A.J. Foyt: My Indy 500 Wins 'Were a Hell of a Lot More Racing Than What They’re Doing Today'

A.J. Foyt either previously owned or still owns most Indy car open-wheel records, the most notable of his being the first of four eventual drivers to win the Indianapolis 500 four different times (1961, 1964, 1967, 1977).

Even today, more than 30 years after he last drove a race car, Foyt still owns the record for Indy car championships (7), starts (369), wins (67), podiums (117) and is the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500 (1972) and the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1967).

But there’s one record Foyt holds that no one will ever break, and which he holds the most pride in. His four wins in the Greatest Spectacle In Racing came twice in roadsters, twice in rear-engined cars, he won when Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s front straightaway was still paved with bricks (1961) and he calls his last Indy 500 triumph as the most satisfying of the four.

“I would say the best race that I won was the fourth time I won it," Foyt told Autoweek. “I had my own race car, we built it, I drove it, it was my own motor, and nobody’s going to ever break that record.”

As the now 88-year-old legend nicknamed “Super Tex” prepares for the 65th consecutive 500 that he’s either raced in or has been a team owner (or both) since 1958, Foyt fully believes his namesake A.J. Foyt Racing has its best chance of reaching victory lane once again for the first time since Swedish driver Kenny Brack drove for and won for him in 1999.

“I really do think that,” Foyt said of the faith he has in his two young drivers, Santino Ferrucci and Benjamin Pedersen.

Foyt came out of the Playland Park neighborhood of Houston and knocked around the southwest driving midgets and sprint cars before he started advancing upwards, eventually making it to Indianapolis in 1958 as a fresh-faced and bright-eyed 23-year-old at the time.

And even with all the success he achieved globally over the years since then, Indianapolis has always been his second home.

“Well, I’ve won a lot of major races all over the world, but everybody knows me for Indianapolis,” Foyt said. “So that’s what it means to me.

“The fans, I love ‘em and they’ve supported me all these years. Even when I’ve been down, they’ve still been with me, so that’s why I’ve fought so hard to come back (every year).”

Foyt still remembers his first 500 in 1958 as if it was yesterday.

“I was one of the fastest rookies and I started on the outside of the fourth row (12th)—and I'm probably the only man that's never missed the race all of the years since,” he said.

Then he adds with a touch of humor, “I remember it was very thrilling. The only down thing I remember, they didn't tell me going down the back straightaway (early in the race) that everybody's gonna pile up going into Turn 3, some end-over-end.”

He managed to avoid the big early wreck, and things were going pretty smoothly until a water hose broke going into Turn 1 on Lap 148 of the 200-lap race. After flirting with the top 10 for a good chunk of the race, he ultimately finished 16th.

Three years later, Foyt would become an Indy 500 champion for the first of four times. Yet to this day, Foyt still can’t forget the one 500 that got away from him. Otherwise, right now he’d be the only five-time winner of the biggest race in the world.

“It was 1976,” Foyt said. “I led (nearly 30 laps) and came in for fuel and they called it a race (after just 102 of the scheduled 200 laps due to rain), and my good friend Johnny Rutherford won it,” Foyt said. “I just told them, ‘Give me one more lap’ and I probably would have won it.”