Legendary Racecar Driver A.J. Foyt Uncut: The Four-time Indy 500 Champ Shares Secrets to Success And Embraces Mistakes He's Made in More Than Six Decades of Racing
One of the winningest race car drivers in history opened up to children and families and talked about scary moments and huge victories as well as mistakes from which he learned. This all happened at the world's largest children's museum as he posed for photos next to a life-sized sculpture of himself in the Riley Children's Health Sports Legends Experience at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
INDIANAPOLIS, May 17, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt delighted children and families with stories of fast cars and faces on trophies as he made a special appearance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Pedal Car Racetrack in the Riley Children's Health Sports Legends Experience at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
To celebrate AJ's 60th anniversary of his first Indy 500 victory back in 1961, the first 60 guests were treated to VIP seating inside the oval to hear directly from the legend himself and received Indianapolis Motor Speedway commemorative flags.
He answered cute questions from kids about what it was like to drive fast and told them they should live their dreams and embrace mistakes, "If you have a dream, try to fulfill your dream and work hard at it – your dreams can come true believe it or not. I can say that because I worked hard and my dreams came true. Don't worry about making mistakes along the way either. If you don't make mistakes, you're not going anywhere. I made plenty of them and still do. But don't let that bother you," said Foyt.
The four-time Indy 500 winner took the checkered flag in the greatest spectacle in racing in 1961, 1964, 1967 and 1977. Foyt is the only driver who has won the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 (1972) and the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1967). He holds multiple records—67 Indy Car wins and 7 Indy Car championships as a driver. He is considered one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers and voted Driver of the Century by a panel of experts and the Associated Press. In 2000, he was named to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, and more recently, he was voted into the North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame. In all, he has a few hundred victories in a variety of races. When asked about his most memorable event, Foyt said, "My favorite racing moment was every time I pulled into victory lane – I enjoyed it. When I was young, I came up here to watch the race and I was hoping someday I could make the race and just qualifying for it one day. Then in 1958, I enjoyed one of the highlights of my life. I felt fortunate to just qualify and place…then to win it one time let alone four times... that was my dream and my dream came true and that was one of the highlights of my career."
The Borg Warner Trophy features Foyt's face in four places to celebrate each of his victories at the Indy 500 and now he can stand next to the life-sized bronze sculpture of him at the Old National Bank Sports Legends Avenue of Champions at the Sports Legends Experience. While visiting, he raved about the 7.5-acre sports utopia, "To be truthful with you, I've been to quite a few states and took part in projects and I've never seen anything like this. This is beautiful – just fabulous right here! Kids can't holler because everything is beautiful and should be a lot of fun," said Foyt.
Google Drive links:
B-roll: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HuPzhWhdeGG-Rq2oUZlPmgLMURrJs287/view?usp=sharing
Interview: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G3nUWPk-WFATwPzfBcoylztQu9MkQ1Ga/view?usp=sharing
Or on You Tube at https://youtu.be/inoOLk9d2xw and
A.J. Foyt full interview: https://youtu.be/RKkbfe7o8jc
Media Contact
Kim Harms, The Children's Museum, 317-809-5203, [email protected]
SOURCE The Children's Museum
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