A.J. was, like so many other drivers, hard nosed both on and of the track. He was considered primarily to be an open wheel superstar but A.J. was a respected figure on every circuit that he competed on. Anthony Joseph Foyt was born on the 16th January, 1935 in Houston, Texas where his father had a shop specialising in racing cars so, having been brought up in a racing environment, it was clear that A. J. would be influenced by the racing world and even decided, before going to elementary school, that he wanted to be a racing car driver in the future. That is just what he did, going on to be considered by some the best racing driver of the century.

JLM Racing 1961 : A J Foyt_midget car race (Courtesy or Wiki Commons)

His career saw him winning victories on nigh on every North American racing venue including circuits ranging from quarter-mile dirt ovals to road courses to 2.5 mile superspreedways, racing with cars such as midgets, sprint cars, Indy cars, stock cars and sport cars. His open wheel racing includes USAC Champ cars and midgets and stock cars in NASCAR and USAC. He has won many major sports car racing events and, with 159 victories, he holds the all-time USAC record for career wins, together with the all-time record for career wins, an impressive 67, for American championship racing. He won the Indianapolis 500 four times, this is a record and in 1967 he won the prestigious 24 Hour of Le Mans sports car race with co-driver, Dan Gurney. 1972 he won the Daytona 500 – the Super Bowl of Stock car racing and in 1976 and 1977 he won the International Race of Champions (IROC) All-Star Series title. A.J. occasionally went "down south" to compete in NASCAR races during the 1960s to the '80s, starting from the pole 10 times, and winning seven times in 128 starts. His first NASCAR race was the 1963 Motor Trend 500 at Riverside, California when he finished second behind Dan Gurney. He won two consecutive Firecracker 400s at Daytona in 1964 and 1965, and the Daytona 500 in 1972. While driving for the Wood brothers he won the 1971 and 1972 Los Angeles Times 500 which was an annual NASCAR Winston Cup race held at Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California. This Speedway was closed down in the 1980’s because of financial problems...

He also won on the 2.6-mile road course at Riverside Raceway near Los Angeles in 1970. His performance in Indy cars has made him a living legend. He also is the only driver to compete in Indy-style, USAC short track, IMSA sports car and NASCAR Stock Car events in the same season--an accomplishment he performed many times. But his four Indianapolis 500 wins, and mastery of the speedway, establishes him as one of the leading racers in the world. Other awards that he has received have been Inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2000, named as one of NASCAR's prestigious in the "50 Greatest Drivers" list in 1998 during the yearlong 50th anniversary celebrations, named as co-driver of the Century by the Associated Press, Inducted into the first class in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1989 and Inducted in the first class into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1989 and inducted in the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

A.J. lives in Houston with his wife Lucy. They have a daughter, Terry, and three sons, Anthony Joseph III (Tony), Jerry, and Larry, his adopted son. His sons are all involved in some form of motor sports. Jerry is involved in stock car racing; Larry is racing go-karts in the Houston area; and A.J. Foyt III is encouraging his son, A.J. Foyt IV, in racing junior dragsters in Texas. Even now A.J. shows no sign of retiring, Foyt loves to race, and he loves to win. A.J. is as competitive as they come. He cannot stop himself. "Victory in the future is always what you're looking for," Foyt said. "I still have so much I'd like to accomplish as a team owner." Nowadays, he has two IRL teams and a Winston Cup team (he has two IRL titles and 7 series race victories) and alongside of to his three race teams, he operates A.J. Foyt Enterprises, a race shop that he opened in 1965 based in Waller, Texas just west of Houston, Foyt’s other business interests include car dealerships (he once owned the largest Chevrolet dealership in Texas), funeral service businesses, oil investments, and raising thoroughbred horses. He has several cattle and horse ranches in Texas.

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