“He’s under the dash”

AJ Foyt and Eddie Sachs (who had captured pole position) battled for 1st and 2nd in the latter stages of the 1961 Indianapolis 500 (picture above). Foyt took the lead with three laps to go and won his first (of four) victories on the Speedway by a margin of 8.28 seconds on his valiant opponent.

After A.J.Foyt won his first Indy 500 in May 1961, a lady came to his father’s garage in Houston and said: “Now that your boy has won the big race, I guess we won’t be seeing him in here any more.” Tony Sr. replied: “He’s under the dash of that car over there changing a speedo cable.”

Sixty years later, at the age of 86, Foyt is still regularly seen on the pitwall as he likes to oversee his IndyCar team efforts. That’s called burning passion.