Mario Andretti is recognized as one of the all-time greats in motorsports and remains one of the most recognizable drivers in the world. As the countdown to this year’s Daytona 500 continues, Ford Racing recently spoke to Andretti about his only NASCAR victory, which happened to be 45 years ago in the 1967 version of “The Great American Race.”
MARIO ANDRETTI, 1967 Daytona 500 Winner — MANY PEOPLE FORGET THAT THE 1967 DAYTONA 500 WAS YOUR FIRST MAJOR VICTORY.
“Yes, indeed, but I don’t forget it. It was a great event for me as you can imagine. That was before I was fortunate enough to even win Indianapolis. A couple of weeks after Daytona we won Sebring as well, so things started to really happen, but Daytona was a very, very important moment in my career, no question.”
YOU RAN A FEW RACES THE YEAR BEFORE WITH SMOKEY YUNICK, BUT IN ’67 YOU CAME BACK TO DAYTONA WITH HOLMAN-MOODY. HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT?
“All along I had a great relationship with Ford in Indy cars during my rookie year at Indy. We had the double overhead cam, the new Ford Racing engine that became so extremely popular, and that relationship continued. I expressed to them that I wanted to do Daytona and, after my experience with Smokey Yunick, they were ready to accommodate me. It was fabulous because they put me with Holman-Moody and my teammate was Freddie Lorenzen, the Golden Boy of NASCAR at the time, so I couldn’t have been with a better team and that’s where the result came.”
WERE YOU THE OUTSIDER COMING TO DAYTONA?
“I naturally wasn’t considered one of the boys, but ground was broken by the likes of A.J. Foyt, Parnelli Jones and Dan Gurney, who won at Riverside, so you had some outside involvement. But, at the same time, it was still something new. But as I think of the field for the 1967 Daytona 500 and Gordon Johncock, Jerry Grant, Innes Ireland, A.J. Foyt and several other outsiders besides me were in the race, so it was quite a great mix of drivers in that field. We were still not part of what was considered the ‘old boys,’ but we were always received with great hospitality. I never felt otherwise. Bill France Sr. was always a wonderful man who would make us feel right at home, so things were good in that respect.
YOU HAD A GREAT RUN IN ’67. YOU STARTED 12th AND LED 112 LAPS BUT YOUR TEAMMATE FRED LORENZEN BEAT YOU OUT OF THE PITS ON THE LAST STOP. YOU DROVE THE WHEELS OFF FROM THERE AND GOT A BIG LEAD.
“I think there was a little bit of team play. We came in on the last stop and I was leading the race and Freddie was second and they let him out first. I think that was a little bit on purpose. Since there were two Fords up front, I think Ford probably had more interest in Freddie winning than me, but I had the car that day. I ran him down and passed him and then I actually put some time between us. I had the race pretty much in my pocket. On the white flag lap all of a sudden there was a yellow, but there was no way he could have caught me, so it was a very satisfying win.”
DID THIS WIN CATAPULT YOU INTO THE SPOTLIGHT OF RACING?
“I did not hurt me at all, I can tell you that (laughing). It was still the shining star of NASCAR and the stock car world. It was a huge event. I think on pay TV we shared it with one of Ali’s fights. I think half of the race was televised and half of this very famous boxing match, so it was out there, but certainly not televised on the network channels like it is today.”
WHO DID YOU LOOK UP TO IN THE SIXTIES?
“The drivers that were at the forefront at the time. In Indy Cars there were guys like A.J. Foyt, Roger McCluskey, Don Branson and on and on. When you got to NASCAR there was Richard Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and the Allison brothers. These were the guys you looked up to and, if you were going to come away with any result, these were the guys you had to beat.”
WHAT ARE THE MOST INNOVATIVE THINGS YOU’VE SEEN IN RACING OVER THE YEARS?
“There are a number of things. It’s not just the safety of the car like making the surroundings of the driver with stronger roll bars and proper seats and better helmets, but also making the tracks safer. A huge leap forward was the SAFER barriers that ovals are enjoying today. It’s great that the sanctioning bodies over the decades have really begun to address the safety side very vigorously. The drivers of today are enjoying the best moments ever as far as having the opportunity to retire on their own terms. That’s a great thing, obviously, but over the decades there have just been so many improvements. I cannot really put my finger on one specific moment that made it better because there were a number of things. Driver protection from fire with the Nomex suits, and one thing led to another. It was a combination of all these things that make it as safe as it’s ever been today.”
CAN RACING GET BACK TO BEING INNOVATORS AWAY FROM THE RACE TRACK, WHERE THINGS GO IN THE STREET CAR?
“Times have changed in that respect. I think today there is so much knowledge out there that that area is somewhat minimized, however I think what you will find that will be advantageous to manufacturers in racing is to come up with more and more efficient engines. They’re all looking at better fuel mileage without sacrificing performance and that means reducing friction. By reducing friction in every possible way, you obviously make the engine more efficient and when that is translated to production engines you’re going to have an advantage on the road. Look at the way they’ve perfected the fuel-injection systems, so there’s a reason why the manufacturers are involved in this sport. It’s not all just because they like the spectacle of it and they like to be involved. There’s a technical reason and it’s because they’re pushing certain limits where otherwise they wouldn’t be, so there are still advantages out there. Of course, you don’t have the innovations you had way back when, when a lot of things were not known, but you still have a value by manufacturers being involved in this sport.”
HOW PROUD ARE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WITH WHAT ALL OF YOU HAVE ACHIEVED IN RACING?
“I could not ever express how proud I am of all of our involvement as a family with Michael and Jeff, whose career was not complete because of injuries. My brother, Aldo, his son, John, and now his grandson, Jarrett, and you can see my grandson, Marco, so, as a family, we have made a mark in there somewhere. Motor racing has obviously been our life in so many ways and, in general, it’s been extremely good to us.”
Ford Racing PR
