Why do some people deify AJ Foyt

[Fish_Flake]

Plus, the sides of the Foyt-Luyendyk incident were reversed from what the original poster described. Billy Boat (A.J.'s driver) was declared the winner at the 1997 Texas race. Arie Luyendyk thought that he should have been awarded the victory, and proceeded to crash the post-race ceremonies in protest. A.J. didn't appreciate Arie ruining his team's big moment in this way, and put him on the sidewalk. Subsequent investigation ultimately proved that Arie was right, but in A.J.'s eyes the tussle wasn't about who won the race; Arie's gesture was a blatant show of disrespect toward him and his team, and he wasn't going to stand for it.

People admired A.J. for that no-nonsense, take-charge kind of attitude he had. Sure, it often led to confrontation, or moments that would cast him in a less-than-flattering light. Over the course of fifty years, though, those incidents become anecdotes to his legend, and well short of defining him. There are all sorts of characters like him in the history of motorsports. Denny Hulme was known as "the Bear" because of his gruff attitude towards his adversaries, but any of his contemporaries will now not hesitate to hold him in the highest esteem. Tony Stewart is vitriolic beyond a fault, yet he's the most popular figure in American motorsports today. People love rebels who shun the decorum of the establishment and aren't afraid to speak their mind. To several generations of racing fans, A.J. is the archetype.