelli Jones saw movement and revived him. Still
healing 10 weeks later, Foyt began a record run, winning his first
of 10 poles and five races that season.
A year later, he burned his hands and face at Milwaukee when his
fuel tank ruptured after hitting the wall. When he didn't win a race
that year, and finished 13th in the points, the media began talking
about his retirement.
"When I didn't win in 66, the media began asking when I was going to
retire and that made me more determined than ever," he said. "I had
a bad year, but I wasn't ready to hang it up and I didn't like
people hinting I should hang it up. It made me even more determined
to win again."
Foyt won Indy for the third time in 1967 and went on to win a fifth
national title. Two weeks after Indy, he traveled to France and won
the 24-Hours of LeMans with teammate, Dan Gurney.
Foyt's toughness was tested throughout his career, at least once a
decade.
The day after the 1972 Indy 500, Foyt competed in a dirt race on the
one mile track in DuQuoin, Ill. He was burned during refueling on a
pit stop. He also broke his leg when he was run over by his own car
as he jumped out while it was still moving. He missed three months
of racing but still managed to win the USAC Dirt Champ Car title
that season.
In 1977, he became the first driver to win Indy four times.
In 1981, an accident at Michigan Speedway nearly ripped off his
right arm. His own self-styled therapy program---painting miles of
fencing on his 1500 acre ranch--enabled him to return to the cockpit
in 1982. He was back in the winner's circle in 1983 when he won the
24 Hours of Daytona for the first time.
The death of his father in May of that year nearly accomplished what
his terrible accidents couldn't--retirement.
"My father was such a part of my career that when I lost him, I lost
my best friend and I really didn't want to go on racing," he said.
"I was lost and I didn't really know how to handle it. It took me a
long time to deal with it."
He competed in only one Indy car race, the Indy 500 but was out
after just 24 laps. He raced in stock and sports car events
including the Firecracker 400 and the Paul Revere 250, both at
Daytona on the July 4th weekend.
After crashing in the stock car practice and injuring his back, Foyt
went on to win in the sports car event that night. The next morning
he could barely move. A quick flight home by private jet, and a
visit to his Houston doctors, revealed he had broken several
vertebra in his back. Doctors warned him he couldn't race until his
back healed or he'd risk paralysis.
Foyt sustained the worst injuries of this life in 1990 when his
brakes failed on his Indy car at Elkhart Lake Wisconsin's Road
America.
Foyt sailed off the mile long straight at nearly 190 mph and flew
over the sand trap to land in a dirt embankment. The impact
shattered his legs.
"The injuries weren't life-threatening but I have never felt so much
pain in my life," he recalled. "I begged the rescue team to knock me
out with a hammer because the morphine wasn't doing anything."
Foyt underwent several surgeries during his three-week hospital
stay. He spent the next six months in a grueling therapy program
under the guidance of Steve Watterson, the strength coach of the
Houston Oilers NFL football team.
"I knew people wanted me to retire, heck my own family wanted me to.
But I didn't want to go out on crutches," Foyt said. "I was
determined to walk to my race car without crutches."
At 56, Foyt limped to his car, without crutches, and qualified
second for the 1991 Indianapolis 500. He was eliminated early when
debris from another accident broke his car's suspension but not
before he had shown his own brand of toughness before 400,000 race
fans.
Indeed, the headline on the now defunct sports daily, The National,
proclaimed him "The toughest S.O.B. in Sports."
Throughout his storied career, Foyt has defied the odds to emerge
triumphant. His accolades include being named the Driver of the Year
in 1975, inaugural inductions into the National Motorsports Hall of
Fame (Novi, Mich.), the Sprint Car Hall of Fame, and the Miami
Project/Sports Legend in Auto Racing (1986). He won the American
Sportscasters Association Sports Legend Award in 1993, previous
winners were Arthur Ashe and Mohammed Ali. Most recently, he was
voted Driver of the Century by a panel of experts and the Associated
Press.
As a team owner, Foyt has won the national Indy car title five times
(1967, 1975, 1979, 1996 (with Sharp) and 1998 (with Brack). It was
also with Brack that Foyt won the 1999 Indy 500 for his fifth visit
to victory lane. He is looking to make it number six with his
grandson A.J. Foyt IV, the youngest driver ever to start in the
Indianapolis 500. A win in 2005 would make him the youngest ever
Indy 500 winner.
A.J. Foyt and his grandson are looking to re-write the record books
once again. |