When he was growing up, Larry Foyt never thought he'd even have the chance to race cars for a living.
Foyt's father, legendary racer A.J. Foyt, was always against his children racing. As a result, Larry grew up playing sports like basketball, baseball and soccer. In fact, the only race he attended regularly was the Indianapolis 500 to support his father. It wasn’t until he was a freshman in high school that he became interested in driving race cars.
“It’s easy for my kids to look at the success I’ve had and think, 'Yeah, I’d like to do that,'” said A.J., Indy’s first four-time winner. “But I look back at some of the accidents I’ve had, the scars I have now and the friends I’ve lost over the years, and I think, 'Who would want that for their kids?'
"I had to do it because I didn’t know anything else. My success gave my kids choices -- like a college education. That’s what I wanted for my kids and I tried to insist on it.”
In 1993, with his mother Lucy’s help, Larry was given the permission to purchase his first go-kart, an Emmick chassis with a 100cc-engine. He won the second race he entered at Gulf Coast Kartway near Houston in 1995. A year later, he advanced to the 125cc-shifter karts, and won the Texas State Championship.
Since racing was contingent upon completion of a college education, Foyt graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications from Fort Worth’s Texas Christian University in 2000. Foyt then raced a limited USAC Formula 2000 Series schedule, competing on the oval tracks where his father’s Indy car team was racing the same weekend.
The brief schedule made it tough to be competitive with teams who ran nearly 20 times a year. Still, Foyt managed a fourth-place finish at Phoenix International Raceway.
Foyt earned his Indy car license in 1999 after several test sessions with his father’s IRL team. Later that season, Foyt was involved in the most serious wreck of his career at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The incident turned out to be the catalyst for his move to stock car racing.
As he was challenging for a top-five position, Foyt’s wheel was hit by another car, which sent him flipping into the air. When the car landed, another car clipped him and Foyt's car burst into flames as it slid towards the wall.
“Right before it happened, I had a bad feeling,” Larry said. “I said to myself, ‘We’re all not going to come out of this.’ Afterward when I felt the heat, I got out of the car pretty quick and lay down. I remember lying there and seeing A.J. standing over me and that’s when I thought I might have been dead.’”
“I was scared,” A.J. recalled. “It looked bad and he was very lucky. After that, I started to think about getting Larry into something else.
Foyt made the jump to stock cars and spent a year in the ASA -- where he earned one pole and four top-10 finishes.
He then made the jump to the Busch Series as a driver/owner, a position he is happy not to have anyomre.
“It was a sink or swim experience for me,” Foyt said, “and at times, I had some doubts about keeping my head above water. But I got through it and I’m stronger and smarter for it, as a driver and as a businessman.”
Foyt has two top-10 and 14 top-20 finishes in the Busch Series.
He made the jump to NASCAR's premier series in 2003. His best finish was 16th in the season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
