A.J. Foyt
Team Owner
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Full name: Anthony Joseph Foyt, Jr.
Birthday: January 16, 1935
Birthplace: Houston, Texas
Residence: Hockley, Texas
Wife: Lucy
Children: Tony (A.J. III), Terry, Jerry, Larry
Personal notes: Business interests include real estate and ranching.
Foyt is on the board of directors of Service Corporation International,
the nation’s largest funeral service business. Tony manages his
father’s horse and cattle ranches, daughter Terry is a real estate agent
in the Houston area, Jerry manages a Lexus dealership, and Larry is
team director of A.J. Foyt Racing.
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Legendary race car driver and team owner A.J. Foyt's successful career could easily be characterized by Frank Sinatra's hit song "My Way."
Foyt has always believed in himself, but as he's grown older, he has had to start believing in others. It's been a tough transition, but with his son Larry Foyt taking on more responsibility as team director, A.J. is starting to enjoy the benefits of the added distribution of power.
Larry has proven to his dad that he can handle the task at hand and has gained his trust in making constructive, positive changes to the team - all of which has enabled A.J. to focus on the part of the job that he enjoys the most: the racing.
One new hire in the off-season should make the 2009 season one of A.J.'s most enjoyable in recent memory: driver Vitor Meira, arguably the best driver in the IndyCar Series still looking for his first victory. Without a doubt, Meira is a key factor for Foyt's optimism about 2009.
"Vitor Meira gives 110% all the time," said Foyt. "He is hustling all the time, even when the car isn't 100%. Sometimes that got him into trouble because it's hard to carry these cars, but I like the attitude. I believe our team can give him the car he needs to win races," said Foyt, IndyCar's all-time winning driver. "He has the focus, drive, and talent that separate the good drivers from the great ones."
Foyt made another key hire with engineer Adam Schaechter, a mechanical engineer graduate of California Polytechnic State University of California. Schaechter has been working in the Indy car arena since 1999 with most of his experience coming in the Champ Car World Series where he worked with Alex Zanardi, Alex Tagliani and most recently Bruno Junquiera.
Hired in December, Schaechter used the off-season to work with the team at the race shop and with Meira at the test sessions which began in December.
IndyCar's all-time record-setting driver is looking forward to the season, saying, "I think we'll have fun this year!"
Foyt began his celebrated career with a single race on a dirt track in Springfield, Illinois in the summer of 1957 and turned into a globetrotting romp of racetracks throughout North America and in Europe, Australia, and Asia. However, the Texan's most memorable races took place here in America's heartland, especially at Indianapolis Motor Speedway where he became the first four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500.
Foyt has competed in 50 straight Indy 500s, 35 of which he did as a driver, a record unlikely to ever be broken. He also holds the records for most career victories (67), most national championships (7), and most triumphs in one season (10). He is the only driver to win these, the crown jewels of motorsports: the Indy 500, the Daytona 500, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
"It's hard for me to believe that I've been racing Indy cars for over 50 years," said Foyt. "I've had so many good memories, and some not-so-good, but I wouldn't trade any of it."
Winning has been the hallmark of Foyt's career: winning in NASCAR, USAC stock cars, midgets, sprints, IMSA sports cars, and, of course, Le Mans. He 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 - in in 15 of 19 states in which he has competed as a driver.
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.
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. 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 NASCAR 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-setting run in the Indy cars, 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.
(no spelling suggestions)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 came back with a vengeance in 1967, winning the national title or the fifth time. He won five races, including his third Indy 500. In that race, Foyt had a one lap lead on the field, and as he was coming around for the checkered flag, instinct told him to slow because of the pack of cars ahead of him. Coming off turn four, cars were spinning and careening off the walls.
"I couldn't believe my eyes," said Foyt. "I dropped into second gear and decided that if I hit anyone, I was going to push them across the finish line. I'd come too far to lose on the front straightaway." That victory tied Foyt with the three-time Indy winners Louis Meyer, Wilbur Shaw, and Mauri Rose. 
Two weeks after that historic win, Foyt traveled to France and set a new record by winning the 24-Hours of LeMans with teammate Dan Gurney. It was the first time an All-American team (drivers, car and engine) won the prestigious international sports car race. And it was the first time an Indy 500 winner wont he twice around-the-clock event.
Foyt's legend began to grow beyond Indy cars and beyond the U.S. borders. Despite his success overseas (later he would win Indy car races at Silverstone and Brands Hatch in England), Foyt always preferred to race in America.
"My name was mad in America and that's where I want to race," said Foyt when asked about competing abroad.
Foyt's candor was only outweighed by his toughness which 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, Illinois. 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. He had come close in 1975 and 1976 finishing third and second, respectively. In '76, Foyt had ducked into the pits for fuel and gave up the lead. When he returned in second place, the rain began to fall. Officials red-flagged the race after 102 laps and declared it official. It was a tough pill to swallow.
"That's one I should have won and didn't," said Foyt. "But I should have won in '75 too and rain ended that race early, too."
Disappointments like that challenge a driver's mental toughness, but Foyt's physical toughness was tested at the age of 46. His car had mechanical failure which sent him into the Armco barrier at Michigan Speedway. The impact nearly ripped off his right arm. His own self-styled therapy program—painting miles of fencing on his 1,500-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. (no spelling suggestions)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 Fourth of July 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.
He listened to doctors and didn't compete again that year. Over the next several years, however, Foyt began increasing his schedule, and by 1988, he ran 14 out of 15 races held.
Foyt sustained the worst injuries of his 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. 
(no spelling suggestions)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 then Houston Oilers NFL football team.
(no spelling suggestions)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. (no spelling suggestions)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.
Foyt retired from driving Indy cars on May 15, 1993, Pole Day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His decision was as abrupt as it was final.
"Robby Gordon was running my other car, and he had crashed several times that week in practice," said Foyt. "The yellow came out again in that morning warm-up, and when I found out it was Robby, I knew I had to make a decision. I couldn't drive and be the car owner that a young driver needs. So I came back to the garage and told my team that I was going to quit, and I did."
"When I won Indy the first time back in '61, I had a chance to meet Ray Harroun who won Indy in 1911. I asked him when he knew when to quit. He said, 'It'll come to you, you'll just know.'"
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, Michigan), 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.
As a team owner, Foyt has won the national Indy car title five times: 1967, 1975, 1979, 1996 (with Scott Sharp) and 1998 (with Kenny Brack). It was also with Brack that Foyt won the 1999 Indy 500 for his fifth visit to the Brickyard's victory circle.
As he campaigns throughout the 2009 season, Foyt and his ABC Supply Racing team will be fighting hard to add yet another highlight to what has indeed been a golden career.