When motor racing fans are asked to name famous racing dynasties throughout the years, names such as Petty, Allison, Earnhardt and Unser are amongst those that immediately come to mind, but for most casual followers of the sport there is one name more then any other that comes to mind when people think of racing and in particular the Indy 500; Andretti.

Ever since family patriarch Mario made his first appearance in the Indy 500 the Andretti family have grown to become national institutions at the Brickyard come the month of May, with five drivers spanning across three generations combining for a total of 70 race starts since 1965. During that time the family have managed to record 3 pole positions, 17 top five finishes and just a solitary victory for Mario in the 1969 event (which we will be looking at in a later update). For now however our attention turns to the family itself, and how a farmer’s son from rural Italy helped to spark a racing legacy.

By the time his family immigrated to America in 1955, Mario Andretti’s love affair with motor racing was already in full swing. The farmer’s son had been competing in a junior racing series in Italy by the time he was 13, and in 1954 hitch-hiked to Monza to watch childhood idol Alberto Ascari at that year’s Italian Grand Prix. Upon settling in the borough of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, the elder Andretti soon began to make a name for himself on the regional dirt tracks, claiming victory in the 1964 Joe James-Pat O’Connor Memorial USAC sprint car race and in the process attracting the attention of veteran Indycar mechanic Clint Brawner. Despite skepticism surrounding the Italian, Brawner hired Andretti to drive his Brawner Hawk chassis for the 1965 500, where the young rookie surpassed all expectations to finish third on his Brickyard debut.

From that point on Andretti never looked back, enjoying a 28 year career that saw the Nazareth resident become one of the sport’s all time legends, with an aggressive an upfront driving style that won many admirers even if it did at times come at the expense of the reliability of his machinery. Andretti however didn’t just restrict himself to Indycar racing, demonstrating an unprecedented versatility unseen in the sport at the time, winning the 1967 Daytona 500 driving for Holman Moody before winning the 1978 Formula One World Championship in the legendary Lotus 79, all of this taking placed whilst Andretti was still appearing at the Indianapolis 500 on a yearly basis.

By the mid eighties Mario had retired from Formula One to concentrate on Indycar racing full time, claiming his first and only Indycar championship in 1984 driving for the sophomore Newman Haas outfit. It was during that season that eldest son Michael would join the Indycar field, picking up a fifth placed finish at the Brickyard driving a March chassis for Kraco racing. Much like his father Andretti earned a reputation as a formidable and hard charging competitor, claiming the 1991 Indycar series championship as part of a run that saw him finish in the top five in points for seven successive seasons. Victory at the Brickyard however would unfortunately evade Michael, and as of 2016 holds the record for the most last led at Indianapolis without ever winning the great race itself.

In 1988 John Andretti (the eldest son of Mario’s brother Aldo) would join the family fold, making nine appearances at the Brickyard with a best finish of fifth for the Hall-VDS team in 1991. Unlike his more illustrious uncle and cousin however, John made the majority of his motiring reputation away from Indycar racing, competing briefly as a top fuel dragster racer before turning his attention to NASCAR in 1994. John would pick up two wins during his time in stock cars, including what would prove to be the final victory for the legendary Petty Enterprises in 1999. With the introduction of Michael’s brother Jeff to the field, 1991 would mark the first time that four members of the same family would compete in the 500 field, the 75th running of the race would also be one of the most successful for the family, with both Michael and John finishing in the top five, with Jeff himself claiming rookie of the year honours thanks to a 15th placed finish.

By the middle of the decade however it appeared that the Andretti legacy at Indianapolis may have been coming to something of an end; Jeff saw his career curtailed thanks to a horrific accident in the 1992 Indy 500, John made the switch to Nascar racing full time in 1994, whilst Michael saw himself on the wrong side of the Open Wheel Split that saw CART teams boycott the Brickyard showpiece. This, added with Mario’s retirement from auto racing in 1994, meant that no Andretti contested the 500 between 1996 and 2000, a statistic that would only be broken when Michael returned to the speedway driving for Team Green in the 2001 edition of the race.

By 2006 the Andretti name had continued to make it’s presence felt at Indianapolis, albeit in somewhat different circumstances. Michael Andretti had purchased a controlling stake in Team Green, and in 2003 made the decision to switch the team to the IRL full time for the 2003 Indycar season. The team immediately found success in their new surroundings, with Tony Kanaan picking up a series championship in 2004 with Dan Wheldon claiming success at the 500 the following year. In 2006 however the family dynasty was continued on the track, when at the tender age of 19, Marco Andretti made his Indianapolis 500 bow driving for his father’s #26 machine for the race. Michael himself came out of a three year retirement to join his son for the event, and together the father and son (with grandfather watching from pit-road) were on the verge of pulling off a fairy-tale victory until being beaten at the line by Sam Hornish Jr on the final lap of the race. Whilst his father and grandfather became notorious for their failings at the Brickyard, Marco has appeared to thrive there, finishing on the podium in four of the ten 500’s he has contested, along with a sixth placed finish in last years race.

Much more could be written about the Andretti family at Indianapolis, and I will certainly go into more details about elements of their careers at the Brickyard later in this project. But even in a brief glance such as this you can come to understand the importance of the family to Indy’s lore and aura, and with Marco still having much of his career remaining and a new Andretti male being born last year there is a strong chance of yet more chapters being added to the Andretti story in the next few years.

For today’s video we feature an ESPN documentary focusing on the exploits of Mario, Michael and Marco during the 2006 running of the 500:

In tomorrow’s update we look at a driver whose stroke of misfortune proved so notorious it led to a speedway award being named in his honour.