Al Unser (4-time Indy 500
winner): "A.J. gave
me my chance at the Speedway [Indianapolis, 1965]. I was a total
rookie. It was down to the last day and I had already thought I was
going to miss the show. I was almost through. I'd gone through every
car I could find. And he just walks in and offers me a ride in his
second car--a car that was going to make the race. He gave a young man
the chance of a lifetime."
Parnelli Jones (1963 Indy 500 winner and
national champion): "A.J. and I
were heavy competitors, especially in the midgets out here in
California. We tangled with each other in a race and afterwards I told
my mechanic, 'That's it, I'm never speaking to that guy again, I've
had it. I don't want to talk to him, I don't want to be his friend
anymore.' I mean we were ready to go to punches when this happened. A
little while later, I'm working on my race car and A.J. gives me a big
bear hug from behind and then I melted. He had a great talent for
doing that and it just shows you how really warm he is."
Al Unser Jr. (2-time Indy 500 winner
and national champion): "In
1986 I was driving for A.J. in the 24 Hours of Daytona sports car
race. I got up real early to take over the next shift and was not
fully awake. I'm walking towards the pits and someone handed me a
sandwich. So I drove the first two laps eating the sandwich and my
first time by the pits, A.J. gets on the radio and says, "I'm
paying you to drive the race car, not to sit and eat lunch."
Jack Bowsher (former NASCAR stock car
driver and team owner): "We
went to Riverside (Calif.), set a track record and he ran off from
them. He ran out of brakes towards the end of the race and he finished
second cause he'd run out of brakes. We were in the garage and I
walked up to him and he said, 'Well, I lost the race for us Boss.' I
knew he'd run out of brakes but I said, 'What do you mean A.J.?' And
he said, 'I just ran her out of brakes. I lost the race for us.' Now
he didn't have to say that. He could've blamed me. But those were his
exact words." (The next year Bowsher rigged up a different brake
system and they won the race.)
Cale Yarborough (former NASCAR stock
car driver champion and team owner): "A.J.
and I started losing, uh, getting a little thin on top at the same
time, and I had a friend who had come up with a hair-growing remedy. I
knew A.J. was looking for something so I sent him some. A few days
later he called me but he didn't really need a telephone cause I think
I could have heard him from Texas--that stuff had really burned his
head up. Needless to say, I didn't have to try it."
Dick Hutcherson (former NASCAR stock
car driver; stock car chassis builder and supplier):
"A.J. had bought a
Camaro to run USAC stock cars and we were running at Texas World
Speedway at College Station. He had gotten mad about what some
reporters had written about him in the days before the race. Well he
sat on the pole and was leading the race when he pulled in with just a
couple laps to go. I leaned in the car and asked him what was wrong
and he said, 'Overheating.' I looked at the gauges which were normal
and said, 'Why'd you pull out?' He looked at me and said, 'I didn't
want to talk to those reporters in Victory Circle.' We had the race
won and he parked the damn car!"
Leo Mehl (former
Director of Goodyear Racing, Worldwide and former Indy Racing League
Executive Director): "My
first memory of A.J. Foyt is after Goodyear signed him up in 1963.
Somebody had appointed Foyt (probably himself) the training officer
for young Goodyear engineers and, unfortunately, I was one of his
first students.
"I remember going to a race in
Trenton, New Jersey and it was very cold and the tires were terrible
because they wouldn't warm up in the cold.
"Well, we were scheduled to tire
test in Phoenix the next day. Goodyear had a company plane, a Lockheed
Lodestar, which was very reliable but it only flew about 150mph. A.J.
and I got on the plane after the race in Trenton and I got 11 hours of
continuous instruction. I never asked to use the company plane
again."
Johnny Rutherford (3-time Indy 500
champion): "It
was the 1973 season and I was driving for McLaren, the original M-16
McLaren. The car was extremely good but it had one characteristic in
that it would spin without any warning. But it would usually do it so
rapidly that you could do a 360, save the thing and keep going.
"Invariably every time I did
it--probably four times that year--A.J. was right behind me to see it.
The first time he came in and said, 'how'd you do that?' 'Do what?' I
asked. 'Man, every time I spin one of those things I hit something,'
he said laughing.
"The second time he came over and
said, 'I still don't know how you do that, spin and keep going.'
"The last time it happened, we
were in Michigan and somebody had dumped oil. I was at speed and A.J.
was coming out of the pits when I hit the oil and spun. I saved the
car and drove back to the pits. Sure enough A.J. pulls in behind me.
He gets out of his car and just as he gets to my pit, he starts to say
something, but I thumped him on the chest with my finger and said, 'A.J.,
that's the last time I'm gonna show ya, now you're on your own!' He
cracked up."
Dan Gurney (former Indy car and Formula
One driver; former Indy car team owner and car builder):
"We were running sports cars down
in Nassau. The cars were supposed to be stock but our team made some
refinements which we thought were within the rules. Plus I put on
two-ply tires which made the wheels lighter. A.J. was running for
Crocky Peterson. In the race I realized my car was much faster, and
not wanting to take off, I decided to push A.J. who was leading. I
drove the whole race right behind him; we'd come to a turn and he'd
shake his hand in the mirror--giving me the high sign to back off.
Right before the checkered I blew by him and won the race. But they
pulled my engine apart and found some parts that weren't the way they
were supposed to be. I got disqualified and A.J. won the race."
Leonard Wood (NASCAR stock car team
owner):
"The first race at Ontario Motor
Speedway (2.5-mile paved oval track in California), A.J. had sat on
the pole and he was leading the race and it paid $150 a lap to lead.
He called in and said, 'I've got a tire that's vibrating.' They had a
caution and he said he was going to come in and get new tires but he
never did. He said he got to thinking that at $150 a lap, it felt
pretty good so he just stayed out there. Never did come in."
George Bignotti (all-time winning Indy
car chief mechanic and former team owner):
"I can remember a time in the dirt car at Langhorne (1-mile dirt
track in Pennsylvania) when his left rear radius rod fell off. There
were about four laps to go. A.J. came by and he was holding it in his
left hand and driving with one hand. Then he put his knee on the
steering wheel--he was leading the race--and he went like this [wiping
his forehead] like he wanted relief. And I'm saying, 'Go!' And he
finished the race and won it with the radius rod in his hand. That was
outstanding."
Richard Petty (7-time NASCAR stock car champion): "I could describe A.J. Foyt in one word, tough. It doesn't take much to sum him up, he is a tough competitor, a racer from the ground up. He gets so engrossed in racing that sometimes people talk about his bad personality but he's here for business. He didn't come here for pleasure, to sign autographs, talk with people or to do interviews. He came to race. If they leave him alone and let him do his racing and then catch him away from the track, he's okay...I like to see him come to the races, he's older than I am."
Dale Earnhardt (then 3-time NASCAR champion): "He's the most awesome old fart I know."
Tony George (President of Indianapolis Motor Speedway): "If I had to sum up A.J. in a word, the word would be amazing. The fact that he's raced in four decades and been competitive -- and I expect him to be competitive in 1990--it's amazing that he still has the determination, drive and enthusiasm to participate."
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