Twenty-five years ago, a headline read: “A.J. Foyt, The Toughest S.O.B. in Sports.” Last December, the headline in a national online publication read: “10 Reasons Why A.J. Foyt Is Still America’s Toughest S.O.B.”

Throughout his career, A.J. Foyt has been described as tough— mesquite tough—for his exploits on the track, and more recently, his off-track wars with health issues.

Battling back from a crippling staph infection which required a replacement of his artificial right knee last year, the 81-year-old Texan appears to be on the road to recovery.

“I’m really looking forward to being back at the races, especially the 100th Indianapolis 500,” said Indy’s first four-time winner, adding with a grin, “Because I never thought I’d live long enough to see it! Seriously though, it’s been a struggle lately because every time I get to feeling healthy, something else happens. You can’t let stuff like that get you down and I won’t.”

During his most recent recuperation which saw Foyt miss seven of 16 races in 2015, he leaned hard on his son Larry, who was named President of A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Inc. in December 2014. That November, A.J. had undergone triple coronary artery bypass surgery – just two weeks after announcing his team would expand to two cars with young Jack Hawksworth wheeling the No. 41 ABC Supply Honda.

As president, Larry was responsible for integrating the new second car team personnel into the existing No. 14 team. The 2015 season proved to be extremely challenging, fraught with growing pains. While problems rarely repeated themselves, new ones arose. After lessons learned, plus a change in management with the hire of Team Director George Klotz and an increase in the engineering staff, both Foyts expect strong results this year.

“I think we’ll be more competitive this year because we made a lot of changes within the team, got some more engineers but kept the same drivers,” A.J. said. “We know more what the drivers want and they know what we expect, so all that put together makes for a stronger team.

“We’re developing some new shocks so we’ve spent time in the shaker rig and will get some time in the wind tunnel which is important with the new aero kit this year. The on track testing has been going well. We’re working on the little stuff which might be enough of a gain to get us over the hump.”

Foyt believes his team has the capability to become one that contends for wins on a consistent basis. And why wouldn’t he?

Foyt’s career is a treasure trove of memorable records and incredible feats. His record of achievement may never be equaled and certainly won’t be in his lifetime. Major victories, including the Indy 500 in IndyCar, the Daytona 500 in NASCAR, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in sports cars, set him apart from all other race drivers.

Winner of a record 67 Indy car races and seven national IndyCar Series titles as a driver, Foyt is often viewed as an intimidating personality by drivers, all of whom are now two generations removed from the motorsports legend. It is an assessment he disputes.

“I don’t ask my drivers to do all that I have done, the times are different nowadays,” Foyt says. “But I do expect them to give me 100 percent. That’s what I like about Takuma Sato. That, and he’s fast and he wants to win. That’s the name of the game. When I was running, that was all I wanted to do--win, and that’s the reason I probably won as much as I did. I never did want to settle for second or third, and that’s what I like about him. I think Jack Hawksworth is just as focused on winning races.”

Sato took just 52 starts to become the first Japanese driver to score an IndyCar victory. He had won pole positions at Iowa and Edmonton in 2011, his second year in the series. He finished off his 2013 season with Foyt by winning the pole in the inaugural Grand Prix of Houston. The following year he won two more poles, bringing his career total to five. This past year, Sato made his 100th IndyCar Series start at Mid-Ohio and posted his season-best finish of second at Detroit in race 2. Hawksworth posted his season-best finish of seventh twice in the Detroit doubleheader in his first season with the team.

With Sato onboard, Larry’s role increased as his father’s health prevented him from attending races the past three seasons. Sato, in his fourth season driving the No. 14 ABC Supply Honda, became the longest tenured-driver in the team’s history--a testament to Larry’s cool-headed management style as much as to Sato’s talent and expertise behind the wheel.

A.J. has seen a lot of changes in his celebrated career, which began in 1953 on the small dirt tracks around Houston, Texas. He soon turned it into a globetrotting romp of racetracks throughout North America and in Europe, Australia and Asia.

However, the Texan’s most memorable races took place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he became the first four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 (‘61, ‘64, ‘67, ‘77). Including the 2016 Indy 500, Foyt will have competed in 59 straight Indy 500s—including driving in a record 35 consecutive races. He holds the IndyCar Series records for most career victories (67), most national championships (7) and most triumphs in one season (10). He is the only driver to win these crown jewels of motorsports: the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 (’72) and the 24 Hours of Le Mans (’67).

“It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve been racing Indy cars for nearly 60 years,” said Foyt. “I’ve had so many good memories, and some not-so-good, but I wouldn’t trade any of it.”

Winning has been the hallmark of Foyt’s career: winning in Indy cars, NASCAR, USAC stock cars, midgets, sprints, IMSA sports cars and, of course, Le Mans. He won 14 national titles and 172 major races in his driving career, which spanned four decades and three continents: North America, Europe and Australia. He has won in five countries—U.S.A., France, New Zealand, Canada, Great Britain—and in 15 of the 19 states in which he competed as a driver.

Yet it was through his adversities that A.J.’s qualities burned brightest. His determination and toughness set him apart from his competition and led to a career that made him auto racing’s most inspiring champion.

Over the years, Foyt proved he was physically and mentally tough. The equipment that he drove did not have the safety features of today’s cars and gear. Foyt battled back from career-threatening accidents to race—and win—again.

He broke his back at Riverside in 1965 and again at Daytona in 1982, sustained burns on his face and hands at Phoenix in 1966, was run over by his own race car, breaking his ankle at DuQuoin in 1972. He nearly lost his right arm in 1981 at Michigan, and in 1990, he nearly lost a leg—he still limps from the effects of his crash at Road America.

“I knew people wanted me to retire, heck my own family wanted me to,” he said of that 1990 accident. “But I didn’t want to go out on crutches. I was determined to walk to my race car without crutches.”

At 56, Foyt limped to his car, without crutches, and qualified second for the 1991 Indianapolis 500! He was eliminated early when debris from another accident broke his car’s suspension, but not before he had shown his own brand of toughness before 400,000 race fans, and millions of TV viewers.

After finishing ninth in his 35th straight 500 in 1992, the motorsports icon retired from driving Indy cars in 1993 on Pole Day (May 15) at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His decision was abrupt as it was final.

“When I won Indy the first time back in ’61, I had a chance to meet Ray Harroun who won the first Indy in 1911,” Foyt revealed. “I asked him when he knew when to quit. He said, ‘It’ll come to you, you’ll just know.’ And he was right.”

In the past decade, Foyt has faced his most serious health issues which include: systemic shock from an attack of killer bees (2005), left knee replacement (2006), nearly drowning in an enclosed bulldozer he dumped into a pond (2007), multiple stent implant cardiac surgery (2011), staph infection (2012), back surgery, hip replacement and right knee replacement (2013), triple bypass surgery (2014), staph infection and second right knee replacement (2015), spinal stenosis-triggered sciatica (2016).

Foyt’s triple bypass surgery in November 2014 followed by serious post-operative complications, led to a nearly month-long hospital stay, and for the first time, a week-long induced sedation as doctors worked to get him back on track. Another two-week stay in the hospital in December due to more, but non-life threatening, complications set a personal record for Foyt, whose previous hospital stays (due to race-related injuries) were three weeks or less.

“I’ve had a lot of accidents and have always recovered pretty fast,” said Foyt, adding, “but this was altogether different from an accident, because it was a health problem. All during my career I never had any health problems, so I didn’t realize how serious they can be or how lucky you are when you’re healthy.”

Throughout his storied career, Foyt has defied the odds to emerge triumphant. His accolades include being named the Driver of the Year in 1975, inaugural inductions into the National Motorsports Hall of Fame (Novi, Michigan), the Sprint Car Hall of Fame and the Miami Project/Sports Legend in Auto Racing (1986). He won the American Sportscasters Association Sports Legend Award in 1993. He was named to 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.

As a team owner, Foyt has won the national Indy car title five times: 1967, 1975, 1979, 1996 (with driver Scott Sharp) and 1998 (with driver Kenny Brack). It was also with Brack that Foyt won the 1999 Indy 500 for his fifth visit to the Brickyard’s victory circle.

As Foyt campaigns throughout the 2016 season, he and his ABC Supply Racing team will be working hard to add yet another milestone to a career defined by them.

“I’ve had a lot of accidents and have always recovered pretty fast,” said Foyt, adding, “But this was altogether different from an accident because it was a health problem. All during my career I never had any health problems so I don’t think I realized how serious they can be or how lucky you are when you’re healthy. This deal really caught me off guard but it’s going to take time. My doctors told me it wasn’t something I’d recover from real quick and I didn’t want to accept that—and still don’t—but it’s taking me a lot longer than I thought. I’m not one of those guys that can just lay around and take it easy but that’s exactly about what I had to do.

“I’d say it was one of the hardest things I’ve been through but the leg injuries were pretty hard. I’ve been through two or three things that have been pretty hard so I think this ranks right up at the top with all of them. Being older hurts too but it’s something I’ve got to deal with and do the best I can.”

Foyt has leaned hard on his son Larry to focus on restructuring their ABC Supply Racing team which will field two cars for the both the 2015 and 2016 seasons. A week before Foyt was hospitalized with chest pains Nov. 7th, he and Larry held a media luncheon in their team’s headquarters Oct. 29th to announce their plans and introduce Jack Hawksworth as Takuma Sato’s teammate.

Foyt is happy with the team’s expansion, and agreed with his son’s decision to push for it.

“Larry and I talk every day to discuss the second team,” said Foyt. “I had to leave all of the hiring up to him. He analyzed it all and we agreed on everything. I think he’s done a great job with it being the first time he’s had to put everything together. He stepped up to the plate big time.

“It’s hard to compete with these guys that are running 3 or 4 cars—we had to expand to a two-car team,” Foyt explained. “When they go out and practice they get three or four times the information back when we just had the one car. I think you can do a great job with two cars and it’s something we had to step up to do to be competitive. We have two drivers that are very competitive and they can help each other.”

Larry has also been the project manager on the race shop renovation of the nearly 43,000 sq. ft. building in Speedway, Ind. which Foyt bought last October.

“It’s been a busy winter,” said Larry who was named President of A.J. Foyt Enterprises during the off season. “It meant some trips up to Indianapolis but it’s exciting for us to have a presence so close to the Speedway. A.J. was looking at the purchase as more of an investment rather than moving the team up there. It’s going to be a great spot for us to work after Indianapolis and before we go to Detroit. And there’s a stretch in the Midwest between Mid-Ohio and Pocono where we’ll be based out of there for a couple weeks. It’s great to have that option. In the old days you used to be able to work out of the Speedway but with the different events there now, you don’t have that opportunity now.”

In addition to the race shop, part of the large building will be leased out and one section will be used to open up a retail center for Foyt Family Wines.

“Anthony (A.J. Foyt IV) and I are opening up a wine tasting room which is really going to pay homage to A.J.,” Larry explained. “It will feature some of his artifacts from his racing career. It’ll be a cool place where fans can see a lot of his history, taste some wines, and just have a good time.”

Indeed Foyt’s career is a treasure trove of memorable records and incredible feats. His record of achievement may never be equaled and certainly won’t be in his lifetime. Major victories, including the Indy 500 in INDYCAR, the Daytona 500 in NASCAR, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in sports cars, set him apart from all other race drivers.

Winner of a record 67 IndyCar races and seven national IndyCar Series titles as a driver, Foyt is often viewed as an intimidating personality by drivers, all of whom are now two generations removed from the 80-year-old icon. It is an assessment he disputes.

“I don’t ask my drivers to do all that I have done, the times are different nowadays,” Foyt says. “But I do expect them to give me 100 percent. That’s what I like about Takuma Sato. That, and he’s fast and he wants to win. That’s the name of the game. When I was running, that was all I wanted to do was win, and that’s the reason I probably won as much as I did. I never did want to settle for second or third and that’s what I like about him. I think Jack Hawksworth is just as focused on winning races.”

While the 2014 season did not meet Foyt’s expectations, he took solace in the fact that invariably, the no. 14 ABC Supply Honda showed speed. Sato won poles at the season opener in St. Petersburg and again at Detroit. He finished seventh in St. Pete and was driving a great race in Detroit–leading laps—before being slowed by one backmarker and taken out by another.

At Indy, Sato finished ninth in the inaugural Grand Prix and was running strong in the Indy 500 when debris from Scott Dixon’s accident lodged in Sato’s car, necessitating a pit stop which dropped him from fifth to 19th in the final laps of the race. In a mid-season stretch, he qualified in the top-10 in four of seven races but didn’t finish higher than 18th. However, in the final five races, he posted three top-10s including two top-fives. He secured personal and team best finishes in California with a fourth at Sonoma and a sixth at Fontana.

Sato kicked off the 2013 season by qualifying second in the season opener in St. Petersburg. Two races later, he won the prestigious Long Beach Grand Prix. Finishing a hard fought second in the following race in Brazil, Sato and team entered the Indy 500 as the series point leader.

“I was so happy because they did a great job and Takuma drove a helluva race,” Foyt said of the Long Beach race which he watched from his home in Houston due to scheduled back surgery. “Larry did a great job, and Don [Halliday, chief engineer] and the whole team just did a fantastic job. We’ve had the support of ABC for quite a while now and it’s terrific to finally get that ABC car in the winner’s circle. I’ve been in victory lane a lot myself and I know what that’s like and I’m so glad to see them there. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there with everybody but I’m glad it shows they can win without me.”

Sato took just 52 starts to become the first Japanese driver to score an IndyCar victory. He had won pole positions at Iowa and Edmonton (in 2011), his second year in the series. He finished off his 2013 season with Foyt by winning the pole in the inaugural Grand Prix of Houston, bringing his career total to three.

“A.J. has achieved so many wins in every type of car, at every type of circuit, and in every type of situation,” Sato said when he joined the team in 2013. “That experience can only help in trying to win races this year.  I think with A.J. and the team helping me this year, we can be very successful.”

It was an assessment that proved prophetic as the team’s visit to victory lane in Long Beach was its first since Kansas in 2002. Their last pole dated even further back: the 1998 Indianapolis 500.

The Houston pole was a poignant moment because it was Foyt’s first race back since the race at Texas Motor Speedway in mid-June.

Foyt had missed 11 of 19 races, undergoing back surgery in April and then left hip replacement surgery in July.

“It was hard, naturally you always want to be there but there comes a time that you can’t be there,” Foyt said. “Believe me, I would rather have been at the races instead of hurting in bed at home.

“I got my right knee replaced at the end of 2013 [December] because I was having so much trouble with my leg. Even though it was in the middle of the holidays, I got it done so I could be healed up and be strong at the start of this racing season.

“It’s hell getting old!” he concluded.

Foyt had known for a while that he couldn’t keep up the pace he had maintained since he began owning his own team at the end of the ’65 season. In October 2006, he appointed his youngest son Larry to be the Team Director. Young Foyt watched and learned before he started making constructive changes to the race team. He gained his father’s trust in the process.

In 2012, Larry made the most significant changes to the team since becoming its team director. He hired chief engineer Don Halliday, whose experience as a race car designer proved invaluable. Foyt also hired Raul Prados, a ‘rookie’ IndyCar engineer whose technical skills were honed on the European GP2 circuit, the feeder series to Formula 1.

The timing couldn’t have been better as A.J. dealt with several health issues in the 2011-2012 off season—repairing a torn rotator cuff and removing bone spurs in the area around his artificial left knee. A serious staph infection developed after the knee surgery which required two more surgeries to correct.

“I’m so glad that I had Larry handling the day-to-day operations,” said Foyt, who spent nearly two weeks in the hospital in January, 2012. “Each year he has taken on more responsibility and when I couldn’t be in the shop, he handled everything. I’m really proud of him.”

The team enjoyed some success with driver Mike Conway at the wheel—notably a podium finish in Toronto—but the results didn’t reflect just how competitive the team was in 2012. More changes were made over that winter which led them to their most successful season in terms of winning since 2002.

Foyt has seen a lot of changes in his celebrated career which began in 1953 on the small dirt tracks around Houston, Texas. He soon turned it into a globetrotting romp of racetracks throughout North America and in Europe, Australia and Asia. However, the Texan’s most memorable races took place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway where he became the first four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500.

Foyt has competed in 57 straight Indy 500s--including driving in a record 35 consecutive races! He holds the Indy Car Series records for most career victories (67), most national championships (7), and most triumphs in one season (10). He is the only driver to win these crown jewels of motorsports: the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve been racing Indy cars for over 57 years,” said Foyt. “I’ve had so many good memories, and some not-so-good, but I wouldn’t trade any of it.”

Winning has been the hallmark of Foyt’s career: winning in Indy cars, NASCAR, USAC stock cars, midgets, sprints, IMSA sports cars and of course, Le Mans. He won 14 national titles and 172 major races in his driving career, which spanned four decades and three continents: North America, Europe and Australia. He has won in five countries—U.S.A., France, New Zealand, Canada, Great Britain—and in 15 of the 19 states in which he competed as a driver.

Yet it was through his adversities that A.J.’s qualities burned brightest. His determination and toughness set him apart from his competition and led to a career that made him auto racing’s most inspiring champion.

Over the years, Foyt proved he was physically and mentally tough. The equipment used at that time did not have the safety features of today’s cars and gear. Foyt battled back from career-threatening accidents to race—and win--again.

He has broken his back (1965), sustained burns on his face and hands (1966) and even been run over by his own race car breaking his leg (1972). It didn’t stop there. He nearly lost his right arm in 1981 and, in 1990, he nearly lost a leg--he still limps from the effects of his crash at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

“I knew people wanted me to retire, heck my own family wanted me to,” he said. “But I didn’t want to go out on crutches. I was determined to walk to my race car without crutches.”

At 56, Foyt limped to his car, without crutches, and qualified second for the 1991 Indianapolis 500! He was eliminated early when debris from another accident broke his car’s suspension but not before he had shown his own brand of toughness before 400,000 race fans.

After competing in his 35th straight 500 in 1992 (finished 9th), he retired from driving Indy cars in 1993 on Pole Day (May 15) at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His decision was abrupt as it was final.

“When I won Indy the first time back in ‘61, I had a chance to meet Ray Harroun who won the first Indy in 1911,” Foyt revealed. ‘I asked him when he knew when to quit. He said, ‘It’ll come to you, you’ll just know.’ And he was right.”

Throughout his storied career, Foyt has defied the odds to emerge triumphant. His accolades include being named the Driver of the Year in 1975, inaugural inductions into the National Motorsports Hall of Fame (Novi, Mich.), the Sprint Car Hall of Fame, and the Miami Project/Sports Legend in Auto Racing (1986). He won the American Sportscasters Association Sports Legend Award in 1993. He was named to 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.

As a team owner, Foyt has won the national Indy car title five times: 1967, 1975, 1979, 1996 (with driver Scott Sharp) and 1998 (with driver Kenny Brack).  It was also with Brack that Foyt won the 1999 Indy 500 for his fifth visit to the Brickyard’s victory circle.

As Foyt campaigns throughout the 2015 season, he and his ABC Supply Racing team will be working hard to add yet another milestone to a career defined by them.