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The car was fast but it was like a Pogo Stick though the corners.

“He was experimenting with me and would give me some weird setups. “The first time at Daytona I was invited by Smokey Yunick – the car owner who owned ‘The Best Damn Garage in Town’ – in a Chevelle,” Andretti recalled. He was driving for a team owned by an innovator at the Indianapolis 500 during that era. 13 in the 1966 Daytona 500 – one of four NASCAR races he competed in during the 1966 season. He started 39 th and finished 37 th in Car No. “It had a special sound to it and it still does, actually.”īut this wasn’t Andretti’s first attempt at the Daytona 500. Can you imagine the same thing as if one of their drivers – Richard Petty or David Pearson - had come to Indy and won the Indy 500? So arguably the Daytona 500 win at that time was the biggest event of my career at that time and particularly satisfying to do it somewhere where it wasn’t my specialty. “I was competitive with a couple of poles but had not won at Indy. “At that point I had not won Indy yet,” Andretti said. He would go on to blow away the NASCAR competition, leading 112 of the 200 laps in the race and defeating Lorenzen in a race that finished under caution to become the first Ind圜ar driver to win the Daytona 500.

In 1966 he won the pole for the Indianapolis 500 and wracked up an incredible eight Ind圜ar victories in 15 starts to once again claim the USAC Ind圜ar National Championship.Īndretti was a big-name Ind圜ar driver who was part of the Holman-Moody Racing team – Ford’s factory-backed team in NASCAR – when he arrived at the 1967 Daytona 500 along with Ford’s “Golden Boy” Fred Lorenzen.

He would go on to cap his rookie season by winning the United States Auto Club (USAC) Ind圜ar National Championship. DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – When Mario Andretti pulled into victory lane after winning the Daytona 500 on Februit was at the time the biggest victory of his racing career.Īndretti had already established himself as one of the top young drivers in American racing when he won the 1965 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year Award after starting fourth and finishing third in the Dean Van Lines Special.