I sat with him in 1991 at Michael's home, reviewing video of the fatal crash of the humble journeyman NASCAR driver J. There have been few drivers at the higher levels that Andretti didn't know, and "Nothing is ever the same after you lose a buddy, someone who has touched your life," he said Tuesday. In prototype sports cars, Andretti was a Ferrari teammate of the legendary Pedro Rodriguez, killed in Germany in 1972. The day he clinched the F1 title at Monza, Italy, his Lotus teammate, Ronnie Peterson, was injured, and died late that night. He won the Daytona 500 in 1967, the Indy 500 in '69 and the Formula One world championship in '78. Mario Andretti, quite arguably, has been beleaguered more, longer, by death than any other driver, probably due to the vast diversity of his racing. "No question, it was like losing a family member," Mario said. Latest, at Las Vegas this past Sunday, was Dan Wheldon, who had driven for Mario's son Michael in the past and had signed on with the team again for next year. ![]() ![]() "There were too many," he said, at age 71.įirst, at Riverside, Calif., in 1967, was Billy Foster - "I would say today he was my closest friend in racing as a driver." Decency forbade asking him to count them all. This was a man grieving yet again, devastated yet again, you could tell on the phone, if you'd known him long enough. ![]() And yet, "It's something you never get used to, I can tell you that," the best-known driver ever, in all of auto racing, said Tuesday in a subdued voice. These are the latest black days in 44 years of losing friends to the sport Mario Andretti still loves unconditionally. You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser
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