Talk:A. J. Foyt

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Contents 1 Longest career? 2 "shape the history of the Indy Racing League" 3 Stub 4 USAC statistics discrepancy 5 FIA World Championship career summary

[edit] Longest career?

Is AJ's the longest-duration career in pro racing? I don't know anybody else who stayed in as long. And was he the oldest driver ever in Champ car? I recall he was. (If so, mention both!) Trekphiler 15:23, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

Yes, it is. Everyone else either retired long before...or died in competition; and I mean everybody, even from earlier eras. He survived The Bloody Years, basically, and still kept racing. --Chr.K. 04:43, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "shape the history of the Indy Racing League"

how in the world did the sucker-punch incident "shape the history of the Indy Racing League"?? Kingturtle 10:43, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

The incident made national headlines and newscasts in the U.S., and helped make IRL MUCH more well known. People were talking about it for quite a while. I agree with the statement. Royalbroil 22:54, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

It was also specifically responsible, along with the yellow light incident the previous week at Indianapolis, for IRL choosing to replace USAC completely, in the timing and scoring of races. --Chr.K. 04:45, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Stub

I added the article to the stub list. I know there's a fair bit here, but this isn't much for the "co-Driver of the Century". Royalbroil 22:54, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I added much more information and an SI cover, and I feel better about the length of the article. I trust there's still a lot more that will be added to a driver of his caliber. Royalbroil 23:22, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

I am very pleased to see how this article has been fleshed out over these months. Great job, everyone! Royalbroil ^T : C 19:26, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] USAC statistics discrepancy

His National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame biography [1] has signficantly different USAC total statistics:

"His USAC record shows four Indianapolis 500 Mile Race victories, 20 midget feature wins as well as 28 sprint, 65 champ car and 42 stock car victories."

That's 159 victories by my count, not even including his USAC stockcar wins! Does anyone have any citations to fix this mess? Royalbroil ^T : C 19:26, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

American championship racing changed during the 50s and 60s. Dirt-track racing changed from a part of the championship grouping to a separate class on its own; the two have been known to overlap in different groups subsequent scoring of the era's events, and Foyt was among the greatest of the drivers in it, in turn. The solution is to identify what should be considered "Full Championship Level" races on an individual year by year basis, and then catalogue the class wins only once separated in such fashion. As it stands, I was always taught that A.J. had 67 career Championship level wins, still the most ever by a considerable margin. --Chr.K. 04:48, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] FIA World Championship career summary

I've reverted the section title "FIA Formula 1 World Championship career summary" to just "FIA World Championship career summary" based on the following rationale:

• what we currently know as the "Formula 1 World Championship" was originally called the "World Drivers' Championship" (I believe the words "Formula 1" weren't added as an official part of the title until 1981) and included non-Formula One races until 1961. (Indeed, the 1952 and 1953 Championships didn't contain any F1 races at all!). So, when referring to the pre-1961 period of the Championship's history (which is when Foyt participated), I believe it's preferable to omit the words "Formula 1" from the name of the Championship, since they're not strictly accurate.
• I think including the words "Formula 1" in the section title would suggest that the World Championship races in which Foyt participated (the 1958-1960 Indianapolis 500s) were Formula One races, which they weren't, and
• for consistency with the articles for the other 100 or so drivers whose only participation in the WOrld Championship was at Indianapolis between 1950 and 1960.

DH85868993 05:52, 1 August 2007 (UTC)