Hi everyone.
My new book, volume one of "A.J. Foyt, Survivor, Champion, Legend," is available to pre-order on Amazon and will begin shipping to customers on October 1, 2024. It is the story of one of the most complex and intricate personalities in the history of auto racing, perhaps in all of sports.
When Foyt was five years old, he challenged a professional racer to an impromptu match race . . . and won. From that moment on, victory was expected, excellence assumed. Anthony Joseph “A.J.” Foyt Jr. became one of the greatest race car drivers in history—some would argue the best—and he has the statistics to back it up. He was the first to win the Indianapolis 500 four times, he has more wins in Indy car races and championships than any driver, and he still holds the world closed-course speed record that he set more than thirty-five years ago.
Numbers alone don't begin to tell Foyt’s story. Through new research and extensive interviews with the biggest names in motorsports, his family and A.J. himself, this book offers fresh insight and details about the battles on and off the track that defined one of America’s biggest personalities.
I met A.J. when I interviewed him for my first book, the award-winning "Black Noon: The Year They Stopped the Indy 500," which was released in 2014 and is also available in paperback. This non-fiction account of the 1964 race features numerous subplots revolving around a terrible second-lap crash in which two drivers were killed and the 500 was stopped by an accident for the first time in more than 50 years of racing. Black Noon tells the story of the two drivers, Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald, and features many of those who would go on to fame in the 500, including Foyt, Parnelli Jones, Bobby Unser, Johnny Rutherford, Dan Gurney and Mario Andretti.
I also interviewed A.J. and other Foyt family members for "Indy 500 Memories: An Oral History of the 'Greatest Spectacle in Racing'." In this book, more than 150 drivers, fans, celebrities and others share their personal stories and remembrances of the world’s most famous auto race. Twenty different race winners representing more than 40 Indy 500 victories are among those who contributed their stories, including the greatest names in the sport: Foyt, Unser, Andretti, Rutherford, Cheever, Mears, Sullivan, Rahal, Montoya, Castroneves and Kanaan. Others include Gurney, Guthrie, Goodyear, Patrick, Power, Stewart, St. James and many more.
