A J Foyt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJ_Foyt

Anthony Joseph Foyt, Jr., or as he is universally known as in motorsports circles, A. J. Foyt (born January 16, 1935, in Houston, Texas), is a retired American automobile racing driver. He raced in numerous genres of motorsports. His open wheel racing includes USAC Champ cars and midget cars. He raced stock cars in NASCAR and USAC. He won several major sports car racing events. He holds the all-time USAC career wins record with 159 victories,[1] and the all-time American championship racing career wins record with 67.[2]

He is the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500 (which he won four times), the Daytona 500, the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Foyt won the International Race of Champions all-star racing series in 1976 and 1977. Foyt's success has led to induction in numerous motorsports halls of fame.

Since his retirement from active racing, he has owned A. J. Foyt Enterprises, which has fielded teams in the CART, IRL, and NASCAR. Contents [hide]

   1 Early life

   2 Driving career

       2.1 Midget car career

       2.2 Championship car career

       2.3 Stock car career

           2.3.1 USAC Stock Car

           2.3.2 NASCAR

       2.4 Career summary

       2.5 Awards

       2.6 Indianapolis 500 records

   3 Car owner

   4 Family

   5 Racing record

       5.1 CART results

       5.2 Indy 500 results

       5.3 Indy 500 qualifying results

   6 References

   7 External links

[edit] Early life

Foyt attended Pershing and Hamilton middle schools and Lamar and San Jacinto high schools,[3] but he dropped out to become a mechanic.[4] [edit] Driving career [edit] Midget car career Foyt in a midget car in 1961

He started his USAC career in a midget car at the 1956 Night before the 500 in Anderson, Indiana. His first midget car win was at a 100 lap event at Kansas City in 1957, and finished seventh in the season points standings.[1] He left midget cars after the 1957 season to drive in sprint cars and Championship Car. He did occasionally compete in midget car events. He won the 1960 and 1961 Turkey Night Grand Prix, the first two years that it was held at Ascot Park. He won the 1961 Hut Hundred after starting last, and finished seventh in National Midget points that year. He won the 1970 Astro Grand Prix, an event that he promoted in his hometown of Houston. He ended his career with 20 midget car feature wins. [edit] Championship car career The car Foyt drove to Indy victory in 1977. Foyt racing at Pocono in 1984

In 1961, he became the first driver to successfully defend his points championship and win the Indianapolis 500 race. Late in the 500, Foyt stopped for fuel, but a refueling malfunction meant that he returned to the race without enough fuel to finish. Eddie Sachs, unaware that Foyt's now-quicker car was light on fuel, pushed hard to keep up—and Sachs had to pit with just three laps remaining to replace a shredded right-rear tire. Foyt took over the lead and beat Sachs by just 8.28 seconds—the second-closest finish in history at the time. He raced in each season from 1957–1992, starting in 374 races and finishing in the top ten 201 times, with 67 victories. In 1958, Foyt raced in Italy in the Trophy of the Two Worlds on the banking at Monza.

Ford-powered entries were widely expected to dominate the 1964 Indianapolis 500. Discussions between Ford officials and Foyt (who had a stock car contract with Ford at the time) took place early in the month of May about the possibility of Foyt taking over the third (backup) Team Lotus-Ford. Foyt wanted the use of the car for the entire month, but Lotus team owner Colin Chapman was reluctant to give up the reserve car in case something happened to team drivers Jim Clark and Dan Gurney, so discussions ended and Foyt stayed with his reliable, well-sorted Offenhauser-engined roadster. When the two fastest Lotus-Fords, driven by Jim Clark and Bobby Marshman, fell out of the race with mechanical problems, and Parnelli Jones was knocked out when his fuel tank exploded during a pit stop, Foyt was left alone at the front of the field, and cruised home to win his second Indianapolis 500. The race is remembered for the fiery second-lap crash that claimed the lives of Dave MacDonald and Eddie Sachs. Foyt did not learn of the fate of his two friends until he reached victory lane and was handed a newspaper with a headline announcing the tragedy.

Also, in 1964 Foyt won a record 10 of 14 races enroute to his championship.

In 1966 at the Milwaukee, WI. August 200-mile (320 km) Championship Car race his rear engined Lotus pavement car was not at the track so Foyt unloaded the Offenhauser engined dirt track car he had won the 100-mile (160 km) race with at Springfield, Il. the previous day sprayed the mud off of the car, installed pavement tires and a set-up for the one mile (1.6 km) oval. He received permission to take two extra warm up laps during qualifying as he had no time for practice and then qualified the car on the pole, led the race for 18 out of 200 laps but then had to stop for a new rear tire, and finished 2nd to Gordon Johncock driving a rear engined Gerhardt-Offy indy car.

In the 1967 Indianapolis 500, Parnelli Jones' turbine car was expected to easily defeat the field of piston engines. Jones lapped the field, but his car expired with three laps remaining, and Foyt inherited the lead. But as he drove down the back straightaway on the last lap, Foyt suddenly remembered an odd premonition that had struck him the night before, when he wondered aloud what would happen in the event of a big last-lap accident. As Foyt moved through Turn 3 on the 200th lap, he slowed down. A few hundred yards ahead of him, Carl Williams spun out as he exited Turn 4, triggering a five-car front-stretch accident right in front of Foyt. Traveling at no more than 100 mph, Foyt threaded his way through the wreckage and safely took the checkered flag. The race took two days to complete when rain stopped the race on the 18th lap on the first day.

In the 1977 Indianapolis 500, Foyt ran out of fuel, and had to make up around 32 seconds on Gordon Johncock. Foyt made up 1.5 to 2 seconds per lap by turning up his turbo boost, which risks destroying the engine. Johncock's own engine expired just as Foyt had closed to within eight seconds back after both drivers' final pit stops, and Foyt passed for the win.

He won the Indianapolis 500 4 times, in 1961, 1964, 1967, 1977. He was the first driver to do so. The feat has since been matched by Al Unser (1970, 1971, 1978, 1987) and Rick Mears (1979, 1984, 1988, 1991). Of his 67 career championship car race victories, twelve (12) were won at Trenton (NJ) Speedway. Foyt also won the Indycar Series 7 times; a record that still stands.

In a 1990 CART race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Foyt was involved in a serious crash that damaged his legs and feet severely. He would return the following year for the 1991 Indianapolis 500 to qualify 2nd. [edit] Stock car career [edit] USAC Stock Car

He was the champion in USAC's stock car in 1968, 1978, and 1979. He finished second in 1963 and 1969, and third in 1970.[5] [edit] NASCAR

Foyt only needed 10 races to get his first NASCAR victory. Richard Petty dominated the 1964 Firecracker 400 until he went out with engine problems. Foyt swapped the lead with Bobby Isaac for the final 50 laps of the summer event at the Daytona International Speedway. Foyt passed Isaac on the final lap to win the race.

In January 1965, Foyt qualified and ran in the front of the pack most of the day with Dan Gurney and Parnelli Jones in the Motor Trend 500 at Riverside. Parnelli retired with mechanical issues, leaving Gurney and Foyt to contest the lead. Late in the race, dueling with Gurney, Foyt spun. His car refired, and he charged through the field in an attempt to regain lost positions. Late in the race, after running hard to catch leader Gurney, Foyt's brakes failed entering Turn 9 at the end of Riverside's mile-long, downhill back straight. Foyt turned the car into the infield at more than 100 mph, and the car tumbled violently end-over-end several times. The track doctor at Riverside International Raceway pronounced Foyt dead at the scene of the severe crash, but fellow driver Parnelli Jones revived him after seeing movement. Foyt suffered severe chest injuries, a broken back, and a fractured ankle. Footage of his flipping #00 Ford, owned by Holman Moody, is featured in the final scene of the movie Redline 7000

.

Foyt ran out of gas near the end of the 1971 Daytona 500, and Petty passed him for the win. Foyt again had the car to beat in the 1972 Daytona 500, but this time succeeded in a dominating performance. Only three drivers led during the race.

Foyt won the 1971 and 1972 races at the Ontario Motor Speedway for Wood Brothers Racing. The track was shaped like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The 1972 race was his last NASCAR win. [edit] Career summary

   Foyt drove in the Indianapolis 500 for 35 consecutive years, winning it four times (the first of only three to do so).

   Foyt is the only driver to win the Indy 500 in both front and rear-engined cars, winning twice with both configurations.

   Foyt is the only driver to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500 the same year (1967).

   He is the only person to record victories in the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 stock car race, the 24 Hours of Daytona (twice, with co-driver Bob Wollek), the 24 Hours of Le Mans international sports car endurance race in Le Mans, France, as well as the 12 Hours of Sebring (his last major professional win, in 1985, with co-driver Bob Wollek). Foyt had never competed in European sports-car racing or driven at LeMans prior to his 1967 winning performance in a Ford Mk. IV co-driven by Dan Gurney. He reportedly only got 10 laps of pre-race practice on the fast, intimidating tree-lined course. While being sprayed with Champagne on the victory podium, he is reported to have asked "Do I win Rookie Of The Year?"

   He also has 41 USAC Stock Car wins and 50 Sprint Car, Midget, and Dirt Champ Car wins.

   He has won 12 total major driving championships in various categories.

   His USAC wins tally is a record 138 (The late Rich Vogler is second with 132.)

   Foyt won the 1976 and 1977 IROC championships.

   Foyt won 7 NASCAR races, including the 1972 Daytona 500.

   Foyt holds the closed course speed record driving the Oldsmobile Aerotech at an average speed of over 250 mph (400 km/h).

   Despite having won more USAC sanctioned events than any other driver Foyt never won a CART sanctioned event.

[edit] Awards

   Foyt was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2000.

   Foyt was named to NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers list in 1998.

   He was named to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1990.

   He was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America as the only open wheel driver in the first class of 1989.

   He was inducted in the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1988.

[edit] Indianapolis 500 records

Foyt has numerous career records at the Indianapolis 500: the first of to date three drivers to win a record four times, the most consecutive and career starts (35), most races led (13), most times led during the career (39), and most competitive laps and miles during a career (4,909 laps, 12,272.5 miles).

• Reference: FamilyTreeMaker Genealogy - SmartCopy: Jul 15 2018, 15:25:47 UTC