Click to return to Foytracing.com main page

Click here to return to A.J. Foyt main page

Click here to return to FoytRacing.com main page Click here to search FoytRacing.com
[Inc/buttons.htm]

 Biography
 Timeline
 Up Close
 Legends
 Trivia
 Career Highlights
 Indy 500 Record
 Daytona 500 Record
 Indy Car Victories
 Photo Gallery


 A.J. Foyt Main Page
 Foyt Merchandise
 Home

 

 

1964 Langhorne Speedway....Click here to enlarge
A.J. won the last race on dirt at Langhorne Speedway in Pennsylvania in 1964. The ruts got so deep they named one turn "Puke Hollow" for obvious reasons.


 

AJ's FIA 1958 License...Click here to enlarge
A.J. received his FIA license in 1958, the year he traveled to Italy to compete in the 'The Two Worlds Trophy' race at Monza. There, Indy car drivers and Europe's Formula One drivers raced against each other. The Indy car drivers won hands down.

 

 

1953 Ford....Click here to enlarge
A.J. in his first race car in 1953.


Biggest payday: May 30, 1999 -- won $1,465,190 when Kenny Brack won the Indianapolis 500 in Foyt's number 14 Indy car.

Smallest payday: July 24, 1966 -- won $71.25 when he finished 24th in Indianapolis Raceway Park 150 Indy car race. Started 13th, dropped out in five laps.

Most lucrative season: 1998 - $2,131,700 when  Kenny Brack and A.J. Foyt teamed up to win the IRL championship and the $1 million bonus.

Least lucrative season: 1957 -- earned $2,171.

Most victories at paved track: 12 at Trenton Speedway

Most victories at dirt track: 6 at Indiana State Fairgrounds

First victory: 100 mile race at DuQuoin, Ill. on September 5, 1960. Started fourth in Bowes Seal Fast No.5, beat Tony Bettenhausen Sr. to win  $5,165 in only A.J.'s 34th start.

Most starts at same track: 45 at Milwaukee

Clean Sweeps (win pole and race): 22

Final Indy car race: 1992 Indianapolis 500 on May 24. Started 23rd (fastest second day qualifier) and finished ninth with 195 laps. Won $189,883.


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?Sears Commercial in 1991....Click here to enlarge

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.
First stock car at Indy...Click here to enlarge

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".

Click here to view...

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".

Click here to view....

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.

Back

AJ Foyt

AJ Foyt Indy NASCAR Larry Foyt AJ Foyt IV Top

[Inc/footer.htm]