|
Total
Major Victories:
|
172
|
|
Indy
car
|
67
|
|
USAC
stock car
|
41
|
|
USAC
sprint car
|
28
|
|
USAC
midget
|
20
|
|
NASCAR
|
7
|
|
Sports
car
|
7
|
|
USAC
Dirt Car
|
2
|
|
Total
Championships:
|
14
|
|
Indy car
|
7
|
|
USAC stock car
|
3
|
|
USAC Dirt car
|
1
|
|
USAC sprint car (eastern
division)
|
1
|
|
IROC III & IV |
2 |
A.J.'s
career record in USAC for total victories is 158. He is the only
driver to have won 20 or more victories in USAC's four major
categories: Indy cars, stock cars, sprint cars and midgets.
A.J. is the only driver to win 20 USAC races in one
year: 1961 (10 midget, 6 sprint, 4 Indy car); he won 18 USAC races
in 1964 (10 Indy car, 5 sprint, 3 stock car)
A.J.
is the only driver to have won the Indianapolis 500 in both a
front-engine roadster and a rear-engine monocoque chassis.
A.J.
won his third and fourth Indy 500s in Foyt Red #14 cars.
A.J.
Foyt's first race car that he owned was a modified '38 Ford #41. He
won his first race ever in 1941 against childhood hero
"Doc" Cossey in an exhibition race at the Houston Speed
Bowl. He drove the #8 midget that his father Tony Foyt built for
him.

Stock
Cars at the Speedway?
The Brickyard 400 took its first step towards reality when
A.J. Foyt filmed a commercial for Sears Craftsman at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in September, 1991.
A.J. was the first to pilot the stock car around the Speedway at speed and later let Tony George take a spin around the historic oval.
George had been considering the NASCAR event as a possibility and asked A.J.'s opinion about the viability of stock cars at the Speedway.
A.J. supported the idea even when his Indy car peers did not.
The inaugural Brickyard 400 took place in August 1994 and A.J. Foyt was one of the starting field. It was his last race at the Speedway and his last race in NASCAR competition.
Ironically, Foyt drove both of his last races in Indy car and NASCAR Winston Cup competition at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
He has always cited Indianapolis as his favorite track. In Indy cars, Foyt has won four poles and four races there, he holds the record for most consecutive starts (35), most miles driven (12,272.5), most races led (13). He has finished in the top-three 9 times and the top-ten 17 times.
|
Video Commercial One: |
|
Sears Craftsman
Featuring A.J. Foyt in "Alien
Tools". |
|
 |
|
Clicking on
the image will download the video clip (file
size 2mb approx. 5 min. download time). |
|
|
|
Video Commercial Two: |
|
Sears Craftsman
Featuring A.J. Foyt in "My Fathers
Tools". |
|
 |
|
Clicking on
the image will download the video clip (file
size 2mb approx. 5 min. download time). |
|
|
The
color scheme on A.J. Foyt's cars in the early to
mid-1960's--pearlescent white with red, blue and gold leaf trim--was
abandoned by Foyt after a dismal season in 1966 in which he went
winless for the first time in his Indy car career since he started
winning in 1960. In 1967, Foyt switched to a simple paint scheme and
to the distinct orange color, which he calls Coyote Red. Officially it
is "warm poppy red" and was first used by Ford on its 1965
Ford Mustangs.
Foyt
won his first race using the Coyote Red No. 14--the Indianapolis
500--and went on to score four more victories that year. The Ford
Mark IV sports car which Foyt co-drove with Dan Gurney to victory in
the 24 Hours of LeMans of LeMans was also orange in hue.
To
honor one of motorsports greatest drivers, in 1991, both USAC and
Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) reserved the number 14
exclusively for A.J. Foyt as long as he remains active in Indy car
racing as either a driver or owner. Upon his retirement from the
sport, the number 14 will be permanently retired.
Foyt
selected the number 14 to run in 1967 following a disappointing 1966
season when he placed 13th in the standings and didn't
win one race. Along with winning the 1967 Indianapolis 500, Foyt won
the championship, earning the number 1 which he carried in 1968. He
did not return to using the number 14 until 1973, again following a
rough season in 1972 when injuries put himout of action for three
months. Foyt never relinquished the number again despite winning two
more Indy car titles.
Asked
why he chose the number 14, A.J. Foyt said it had a good heritage
having been campaigned in the past by the likes of Wilbur Shaw, Tony
Bettenhausen and Bill Vukovich Sr.
Foyt's fondness for the number may have stemmed too
from the first time he ran a number 14 Indy car at Sacramento,
California in October, 1962. Having switched rides with Bobby
Marshman, Foyt won the event in the Thompson-Rotary 14 which began a
10-year association with Sheraton-Thompson.
A.J.'s
first really serious injury came in the NASCAR stock car race at
Riverside, California on January 17, 1965 when he flipped the #00
down the embankment to avoid crashing Jujior Johnson and Marvin
Panch. He'd turned 30 the day before. He broke his back, fractured
his heel and sustained a damaged aorta.
A.J.'s
next injury came the following year when he was burned in practice
for the June race at Milwaukee's Wisconsin State Fair Park one mile
paved oval in 1966. His Lola broke a spindle and hit the wall
entering turn one and burst into flames. He sustained burns on his
hands, face and neck.
A.J.
suffered burns and broke his leg and ankle the day after the
Indianapolis 500 in 1972 at a dirt car race at DuQuoin, Ill. His car
caught fire during a pitstop, started rolling and Foyt jumped out of his moving car only to be run over by it.
He
fractured his right arm severely in a crash at the 1981 Michigan
500. He spent the remaining summer and fall painting fence at his
1,500 acre ranch as therapy to restore the muscle in his arm.
He
broke two vertebrae in his back during practice for the 1983 NASCAR
Firecracker 400 when he hit the wall. But he did run the Paul Revere
250 sports car race that night and won it.
He
broke his left knee, dislocated his left tibia, crushed his left
heel, dislocated his right heel and suffered compartment syndrome to
both feet in an Indy car race at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on
September 23rd. Foyt plowed through a dirt embankment
when his brakes failed at Road America's turn one at the end of the
four-mile road course's longest straightaway.
He
broke his left shoulder twice: first in a crash while qualifying for
the 1992 Daytona 500. He broke the same shoulder when he crashed in
practice for the Phoenix 200 Indy car race that year.
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