Is a new era dawning for AJ Foyt Racing?

Larry Foyt has aged fast over the last five years during the grinding fight to keep the legendary AJ Foyt Racing IndyCar team afloat. But for the first time in a long time, there’s cause for optimism within all areas of the program.

From 2005-19, the team founded by four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt was sponsored by ABC Supply, the nationwide roofing supply wholesaler, which dressed Foyt’s cars in its patriotic colors and helped them to branch out to a two-car effort in 2015. All was good within the team’s finances during the 15-year span.

That reality changed when ABC’s long run as Foyt’s primary backer met its end on the approach to 2020, and with it, the team’s ability to hire top-tier pros for both cars also reached the finish line. Moving forward, and out of necessity, the team shifted to a business model where at least one of its drivers paid to drive a Foyt entry, and in 2020, most of its cadre of drivers brought sponsors or personal funding to be on the grid.

In turn, Foyt’s competitiveness suffered, and its financial security was compromised as well.

An encouraging development to sponsor the famed No. 14 manifested in 2021 with the arrival of ROKiT, a conglomerate that says it “likes to do things differently. Through compassionate capitalism, we strive to deliver affordable, world leading premium products and pioneering services for all.”

One thing it allegedly did not like to do was pay its bills, which led to ROKiT’s logos being peeled from Foyt’s machinery by the halfway point of 2022. Eighteen months removed from its last big financial concerns, and Larry Foyt was facing another sizable monetary crater to fill.

What was once fun and rewarding had become dark and tedious, and it’s here where Foyt, in his private moments, began to ask whether it might be time – for his health, and his sanity – to move on and find something less punishing to do in life.

The team wasn’t a front-running operation by the end of ABC’s final year, but veteran Tony Kanaan did take 15th in the drivers’ championship while young protégé Matheus Leist came home 19th. By the end of the ROKiT sagas in 2022, AJ Foyt Racing was IndyCar’s worst, and not by opinion, but by results as rookie Kyle Kirkwood placed 24th and next-to-last ahead of teammate Dalton Kellett, who claimed 25th to seal his place at the bottom of the pile.

Without a primary sponsor for the No. 14, and having plummeted to the back of the field with both the pro car and the for-hire entry, 2023 held limited promise for Foyt’s fortunes to improve. But that’s precisely where a reprieve with an act of care and kindness enters the story.

Marlyne Sexton (and her late husband Joe) simply loved A.J. Foyt and wanted to be part of the team in some way. They’d been enormously successful in the world of real estate, and through her Sexton Properties company, she signed on as a supplementary sponsor for Foyt’s extra 2015 Indy 500 entry for Alex Tagliani. The association continued in the ensuing years under the same modest guise; the logos for Sexton Properties weren’t large or prominent; the front wing’s end plates, or other out-of-the-way locations, were fine.

Foyt's cars carried ABC's colors for well over a decade before the company dialed back its primary sponsorship at the end of 2019. Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment

On the heels of the latest sponsorship shortfall, Sexton stepped forward for 2023 to cover the No. 14 Chevy for the entire season when Santino Ferrucci joined the team. She kept funding the entry in 2024, and again in 2025, despite having no significant need to promote her business. The Foyts were like family, and her actions represented a benevolence of epic proportions.

Another form of assistance was also received in 2023 as Team Penske welcomed the Foyt team into a technical alliance. The long-held relationship between A.J. Foyt and Roger Penske came into play; seeing the all-time great’s team suffer at the bottom of the rankings wasn’t good for the sport, so during the summer, chassis setup info and Penske dampers were shared with the Foyt cars.

By the end of 2024, Ferrucci and the Penske-empowered No. 14 Chevy had vaulted to ninth in the championship, a personal best for the young American and the top finishing position for the Foyts since 2002. With the Penske-signed and-funded David Malukas inserted into the No. 4 Foyt Chevy last season, the team also ended its maddening run of irrelevance with the second car.

Malukas charged to 11th, also a personal best and the leading performance for the team in 2025, and the best for its second entry since 2000.

Sadly, with Marlyne Sexton’s death in June, Sexton Properties’ continuation as the No. 14’s primary reached the end of its runway. It’s hard to imagine where the Foyt team would be today without her; Sexton was a friend and a lifeline when the Foyts were in a bad way, and with her passing, Larry Foyt started the search for yet another primary sponsor to support the No. 14.

As improbable as it might seem, the solution to Foyt’s problem was provided by the parent company of its former bedrock. Diane Hendricks, co-founder of ABC Supply and its parent company, Hendricks Holding Company, who maintained a relationship with the Foyts through an annual sponsorship package for the Indy 500, has returned with full funding for the No. 14 in 2026 and elevated its Home For Our Troops charity initiative to run for the entire season.

Through a budget delivered via her Hendricks Commercial Properties and Geronimo Hospitality Group businesses, the Foyt team has completed an arduous journey since 2020 to acquire stable corporate sponsorship for its lead car.

“Racing can sometimes be a hard sell, especially with what it costs to do it,” Larry Foyt told RACER. “We got on our back foot. We had ABC Supply with us a really long time, which was wonderful. And as that started winding down, it was just hard to find another partner. They don't come every day, and then when we had the issue with the company we won't name (ROKiT), not getting paid, and going through that. Unfortunately, it happens sometimes.

“And you can't say enough about Marlyne stepping up and just really giving us the opportunity to keep everything going and actually even get stronger. She helped me, not only financially, but just with her wisdom and encouragement. It was such a huge loss, to lose her this year. But I think she'd be really, really proud of where we're getting to as a team.

“And so now for the Hendricks’ to come back in the way they are with this, this Homes For Our Troops car and her other companies that are really impacting Indianapolis with her Geronimo Hospitality Group and the Hendricks commercial properties, it's just awesome. It's going to be so much fun. Her and her daughter, Konya, are real champions for the racing team.”

Foyt also points to the business reasons behind the new commitment from Hendricks Holding Co.

“We live in a world where everything is defined by metrics, and everyone wants to see the numbers,” he said. “That's just the way it is now. And to have a season like last season, where we set new records for our team on the ROI (return on investment) side, across the board, that certainly makes it easier when you're having those conversations with sponsors. Having good metrics that you can go sell has been huge.”

After steering the team through a difficult few years, Larry Foyt has a lot of reasons to look forward to the 2026 IndyCar season. Matt Fraver/Penske Entertainment

Counter to all of the positivity with the No. 14, the promotion of Malukas from the Foyt team into the No. 12 Team Penske Chevy also created a familiar and unwelcome situation for the Foyts. Taking a one-year break from running well-paying but largely hopeless drivers was refreshing, but in the absence of Malukas and the sponsorship brought by Penske, the team was at risk of falling backwards again with an underwhelming second driver for 2026.

Taking on some paying drivers is akin to accepting income that’s taxed at an extremely high rate. It will help to bridge the team’s financial needs, but often comes with steep costs to competitiveness and morale. And there’s a vast monetary toll, as it’s nearly impossible to keep or hire the best mechanics, pit crew members and engineers for a driver and entry that’s destined for meaningless results.

As the Foyts found with multiple tailenders in the 2020s, the salary demands from the few who were willing to sign on and run the second cars were staggering.

“It was some really tough years, and what I think some probably don't realize is sometimes you have to make decisions to keep the doors open,” Foyt said. “And they're not popular decisions, and sometimes they're tough, but you have ups and downs in racing and so you have to make some of those tough decisions and try to get through it. And there's so many people that have contributed to make this better.

“I also had to pull back from day-to-day work of managing the team and just focus on the financial side, because as a small team, we just didn't have the big commercial department that we were up against in some places. And we're working on growing that side of the team. And yeah, there was a point I reached where it was like, ‘How much longer can I do this?’ And your blood pressure goes through the roof and your doctor gets mad at you.

“But you just keep going, and then a few good things happened. It was great having (former technical director) Mike Cannon come on board, and Santino, we finished third at the Indy 500 with him and that was just huge, a real spark. And then the alliance with Team Penske. I couldn't think of anyone else I'd want to be joined with than Roger’s team. This has helped the whole organization. So, man, that kind of stuff paves the way to getting the Hendricks involved like they are now and what we’re doing with Homes For Our Troops.”

It also paves the way to seek and hire a phenomenal prospect to drive the No. 4 Chevy. Brazil’s Caio Collet, a four-time race winner and runner-up finisher in last season’s Indy NXT championship, will replace Malukas alongside Ferrucci, and he brings everything Foyt needed to the program.

Collet is a rare young talent who’s armed with speed, experience, and a quality support package from sponsors like Combitrans Amazonia, a Brazilian logistics and transportation company, to underwrite his rookie IndyCar season. In the recent past, Foyt was relegated to taking funded drivers who wouldn’t be considered at better teams, but the organization’s steep upward trajectory has attracted a stronger caliber of contenders for the seat.Prior to 2025, someone like Collet and his sponsors would have ignored AJ Foyt Racing. Heading into 2026, they have a reason to expect big things from the team that’s authored the greatest modern turnaround in the IndyCar paddock.

“Getting a young rookie like Caio and the support from Combitrans is just great,” Foyt said. “He's been so good in the early tests. I saw what he did in Indy NXT, and was really impressed. Along the way to get here to this place we’re at, it’s because of the Sextons, the Hendricks, and people that have come in and helped fill the gaps, and to make us better. It's awesome. And now we just want to win, because we want to win for everybody that's helped us out. It's a tough championship, no doubt about it, but we feel like we have the group of people together now that can get it done.”

The aging process has returned to normal for Foyt. His team’s gone from last place to being a threat on ovals. It captured a road course pole position with Ferrucci at Portland in 2024. It’s led at least one driver into or on the edge of the top 10 for two straight years. And it has recruited Collet, its first young standout, in ages. Foyt’s weariness is gone, replaced by energy and joy.

“We're in such a good place of growth,” he said. “I mean, we're seeing it just from the credential requests we get;, it's hard for us to keep up with it. We're having to hire more people just to help in these areas, because it's so exciting, and the sponsors are excited. I think the fans are excited, and I think it's a great time to be involved in IndyCar.”