Mario reflects on his successes and failures at the Indy 500.
C/D: Let’s get this out of the way first—you have one victory in the Indianapolis 500, which came in 1969, driving for Andy Granatelli. But you raced in 29 Indy 500s and were only running at the end in nine. Your son Michael competed in 16 Indy 500s, with a best finish of second. His son Marco took second in his debut in 2006. In all, counting John and Jeff, the family has 64 starts and one win. Where did the term “Andretti Curse” come from, and is it real?
MA: Well, the term “Andretti Curse” did not come from us. I think my good friend, the late Indy announcer Tom Carnegie, came up with that. Obviously, there were some disappointments there, both on my side and Michael’s side, because we’d dominate the race but didn’t win. The one I did win was the most unlikely race for me to even finish. But looking at my entire history at Indianapolis, I’m very proud and very happy at the success I did have there.
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