Portal:Formula One/Featured article/2008-10

Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is an Italian American former racecar driver, and one of the most successful Americans in the history of auto racing. He is one of only two drivers to win races in the four major motor racing categories: Formula One, IndyCar (USAC), World Sportscar Championship and NASCAR, the other being Dan Gurney. He also won races in midget cars, sprint cars and drag racing cars.

During his career, Andretti won four IndyCar titles, the 1978 Formula One World Championship, and IROC VI (the 1978 - 1979 IROC). To date, he remains the only driver ever to win the Indianapolis 500 (1969), the Daytona 500 (1967), and the Formula One World Championship, and, along with Juan Pablo Montoya, the only driver to have won a race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Formula One, and an Indianapolis 500. No American has won a Formula One race since Andretti at the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix. Andretti had 109 career wins on major circuits.

Andretti had a long career in racing. He was the only person to be named United States Driver of the Year in three decades (1967, 1978, and 1984). He was also one of only three drivers to win races on road courses, paved ovals, and dirt tracks in one season, a feat that he accomplished four times. At his final IndyCar win in April 1993, Andretti became the first driver to win IndyCar races in four decades and the first to win races in five decades.

The name Mario Andretti has become synonymous with speed in the United States, similar to Barney Oldfield in the early twentieth century and Stirling Moss in the United Kingdom.

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