Some things never change. After 76 years, A.J. Foyt is still passionate about IndyCar racing. Although he does not sit behind the wheel anymore, he is still driving his ABC Supply race team with the same passion and conviction that made him the all-time winner in the Indy Car record books.

Within his beloved sport, there have been many changes, most notably the 80 mph increase in the speeds of the cars he drove, the improvement in the sport’s overall safety and the series using ovals, road and street courses in its championship circuit. In 2010, Foyt was honored when race fans voted to name the Oval Track Championship Trophy after him. Dario Franchitti, who won the IZOD IndyCar Series title for the second time in 2010, was the inaugural recipient of the A.J. Foyt Trophy, having scored the most points in all of the oval track races through September.

In 2011, while celebrating the 100th anniversary of its oldest race the Indianapolis 500, the IndyCar Series will visit a new venue – the streets of Baltimore on Labor Day weekend. The IndyCar Series returns to two venues from its early days: New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway which will become the home of the season finale.

The changes haven’t all been positive as Foyt has seen the Indy Car series endure several schisms, the most recent of which lasted 15 years. However, it was resolved in 2008 by Indy Racing League founder and CEO Tony George, who then resigned in 2009.

Randy Bernard, former head of the Pro Bull Riders, became the League’s CEO in 2010 and began a new slate of changes which included signing new sponsors during his first year and setting in motion the adoption of a new car design in 2012. He was integral in adding engine manufacturers Chevrolet and Lotus while retaining stalwart Honda as the series adopts a turbocharged engine for 2012 as well. Bodywork will be designed and manufactured by several different entities (predicted to be as many as five!) broadening the range of looks the cars will have.

Through it all Foyt has adapted; he is the only team owner whose team has competed in every one of the IRL’s 202 races (through 2010)! His ability to adapt is one reason he is still able to compete in 2011. But it isn’t the main reason. For all of the changes he has witnessed, the one thing that hasn’t changed for Foyt is his passion for the sport.

Talented, confident and tough, he has always believed in himself and has motivated others to do the same. While he acknowledges the accolades of his success, he focuses on the goals ahead of him, not the ones already achieved.

Entering 2011, Foyt’s goal is to see son Larry Foyt, who is the Team Director, and driver Vitor Meira work together to achieve what A.J. did in 1960 and A.J. Foyt Enterprises did in 1967—win their first IndyCar race.

Over the last several years as Team Director of A.J. Foyt Racing, Larry has gained his father’s trust in making constructive, positive changes to the team which included hiring Meira in 2009 and chief engineer Jeff Britton in 2010. Britton had worked with Meira at Rahal-Letterman Racing in 2005 when Meira posted his first of two runner-up finishes in the Indianapolis 500.

The decision appeared to be inspired as the ABC Supply team finished third in its first outing of the 2010 season in Sao Paulo, Brazil; it was the best start to the season in recent memory. The next few outings didn’t yield the same results but a sixth place start in Kansas and a top-10 finish boded well as they headed into Indy. What followed surprised all as the team struggled in qualifying. Starting 27th, Meira had a good race car and was making his way through the field when a miscue saw him spin and hit the wall, ending his race. They posted top-10 finishes in the next two oval track races but the struggle continued on the road courses. Meira and the team didn’t regain their stride until the final segment of oval tracks wherein they posted their final two top-10 finishes including sixth place in the season final in Miami.

At the top of the list of their goals for 2011 are a strong performance in the centennial Indianapolis 500 (of course) and improving qualifying on the road and street circuits which will lead to improved finishes.

With the son handling most of the administrative aspects of the ABC Supply team, the father can focus on that which he loves most: the racing.

Foyt is looking forward to working with Meira and Britton as they strive to regain the team’s former championship status. It’s a tall undertaking but Foyt’s career has been defined by meeting such challenges head-on.

Foyt began his celebrated career on a dirt track in Springfield, Illinois in the summer of 1957 and turned it into a globetrotting romp of racetracks throughout North America and in Europe, Australia and Asia. However, the Texan’s most memorable races took place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway where he became the first four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500.

As the Indianapolis 500 prepares to stage its 100th anniversary race this year, Foyt has competed in 53 straight Indy 500s, 35 of which he did as a driver, a record unlikely to be broken. He holds the Indy Car Series 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 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 Indy cars, NASCAR, USAC stock cars, midgets, sprints, IMSA sports cars and of course, Le Mans. He won 14 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 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 inspiring 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. He began racing professionally in 1953.

Soon he was traveling all over the country. He slept in his tow vehicle and washed up in gas stations to save money on hotel rooms. In early 1957, he had to ask his parents to wire him money to Florida so he could get home.

His talent didn’t go unnoticed and he began driving for better funded teams. Foyt’s rise to the top level was meteoric by today’s standards. In August, 1957, he landed a ride in the premier championship cars. The following year he began competing in the Indy 500. He made the race, finished 16th and the car earned $2,969. He began winning in 1960 after 33 starts.

By the end 1964, he had won the Indy 500 twice and was a four-time national champion. That year he won 10 of 13 races, still the highest winning percentage in history.

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. Foyt battled back from career-threatening accidents to race—and 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. He went winless for the first time since 1959 and finished 13th in the points.

“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 fired back in 1967, winning the national title for a 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 of walls.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” said Foyt. “I dropped it into second gear and decided that if I hit anyone I was going to push them across the start finish line. I’d come too far to lose on the front straightaway.” At that time, his 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) and an Indy 500 winner won the prestigious international sports car race.

Foyt’s legend grew beyond Indy cars and U.S. borders. Despite his success overseas (he won Indy car races at Silverstone and Brands Hatch in England), Foyt preferred to race in America, saying, “My name was made in America and that’s where I want to race.”

His 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 champ car race on the one mile dirt fairgrounds track in DuQuoin, Ill. He was burned during refueling on a pit stop, but when he jumped out to escape the fire, he was run over by his own car and sustained a broken leg! He missed three months of racing but still won 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 ducked into the pits for fuel and gave up the lead. When he returned in second place, 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.”

Such disappointments challenge a driver’s mental toughness but Foyt’s physical toughness was tested again in 1981. His car had a suspension 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 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 sports car race 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 the 1983 Indy 500 but was out after 24 laps. It was his only Indy car race that year. He did race at Daytona on the July 4th weekend which hosted NASCAR’s Firecracker 400 and the Paul Revere 250 sports car race.

After crashing in the stock car practice and injuring his back, Foyt won the sports car event that night. The next morning he could barely move. After jetting home, he visited his Houston doctors who diagnosed several broken vertebrae in his back. Doctors warned him against racing until his back healed or risk paralysis.

He listened and didn’t compete again that year. Over the next several years, however, Foyt began increasing his Indy car schedule and by 1988, he ran 14 of the 15 races held.

Foyt sustained the worst injuries of his life in September, 1990 when his brakes failed on his Indy car at Road America, a four-mile road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. His car sailed off the mile long front straight at nearly 190 mph; it 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, strength coach of the Houston Oilers NFL football team.

“I knew people wanted me to retire, heck my own family wanted me to,” he said. “But I didn’t want to go out on crutches. 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.

After competing in his 35th straight 500 in 1992 (finished 9th), he retired from driving Indy cars in 1993 on Pole Day (May 15) at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His decision was abrupt as it was final.

“Robby Gordon was running my other car and he’d crashed several times that week in practice,” Foyt said. “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.’ And he was right.”

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. He was named to NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers and voted Driver of the Century by a panel of experts and the Associated Press. In 2000, he was named to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and more recently, he was voted into the North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

As a team owner, Foyt has won the national Indy car title five times: 1967, 1975, 1979, 1996 (with driver Scott Sharp) and 1998 (with driver 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 Foyt campaigns throughout the 2011 season, he and his ABC Supply Racing team will be working hard to add yet another milestone to a career defined by them.

Some things never change.