Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr. (born January 16, 1935) is an American former racing driver who competed in numerous disciplines of motorsport.

Since retiring from active race driving, he has owned A. J. Foyt Enterprises, which has fielded teams in CART, the IndyCar Series, and NASCAR.

[3] Tony recalled that when he and his wife left an eleven-year-old A. J. home to attend a race, they returned to find the boy had done considerable damage to the home driving the family's other race car in the yard, and had caused the car's engine to catch on fire.

[6] When he obtained a driver's license, Foyt purchased a used Oldsmobile and practiced the mechanical skills he had learned working on his father's cars on it.

His first midget car win was at a 100 lap event at Kansas City in 1957, and finished seventh in the season points standings.

Even after he had reached the pinnacle of his sport, Foyt was known to make occasional appearances in small, local events as a way of thanking promoters who had supported him in his struggle up the ladder.

Foyt began his sprint car career in 1956, at age 21, driving the Les Vaughn Offy with the International Motor Contest Association.

On August 24, 1956, Foyt outqualified a field of 42 drivers at the Minnesota State Fair and, the following day, he won his first sprint car race, running away with the IMCA feature at the Red River Fair in Fargo, N.D. On June 16, 1957, on the high banked asphalt track at Salem, Indiana, Foyt came out on top in a race-long battle with Bob Cleberg.

Foyt continued to race sprint cars long after he was firmly established as one of the top drivers at the Indy 500.

In the 1964 season, Foyt won a record 10 of 14 races en route to his championship, including the Indy 500.

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.

So Foyt unloaded the Offenhauser-engined dirt track car he had won the 100-mile (160 km) race with at Springfield the previous day.

In the 1967 Indianapolis 500, Parnelli Jones' STP-Paxton Turbocar was expected to easily defeat the field of piston engines.

As Foyt moved through turn four on the 200th lap, he had a premonition of trouble (and might have noticed the grandstand crowd was looking away from him and toward the start/finish line) and slowed down.

A few hundred yards ahead of him, Carl Williams spun out as he exited turn four, triggering a five-car front-stretch accident right in front of Foyt.

In the 1982 Indianapolis 500, Foyt started on the front row but on the pace laps he was victimized by a controversial wreck when second-year driver Kevin Cogan suddenly spun out for no apparent reason.

Foyt repaired his car during the red flag and led the first quarter of the race but dropped out due to lingering damage from the crash.

In a 1990 CART race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin Foyt's car left the track and plowed straight through a dirt embankment, severely injuring his legs and feet.

Prior to the race, he had angered the French fans and press by remarking that the notoriously fast and dangerous tree-lined course was "nothin' but a little old country road.

But when Gurney overslept and missed a driver change in the middle of the night, Foyt was forced to double-stint and wound up driving nearly 18 hours of the 24-hour race.

Foyt swapped the lead with Bobby Isaac for the final 50 laps of the summer event at the Daytona International Speedway.

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.

After running hard to catch leader Gurney, Foyt's brakes failed entering turn nine at the end of Riverside's mile-long, downhill back straight.

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.

In 1988 Foyt was banned from NASCAR for six months and fined $5,000 following a series of incidents during the Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Shortly thereafter, Foyt and Ray Harroun (who won the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911) appeared together on a segment of the TV program I've Got a Secret—their secret being their respective wins 50 years apart.

After retiring as a driver, he continued his involvement in racing as a car owner of A. J. Foyt Enterprises in the CART series, where he frequently expressed frustration with the expense of the escalating cost of chassis and engine development.

The current drivers for his Indycar team, A. J. Foyt Enterprises, are Santino Ferrucci and Sting Ray Robb.