FORT WORTH, TEXAS (January 16, 2015) – So what do you bestow upon an iconic motorsports figure like A.J. Foyt for his milestone 80th birthday? Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage found something that the legendary Foyt may enjoy a guffaw from the “gift.”
“Ever since 1997, I’ve been trying to get back the True Value 500k winner’s trophy from A.J. since Arie Luyendyk was named the rightful winner of that controversial Indy Racing League race,” Gossage said.
“What better gift than acknowledge that it is his to keep now and forever and I will no longer badger him about giving it back. All I ask is that he puts a bow on it and changes the nameplate to “‘Happy 80th A.J. – Keep Up The Good Fight!'”
For those unfamiliar with the 1997 True Value 500k, it was the first Indy-car race at Texas Motor Speedway during its inaugural season that ended in a cloud of controversy over the correct race winner. Billy Boat, a rookie driver for A.J. Foyt Racing, crossed the finish line first and initially was declared the winner. While Boat, Foyt and the team were celebrating in Victory Lane, an upset and vocal Luyendyk entered to contest the victory. Foyt took offense to Luyendyk crashing the party and delivered “The Slap Heard Around The World.” (Click here for video.)
Luyendyk, however, won his protest the next day as USAC cited malfunctioning timing and scoring equipment and credited him with leading the final 19 laps en route to the victory. But the original True Value 500k trophy was long gone as Foyt packed it in his car as he and his wife, Lucy, headed to their lake house in Austin following the race.
“Let me start out by saying that we did win the first Indy-car race at Texas Motor Speedway,” Foyt recounted in Texas Motor Speedway’s 10 Years Strong book that commemorated the top moments of the speedway’s first decade of existence. “There is no doubt in my mind about that. Billy Boat took the checkered flag before thousands of fans on a hot Saturday night. And I’ll tell you one more thing. If the race had been run by officials of the current Indy Racing League or NASCAR, the record books would show that Billy Boat won that race. Instead, the records say that Arie Luyendyk won.
“Oh and by the way, Billy won the race at Texas Motor Speedway the next year too. And we have the trophies sitting side by side.”
Luyendyk received a replica of the original True Value 500k trophy, but Gossage reminded Foyt every time he saw him that he wanted that trophy back.
“A.J. would grumble at me and tell me to come down there and take it from him,” Gossage said. “Even to this day, he has been so passionate that Billy won that race that the trophy is officially his to keep. Everyone at Texas Motor Speedway wishes A.J. a great 80th and a speedy recovery from his triple bypass heart surgery.”
Via TMS PR.
Joseph has been covering NASCAR since 2011 for several different websites. Recently, he was named as one of two lead NASCAR columnists for Rant Sports after working for the site for over one year. Working with Rant Sports for approximately 14 months, Joseph has covered New York City area sports teams such as the New York Giants, New York Mets, New York Rangers, New York Islanders and more.
Through his passion is for NASCAR, Joseph has adapted to changing times and realizes that he has numerous opportunities in the journalism work. As one of the top young sports writers, his goal is to become one of the top motorsports writers of this new digital media era. However, he also believes that it’s important to stick to the traditional routers of print publications after seeing his high school newspaper dissolve due to a lack of funding.
Currently, besides his duties with Speedway Digest, Joseph is a columnist with Fronstretch.com, Motorsport.com and has a weekly article in NASCAR Pole Position's digital version - ROAR! Weekly Race Preview Magazine.
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