For A.J. (Anthony) Foyt IV, the best is
yet to come.
Foyt IV returns to his roots this year
as he will drive for his legendary grandfather’s IndyCar
team. Initial plans call for Foyt IV to drive the No. 41
ABC Supply Dallara/Honda/Firestone in the 2009
Indianapolis 500 as a teammate to Vitor Meira, driver of
the No. 14. Foyt IV may make additional appearances in
the No. 41 car after Indy depending upon whether
sponsorship can be secured.
Regardless of what he is racing after
Indy, Foyt is going to take one weekend off in July. On
July 18th, he will marry Casey Irsay, of Indianapolis,
in a destination wedding set in northern California. The
couple became engaged last November. Irsay, daughter of
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, is a vice-president
in the team’s marketing and community relations
division.
Young Foyt spent the last two seasons
driving for Tony George’s Vision Racing team. In 2008,
he qualified in the top 10 four times with his best
start of fifth coming at Kansas Speedway; there he
finished eighth for his second top-10 finish of the
season. Foyt posted two more top 10s with his fifth
place finish at Iowa Speedway his best finish for 2008.
Foyt joined Vision in 2007 after a brief
foray into NASCAR in 2006 followed by a one-off race
with Andretti-Green Racing at that year’s end. In his
first year with Vision, he posted the team’s best finish
of the season with his third-place showing at Kentucky
Speedway. It was a particularly satisfying run for the
youngster who was born in Louisville and spent his early
childhood there while his father trained race horses.
Foyt IV’s team found their chemistry late in
the season as the 23-year-old posted four top-ten finishes
in his final five outings (which included his top-five at
Kentucky). He led three times at Kentucky for a total of 13
laps. He finished 14th in the standings right behind his
grandfather’s driver Darren Manning.
In 2006, Foyt IV switched from the IRL
IndyCar Series to NASCAR's Busch Series. He signed an
agreement with Ray Evernham to become part of Evernham's
driver development program. Foyt drove the No. 38 Great
Clips Dodge fielded by Braun-Akins Racing which had a
somewhat loose technical alliance with Evernham Motorsports.
After mixed results, Foyt parted ways with the team before
the halfway point of the season.
Foyt returned to the IndyCar Series in
September 2006 when he was asked by Andretti-Green Racing to
fill in for an injured Dario Franchitti in the final race of
the season at Chicagoland Speedway. Foyt qualified 11th but
a gamble on fuel strategy cost him a couple laps and he
finished 14th but not before he led his first ever laps in
an Indy car
In 2005, Foyt IV posted his then career best
finish in the IndyCar Series--ninth--at the season opener in
Miami and again at Kentucky when the ABC Supply-sponsored
team switched to Chevy power in August. Due to his lack of
testing at the road courses, he passed up the two road races
at Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen. His best finish in his
final three starts was 11th at Chicagoland Speedway. He
placed 20th in the standings.
In 2004, Foyt IV posted his career best
start of sixth at Chicagoland Speedway and his career best
finish of tenth at Texas Motor Speedway in the fall race. He
lost out on several top-five finishes when he was a victim
of someone else's mistakes. Throughout the tough season he
maintained his cool.
"Everyone worked hard to run good and we did
have some mistakes," said Foyt IV. "Some were mine, some
were the crew's and then some were other drivers. You have
to learn from it and then shrug it off and go on which is
what I always try to do."
Foyt IV, who turned 19 the day of his first
Indy 500 in 2003, faced some rugged competition in his
rookie season driving for his grandfather A.J. Foyt. Foyt IV
showed his resolve in the early part of the 2003 season as
he adapted to the new cars, new tracks, new drivers and the
glare of the media spotlight.
"I learned a lot," said Foyt IV. "One of the
areas where I improved the most was my feedback to the team.
By the end of the year we were communicating much better and
that made it easier to set up the car."
His best finish in 2003 was 11th at Nazareth
Speedway, a tough tri-oval in northeastern Pennsylvania.
However, his proudest moment came when he finished 18th in
his first Indy 500. The youngster's resilience saw him
weather several stressful moments during the month of May.
His most notable was a spin on his first qualifying run. He
managed to keep the car off the wall while driving backwards
at nearly 170 mph. He went out later in the day and
qualified 23rd.
Foyt IV came into the Indy Racing League
IndyCar Series in 2003 as the reigning champion of the
Infiniti Pro Series. Started in 2002, the Pro Series
provides super-speedway experience for drivers and mechanics
wishing to compete at the IRL's top level, the IndyCar
Series.
He made an impressive debut in the IRL
Infiniti Pro Series' inaugural season by winning the pole
and the race at the season opener at Kansas Speedway.
Cutting short his winner's interview, he dashed to change
into his crew uniform for the 200-lap IndyCar race which
Airton Dare won in the famed No. 14. It was Dare's first
triumph in the IRL IndyCar Series and a victory sweep for
the Foyt Racing team that day.
Foyt IV went on to win three more races
(Michigan, Kentucky and Texas) and claim three more poles
(Kentucky, Chicagoland and Texas).
He won the 2001 southwest regional
championship in the Formula Continental Series and the
Rookie of the Year title, claiming six victories in nine
starts. He finished third in the national standings despite
missing three events due to commitments to his grandfather's
IndyCar team.
Young Foyt began his motor-racing career in
junior dragsters at age nine. He "retired" from the
dragsters after winning two track titles and the Division 4
race of champions. Concentrating on go-karts, he began
winning races and championships on a regular basis including
titles in the International Karting Federation and the World
Karting Association.
Anthony likes anything that goes fast. He
was riding horses by age three because his dad, Tony,
trained racehorses for a living. It appeared that he would
have a career as a jockey, as did his uncle on his mother's
side.
"He was so little as a child, and such a
natural with horses, we thought he'd become a jockey," Nancy
Foyt said about their only son. "However, we moved back to
Houston so Tony could help his dad with his ranches after
A.J. got hurt so badly at Elkhart Lake [September, 1990].
Then li'l A.J. began to grow--like a weed--and it became
pretty clear he wasn't going to be a jockey. Being around
big A.J. so much, I guess it was inevitable he'd get more
interested in race cars. Once he tried it, there was no
going back.
Anthony doesn't spend much time looking
back--he's much too focused on his bright future.
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