15 of the best Mario Andretti stories you've never heard

INDIANAPOLIS — Everyone knows Mario Andretti. Everyone knows the man whose name is synonymous with speed, who could race anything and win. 

You know he's the only driver ever to have won the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 and the Formula One World championship. And you know that he's still out there in his Indy Racing Experience two-seater, now 79 years old, hitting 200 mph and diving into corners, giving fans the thrill of a lifetime. 

You know all that. But what you might not know are the stories you're about to read: how he mended fences with Bobby Unser, compared hair with Donald Trump and just about scared the hell out of the unflappable Tony Kanaan. 

As the automotive world celebrates the 50th anniversary of Andretti's victory at the Indianapolis, here are 15 of the best stories you've never heard about Mario Andretti. 

Bobby Unser, three-time Indy 500 winner

Ending the feud

Mario was one of the closest friends I had in racing. That lasted for a long time, but it got broken obviously in '81 (after the controversial finish to the Indianapolis 500). That thing lasted, the bad feelings for almost 40 years. But this last year, Mario and I have totally broken the deal of being mad at each other. For me, I just have to forget about it. The guy was too good a friend, and (expletive), we went a long time with bad feelings. That was no good. I had to have a talk with myself and just forget about the '81 incident. I won the race, but I paid for it. 

Last year, I was giving a little talk at the (IMS) museum, and (Andretti) came over without me knowing about it. There was a big crowd, and someone spotted him. I said, "Mario’s here? What in the world." But he was. Right then and there, we said, "This deal has gone on too long. Let's get our friendship back again. I'll quit being a (jerk) because I can be one. I know that. We were just too good of friends to keep going on like that."

Andretti with no engine

We were snowmobiling in New Mexico, right on the border with Colorado. That’s the best snowmobiling in the United States. The family and I went out every year. Anyway, we were at this pretty big hill or mountain, or whatever you want to call it and Mario’s there, creeping up to the edge on his snowmobile, looking down below. He’s standing up, leaning over, trying to see and I snuck up behind him on mine and gave him a little push (laughs).

He went down the mountainside like you wouldn’t believe. It was so funny. He hadn’t started the engine, so he’s going down this big mountain with no engine. If he’d had one, he could have guided it off to the side or something. But he had nothing. Absolutely nothing.

But he made it! That really surprised me (laughs). He missed all the trees and rocks going down, that son of a gun. He was steering it like a wild man trying to miss them. I mean he was really steering that son of a (expletive).

Before ’81 we used to have a lot of fun, me and him. We never discussed racing. We tried to leave that out of our lives and just be good friends.

More Mario:

Mario Andretti at abandoned Nazareth Speedway: ‘It’s not a happy reunion’

Doyel: 'Andretti Curse' at Indy 500 can't possibly be real. Maybe.

Indy 500's most controversial finish: It ruined Mario Andretti, Bobby Unser friendship 

The legends of 1969: Mario Andretti’s unlikely Indy 500 victory filled with racing lore

Clea Newman, daughter of Paul Newman, SeriousFun ambassador    

Fast friends 

We were at Portland I think, and both Mario and my father were driving people around the track before the race, you know, doing hot laps. And I don't know how I got lucky enough, but I got to go around twice, once with Mario and once with my dad. 

So I go around with my dad, and at the end, he looks at me and says, "So what did you think? Was I fast? Was the ride smooth? And I was like, "Um yeah, Dad, you were super fast and smooth."

So then I go with Mario, and he really pushes it. And at the end he comes up to me and goes, "So what do you think? Was I fast?"

And I told him, "I thought it was really awesome." 

"Were you scared?"

"No. Do I look scared?"

"No." And then he goes, "Do you think I'm smoother than your dad?" 

And I laughed. "Mario, how can I answer that question? You know I'm going to get screwed either way." And he started laughing. 

Five minutes later, I ran into my dad, and we're chitchatting, and he goes, "Hey, I forgot to ask you, was I smoother than Mario?" 

Oh my god, the two of them! Unbelievable. 

More recently, the first time I saw Mario last year, and I hadn't been back to the track for a long time. I saw Mario, and he saw me and gave me this look and we hug and he says, "I missed you. Where have you been?"

And I said, "Well you know, it's been hard for me to get back to the track."

And he looked at me and he started to tear up and he said, "I miss your dad so much." 

"Me, too," I said, and we both started crying. 

Scott Jasek, Indy Racing Experience co-founder

Elvis, Lady Gaga and Donald Trump 

One time I said to him, ‘Mario, you’re so famous right? Who’s the most famous person you’ve ever met? And he said, "I was once with a bunch of people and I had the opportunity to meet Elvis Presley." And he goes, "As soon as I went in the room everyone I was with ran over to Elvis. I was just standing by myself." And he goes, "That was the last time I ever hung around with Elvis."

I found it interesting when Lady Gaga and him were interacting. Lady Gaga was looking at him like he was the celebrity. She was so excited. She called her mom and had her mom talk to Mario. She was just in awe that she was with Mario Andretti. There was one time when we had Kawhi Leonard and Steph Curry and his wife in our trailer, and the three of them were around Mario just peppering him with questions. Some of the biggest NBA stars are looking at Mario, like, "Man this guy is the guy." 

I mean I think he's met every president since (Richard) Nixon. I'm pretty sure. And he's been to the White House like 10 times. Maybe more. I don't know. But one time, not that long ago, Mario, Donald Trump and I were all standing together. Mario was giving Donald Trump a ride in New York City. Trump has a way with promoting, making sure there was a crowd before we drove. He waited for people to come around, and Mario called him a "circus clown." (Laughs.)

And Donald Trump says, "I'm not a circus clown. I'm a promoter. I know how to promote.' This was before he was president. ... Oh, and that same day, I saw Donald Trump take his hands and rub Mario's hair, sitting in the two-seater and he told me, "Look how beautiful Mario's hair is." I'm sitting on the sidepod of the car, and you know me, I shave my head. So I took my hat off, and he rubbed my head and laughed. Then he told me, "Look at my head. Look down at my hair. People don't think it's real! It is real. You tell people! You tell people my hair is real." Anyway, to witness Donald Trump rubbing Mario's head and admire his head of hair was really funny." 

Tony Kanaan, former Andretti Autosport driver

'The most insane thing I've done in awhile'

Leaving Pocono one time, we went to his house, and he was in the Corvette. And I’ll tell you this, I’ve never seen anyone drive that fast on the street. Like, I mean never. I don’t want to put him on the spot, but let’s just say he was comfortably above speed limit. Like way above. But it’s cool, because it’s Mario. You’re in the car with Mario Andretti.

I was extremely comfortable with it. Obviously as a driver, when you hop in someone else’s car, you can tell right away if they know what they’re doing or not. But it’s Mario. I mean, please. If something is gonna happen, it won’t be because of him. I was extremely comfortable and actually I was having a lot of fun. I kept thinking, "Man, I wish I could record this."

Honestly, he was driving just like it was a normal drive for him. He wasn’t speeding to impress me. Not at all. We were just talking. Like everything was normal, like, "How was your day? And, "Hey, when we get home, I’m going to show you a couple things (laughs)." He wasn’t trying to impress me. I mean, he doesn’t have to.

And we weren’t going anywhere important. Just going back to the house. He just wanted to beat everyone there. Me, Hinch, everyone was going, so I said, “I’ll go with Mario!”

The other thing I remember about hanging out with Mario was when we went to his lakehouse and he has this boat. Oh my God, it’s so fast. I don’t know the name. I don’t know anything about it. But I’ve never seen anyone drive a boat that fast either. The G-forces on that thing were crazy. Even for me, that was like, Wow. I don’t think I could do that.

And it wasn’t like this was a lake or the ocean, this is like a little oval actually. It’s their lakehouse. It’s cornering like crazy. Four corners, and he’s just (expletive) going around and around. That made me a little uncomfortable, I have to admit. It was 130 or 140 mph. He was just going. It’s just a little boat, too. It’s not big. Four seats. It was the most insane thing I’ve done in a while.

Don Hoevel, former Newman Haas Racing Chief Mechanic

Fiercely loyal

The first time I met Mario, shook his hand and got his autograph, it was 1970 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a Firestone garage. I was a 10-year-old kid and scared as hell, meeting my hero. ... So it's crazy for a 10-year-old kid to turn around 15 years later and have an opportunity to work for (his) hero for 10 years and still be able to call him on the phone and talk to him, he's always been an extremely generous guy. Generous and loyal. If you were loyal to him, he was extremely loyal to you. 

This time of the year, May, I remember we qualified on the pole in 1987. We were fast every day. And you ask Mario, and he'll be the first one to tell you, he always liked to sit down for breakfast in the morning, read the newspaper and see his name in headlines. That's just what he liked. If there was a chance he could go out and set a fast time, he'd do it. So we put it on the pole in '87. I remember this like it was yesterday, the people who used to organize the Front Row Party, they came into the garage and said, "Here's your tickets for the Front Row Party."

And he looks at them, and there's four tickets. And he's like, "I need more tickets."

And they told him, "No, you only get four."   

"Well I need more tickets for my guys."

"No, you only get four."

And he turned around, handed the tickets back to them and said, "These are the guys who worked their butts off to get me in the front row. They need to go. And if they don't go, I don't go."

Ten minutes later, they were back there with more tickets for us. And we all got to go and enjoy that.

I also remember we won the pit stop contest that year in '87. We used to all get a share of the prize money, and he stood up to (owner) Carl Haas for the rest of us. He said, "You know what Carl, I'm going to give my money from the pit stop contest to the boys, and you need to also." And Carl swallowed his cigar. "No, no. I can't do that."

Mario finally convinced him. So he stood up for us on that deal. That was pretty cool. 

For the fans

A couple years later, it was the second week of practice and we were already done running. We were in the garage, just doing the rebuild. It was a pretty quiet day in the garage. Not much going on. And there was a teenage kid who came rolling by in a wheelchair. And he's watching us work, and I say hi to him or whatever. And he says hi and pulls out his ticket stub. And he says to me, "Hey, do you think you could get Mario to autograph my ticket stub."

Normally we wouldn't do that. Because if you do it for one, you did it for everyone. But he was the only one outside of the garage, and the kid was in a wheelchair, so I figured why not. 

So I grabbed the ticket and walked into the garage where Mario was by his locker. And he was just getting his uniform off and just cleaning up, and I say, "Boss" — I still call him Boss to this day — and I say, "Can you sign this? There's the kid out there in a wheelchair. Can you sign this ticket stub for him?"

And he gives me this look, and I thought, "Oh (expletive), I just screwed up." It was one of those looks where I thought I just (ticked) him off. And he says, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." He takes the pen from me, signs it, and says, "I'll take it out to him."

Lo and behold, I go back into our garage stall and am working on the car, and I'm looking out, and the old man had taken the visor off his helmet, autographed it and took it out to him. It was really cool. 

Dario Franchitti, three-time Indy 500 champion

Starstruck

He won the Formula One championship in 1978. I was five years old, and all I wanted was to meet him. He was the guy. He was my guy. I remember I had a little model of his John Player Special from 1979. I just thought he was incredible.

My very first race in the States was at Homestead, and I got to meet him on the grid. Him and Paul Newman. My focus was just a little put off at that moment (laughs) as you can imagine. (Hogan Racing team owner) Carl Hogan was with me, and he said, "A couple guys want to meet you." And it was Paul Newman and Mario Andretti and my head, oh my God. … I don’t think I said much. I think I just stared at them (laughs). I really don’t remember what our conversation was about, but I remember just being in awe. Of both those guys.

To this day I love watching him in a race car. You can look in his eyes and know the man has a love for driving racing cars that I’ve never seen in another person. Words like legend, they’re all overused. But he is. He’s an icon. An absolute icon. What a man.

Doug Boles, President of Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Jealous?

If you asked me right now, what are the five coolest things you’ve gotten to do as president of the speedway, this would have to be one: When Mario got the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Clio Sports Awards in New York City two years ago, he calls and says, "Hey, I’m going to New York City, and I got a table. Would love for you to go with me."

This is the Wednesday of Indy 500 practice week. I’m like, "It’s May."

And he said, "I know, but I’d really love for you to go." And I told him I’d think about it and I hung up, and I said, "That’s kind of crazy that he’s even asking me to go." So of course I do. I fly out with him to New York City and then we took a bunch of people out with us, like (McLaren CEO) Zak Brown was on the plane and a few others. But on the way back, it was just the two of us. On his plane. And for two and a half hours, sitting on his plane, just hearing Mario Andretti stories, it’s like oh my God.

Making it even better, as we were getting on the plane, my best friend in college — and I should say he was a huge Mario fan; I was an A.J. (Foyt) fan, so I hated Mario and he hated A.J. — I took a picture and texted him as we’re walking, and Mario’s walking in front of me with the plane there, and click, I sent it. This is just unreal. And he’s like, "I can’t believe it. You never said a nice thing about Mario."

But one of the coolest things ever was just to sit on a plane with him and listen to his stories and ask him questions. We spent most of the time talking about all the short track stuff, pulling his midgets around. The stuff before he became Mario Andretti, right? It was really, really cool.

James Hinchcliffe, Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver

Starstruck, Part II

I think I met Mario as a fan a couple times when I was younger, got his autograph. But when I signed with Andretti Autosport, and I don't remember what race it was, but we were in hospitality, and he came up to me, welcomed me to the team, like, "Hey Hinch, good to meet you, man. Super excited."

I don't think I even replied. I just like (babbled incoherently). But as soon as he leaves, I turned around like, "HE KNEW MY NAME!!!" 

That was such a cool period because you got to form such a genuine friendship with him. He's such a nice guy, talk to anyone, tell anyone whatever story you want to hear. 

The thing about being on that team, in a way you got used to him being around. You got used to seeing him. But it was never not cool. The novelty never wore off. He'd walk by in the morning, slap you on the shoulder as you're eating breakfast, and you're like, "Morning Mario!" And it's like I can't believe I'm that cavalier and casual with Mario Andretti. But that's the way he makes you feel. You're just one of the guys. 

Dale Earnhardt Jr., retired NASCAR star/NBC Sports personality

Mario's at my party 

I was at my retirement party. We were having a big party downtown, Whiskey River in Charlotte, North Carolina. And I thought everybody I knew — I didn’t send the invites out, but everyone that had influence on my career in some way was there.

And I turned around and Marco (Andretti) is standing there. And me and Marco have sort of been social media buddies. We’ve never really hung out. I don’t go on vacation with him like Kevin Hart. We have just sort of made this connection. I was like, “Wow man, you’re here. That’s awesome!”

And he’s like pointing to the guy standing directly beside him, and it’s Mario — wearing a cowboy hat and sunglasses. And it’s like 10 o’clock at night at this bar (laughs). Blew my mind. One of the greatest to ever do it is standing right there at my retirement party. My retirement party. I was floored. I couldn’t believe it. That was a huge highlight for me. It meant a lot to me that he was there.

Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan driver

Mario in my corner

He was a fixture at Newman Haas, and when I came to the team, he was quite complimentary and very supportive of me trying to go for Formula One and get a shot. I’m pretty sure he spoke to a few people, because I think he felt the situation was just messed up (laughs). I wasn’t getting an opportunity. I had some strong supporters and I had some strong opponents at the time. So it was tough for me to kind of push through. But I know he spoke to a few people. … Mario’s been one of the biggest supporters of my career. Especially in those years.

He never fails to surprise you. Recently he shared a tweet for my birthday, we share the same birthday, and he tweeted to me, in proper French. Right spelling. No mistakes, no nothing (laughs). It’s like, "God, this guy, what can’t he do?" He never stops surprising you. There’s just too many adjectives for Mario. He’s one of the most interesting characters and personalities and badass race car driver of any era. He’s one of those guys you can’t really find any bad things to say about him.

Conor Daly, Andretti Autosport Indy 500 driver

'Living his best life'

I spent the Fourth of July at his lake house in Pennsylvania with Marco. Me and Marco were playing tennis against Mario and Hinch. Mario's got his shirt off, gold chains on. Like this guy is a total gangster. And he's playing well! He's got to be what like 70-something years old, great tennis player. And we're sweating. It's 100 degrees, and me and Marco won, but I was like, "Man, I'm out here playing tennis with Mario Andretti at his lake house. And he's flying ultralights at 10 feet above the ground." I mean that was one of the best weekends of my life. Just seeing Mario in his element. On jet skis, on boats. I mean just living his best life. And that's how you do it if you've just won everything there is to win. Fly cool stuff, do cool stuff, and still be athletic at 100 years old. 

Joe Flynn, former Newman Haas Racing mechanic

Nothing keeps Mario out of the car

I remember he hurt some ribs in a boating incident up at his lake within a couple of days of a race at Mid-Ohio. So he shows up for the race, and none of us knew anything about it until we saw him getting dressed and we saw his ribs were all taped up. 

We asked his personal manager, Don Henderson, what happened. He said, "I don't think they're cracked ribs, but they are sure bruised as hell."

But he never said anything to us. There were never any excuses. Never anything like,  "I hurt my ribs, I'm not practicing." Nothing like that. Of course, he goes on to win the race and he even joked afterwards, "They were kind of sore on my right side, so I really went hard through right-handers where I got thrust to the left. But on the left-handers, I really just had to grit my teeth and bear it."

He wasn't going to let anything stop him. He drove the whole race and won. 

Townsend Bell, former Andretti Autosport driver, NBC Sports analyst

A magical night with Mario

I was asked to host a dinner in Toronto at the Toronto Auto Show. I've been to a lot of auto shows, but the Toronto Auto Show is terrifically impressive in how they curate amazing cars and great content. And this year, they brought in Mario Andretti to recognize his 50 years since his win at Indianapolis.

The Toronto Auto Show is in February — not a great month for weather in Toronto. So there's a huge snowstorm. People's flights are getting canceled. And Mario is in Nazareth that evening on his plane. And it's snowing there, too. So we're all worried, the organizers and myself, "Is Mario going to make it?"

Here's a guy who's absolutely done everything, deserves every right to say, "Listen it's snowing in Nazareth and Toronto, we just can't get out tonight." But that's not what Mario Andretti did. 

He sat on the runway in Nazareth, with his private jet idling at a ridiculous personal cost to him, I'm sure for something like three hours! Now keep in mind, it's probably a 40-minute flight for him, engines running, patiently waiting for a weather window, texting back and forth with us. He wasn't even being paid to be there. He was just going because he recognized the importance of the Canadian press to his career. It was a classic Mario moment. We're stalling for 10 minutes, but then here comes Mario, fresh off the plane, looks like a million bucks, right up on stage, and it was a magical evening. I asked him about four questions and for the next 90 minutes, Mario just handled it. It was just an amazing evening. I just feel like everywhere he goes, he leaves that experience and that magic with everyone he touches. He's so authentically generous with his spirit, and we're so lucky to have him, and I was so lucky to have spent a little bit of time with him to get to know him. 

Follow IndyStar Motor Sports Insider Jim Ayello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram: @jimayello.