He finished a career-best sixth in the 1975 and 1978 Daytona 500. A.J. Foyt began his racing career in the midget series in 1953 when he was just 18 years old, driving a car owned by his father.

NASCAR opens its season the way it always does, with the running of the sport's biggest race, the Daytona 500.

For the past two weeks, the Daytona Beach News-Journal has been checking off the boxes on the calendar until the Daytona 500's arrival ... with the No. 14, A.J. Foyt's early days in NASCAR ...