Biography of Auto Racing Athlete A.J. Foyt

About the biography of auto racer A.J. Foyt, history and information about the athlete.

A. J. Foyt

A. J. Foyt, one of America's greatest racecar drivers, is the 1st man ever to win 4 500-mi. national championship races. Winner of the Indianapolis 500 3 times, he captured the Schaefer 500 at Pocono, Pa., in 1973.

Born in 1935, the Houston, Tex., driver started racing in 1953 in his hometown with a midget built by his father, Tony. Foyt ran his 1st USAC race in a midget in 1956.

Foyt has won 5 national driving championship titles (1960, '61, '63, '64, '67). He has won 45 national championship races, 13 more than the nearest driver, Mario Andretti.

In 39 races in his 1st 4 years of national championship driving, he finished in the top 4 on 15 occasions and was in the top 11 (where points are awarded) 28 times.

He captured his 1st Indianapolis 500 in 1961 with a record speed of 139.130 mph. He won his 2nd Indy 500 in 1964, again with a record speed, 147.350. He won 9 other championship races that year and became the 1st 4-time national driving champion. When Foyt won the 1967 Indy 500 with a record speed of 151.207, he joined Louis Meyer, Wilbur Shaw, and Mauri Rose as the only 3-time winners.

Foyt teamed with Dan Gurney in 1967 to win the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans race.

Foyt has also won USAC championships in dirt, stock, and sprint divisions. He is a respected competitor in midget races, which he has mostly limited himself to in recent years.

Foyt set a world closed-course speed record, 217.854 mph, on August 3, 1974, at Talladega, Ala., at the Alabama International Motor Speedway.

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