Mario Andretti's Against-All-Odds Indy 500 Win

The summer of 1969 was a momentous one. It was the summer we first saw a person step on the surface of the Moon, creating an unforgettable historic moment in space exploration. But the summer of 1969 was also one for the history books for IndyCar racing. It gave Hall of Fame driver Mario Andretti his first and only Indianapolis 500 win. 

Mario Andretti is the household name in the world of IndyCar racing, especially in my home. I grew up hearing about the exploits of this unstoppable driver, and my grandfather was even at the famed 1969 Indy 500. My father sent me to my National Air and Space Museum internship with one goal—to find out where the Smithsonian was keeping the car that Andretti drove to victory in 1969. It was quite an easy mystery to solve since it ended up being one of the key artifacts going on display in the Museum’s Nation of Speed exhibition.  

The mystique of the 1969 Indianapolis 500 is something that has stuck out to me since I was a child. I have always had a feeling that it was quite a special race and when I sat down with Doug Boles, the current president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I discovered he felt the same way. 

If you take a look back at the 53rd running of the Indianapolis 500, it comes down to two substantial figures in the racing world, who took the checkered flag for the first time together that historic Memorial Day weekend in 1969. They were Mario Andretti and his just-as-storied team owner Andy Granatelli, who might be better known as Mister 500 because of how long he had been involved with the race.

 

“[Granatelli] had been coming around for a long time. He had campaigned all kinds of historic cars... and he’d never won [the Indy 500] and the years previous to 1969 he’d come so close,” Boles said.  “So, for him to win in 1969 and for Mario to win in ‘69 was special for both of them.” This win had been culminating for Andretti since his rookie year in 1965 when he was both the rookie of the year and the IndyCar National Champion.  

During the 1969 season, Andretti drove a Lotus. “[The Lotus] had been so successful, but unable to win at the Speedway in previous years,” Boles said. When practice for that year’s Indy 500 started at the beginning of May, “Mario and AJ Foyt… had this amazing competition in practice leading up to qualifying,” Boles said. “Both were running at over 170 miles per hour around the Speedway, which in 1969 was a really big deal.” 

The grandeur of the Lotus came crumbling down two days before qualifying was supposed to begin. Andretti hit the wall in turn 4. The Lotus burst into flames leaving the car unusable and Andretti with nasty burns all over his face. With only a day and a half before time trials began, the pit crew got to business setting up the back-up car for Andretti, a Brawner Hawk that was already two years old and was never supposed to see the brickyard. Andretti does the unthinkable in his new car and “qualifies on the front row in second just a tick under 170 miles per hour. Right behind AJ Foyt [on the pole],” Boles said.

 

Andretti hopping from a Lotus to a Brawner Hawk is a remarkable change that not all drivers would be able to successfully make halfway through the month of May. “The cars handle completely differently,” Boles said. “For them to have to make that change, get the car ready to go, and be competitive with it was a pretty big feat for them to do... The weight distribution was different, the aerodynamics were different, it created not just a challenge for the team, but Mario had to completely rethink how he was driving because it handled completely differently than that Lotus. But that's a testament to the team of that day and certainly Mario’s ability to drive just about any racing car on the face of the Earth.” 

All of the sweat and tears had been leading up to May 30, 1969, and for the green flag to drop. “From the green flag you knew he was gonna compete,” Boles said. “[Andretti] immediately, in that Brawner Hawk, goes to the front and leads the first 5 laps. AJ [Foyt] leads some laps in the race and ultimately Mario leads 116 laps. So, the story is even better because the car started the month of May as a backup, but for an accident involving Mario Andretti that car probably doesn’t get a chance to run.” 

 

Changing to a backup car was not the only wrench thrown into Andretti’s 1969 Indy 500 plan. During multiple pit-stops the Brawner Hawk’s right rear tire was unable to be changed because the pit crew could not get the tire off the car. The tire stayed on the car and ran for all 500 miles of the famed race.  

“That’s another one of those crazy things,” Boles said. “It’s unbelievable, right? So those are the things that make the story even better. Over the life of 500 miles, the tires change. The grip levels change, and all those things change so Mario is constantly having to adapt as the race is going on to different driving situations and the way the car was handling based on the tires that were on the car and in particular a tire that was on the car the whole time.” 

Once a driver takes the checkered flag and finds their way to victory lane, it is tradition at the Speedway that the Indianapolis 500 Queen kisses the winner. It looked a little different for Mario Andretti, “Of course, there’s the kiss on the cheek that Andy gave Mario in Victory Lane which is one of those iconic moments at the Speedway,” Boles said. “Just so many things came together at the speedway in 1969 to make it one of the most historic races.” 

 

The abundance of interesting stories that originate from May of 1969 do not stop there. Among IndyCar fans it became lore that it wasn’t Mario in the front row qualifying picture taken the Monday after qualifying, which Boles confirmed. “Mario’s face was still burned from the accident, so he asked his twin brother, Aldo, to stand in for him in the photo. So, when you see those historical photos of that Brawner Hawk right there in the middle of the front row, it’s not Mario, it’s his twin brother Aldo standing in for him because of the burns Mario had on his face.” 

 

Doug Boles was not done reminiscing of the magic that was 1969. “You asked me earlier, what makes that year special... All of these little stories, that makes that ‘69 win with Mario, Andy Granatelli, and the Brawner Hawk so special,” Boles said. 

The Andrettis have become a family dynasty in racing, but not a single one of them has found victory in the driver’s seat at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 1969. Some have come to believe that there is a curse on the family to never win there again.  

“One of the things in racing, especially 50 years ago, when Mario Andretti was in his heyday, superstitions were a big thing in sports,” Boles said. “I think it’s less so now, but there was a period of time when there was that streak of Andretti bad luck.” Since 1969 there have been five Andrettis who have raced at the 500. Mario competed at the Speedway 29 times with one victory. His son Michael attempted 16 times at the speedway and his grandson Marco has entered 17 times, most recently in 2022. Mario’s other son Jeff drove in the 500 three times and failed to qualify twice. John Andretti, the son of Mario’s twin brother Aldo, had 12 starts. 

Despite the string of Andretti losses at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Boles believes that one day the tide will change: “I think there’ll be a day when an Andretti wins the 500 again. I don’t think it’s necessarily a curse that’s keeping them from victory lane again since 1969.” 

Andretti is still a very prominent face in the world of racing today. 

“One of the things that makes Mario so special is the longevity of his racing career, but the longevity of his involvement in our sport, and when I say our sport, I mean globally — in particular IndyCar racing but other places like F1 — he is still so involved,” Boles said. “He is one of the best ambassadors our sport has so to be able to have Mario Andretti here continuing to promote and advocate for racing [is] really special.” 

 

Over 50 years later, Andretti’s iconic Brawner Hawk is making its debut at the National Air and Space Museum in the Nation of Speed exhibition, on loan from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Nation of Speed explores America’s thirst for speed. It examines speed in the sky, on land, and on the water. In addition to Andretti’s Brawner Hawk, it features many new objects that have never been on display at the National Air and Space Museum, like Richard Petty’s famous NASCAR racecar that he drove to his 200th victory. 

There are more connections between IndyCar and the race to the Moon than you might think. During the Apollo 10 mission in 1969, “the astronauts were informed that AJ Foyt had won the pole [in qualifying] and it’s funny that now over 50 years later, we’re sitting here talking about Mario Andretti and that car and its connection to space,” Boles said. “In 1969 we were talking a lot about the similarities between motor sports and aerospace and even today our cars use aerospace technologies. The aerodynamic components that are in there are things that have been tested through NASA and many of the experiments and many of the missions that NASA has done has made our sport better. So, we love the connection and I think the fact that that car lives inside the Air and Space Museum is pretty special. It’s probably exactly where it belongs.”