WATCH: Michael Andretti's first IndyCar victory at the 1986 Grand Prix of Long Beach

The 1986 Long Beach Grand Prix was down to the last 25 laps, and Michael Andretti had gone from being out of contention of winning the race to leading the race. Andretti started the 95-lap race in third position.

It all went down on lap 69 when Al Unser made his final pit stop and came out on the track in front of the American. Since Andretti had tires at the correct temperature, it made it easy for him to pass Al Unser, who had colder tires.

But it all came down to the final lap when Al Unser managed to get his tire up to the temperature and started catching up with the Kraco Racing driver. At the hairpin, they almost hit each other due to Robert Moreno's lapped car nearly touching, which also caused Michael Andretti's breaks to lock up. This helped Unser to pull alongside Andretti.

However, the Kraco Racing driver managed to keep Al Unser behind him by just 0.380 seconds, taking his first IndyCar win at the track after 36 races. The win ended his father Mario Andretti's consecutive title challenge.

When Michael Andretti spoke about not giving up on his Formula One dream

There has been quite the buzz about Andretti joining the Formula One grid. The Cadillac team announced it will join the grid as the 11th team for the 2026 season. However, this transpired after Michael Andretti stepped down from the project.

Andretti's bid to enter Formula One started in 2021 when he tried to buy Kick Stake Sauber, which will be rebranded to Audi in the 2026 season. The former CEO and Chairman of Andretti Global could not secure the deal, citing "control issues".

In a conversation with EMPARTRADE in December 2021, he discussed this was just a hiccup in his path to Formula One.

"There's always a Plan B and C. So we're definitely still attacking it. We'll see what happens, but yeah, I'm not going to give up on it. There could be opportunities that come down the road that aren't here right now we're just going to keep looking for those opportunities," Michael Andretti said [5:36 onwards].

In February 2022, Andretti proposed to the FIA to start his team by 2024. In 2023, the FIA announced that Andretti met the criteria to become Formula One's 11th team.

But in January 2024, things took a turn as the bid for the rebranded Cadillac Formula One team was rejected. The FIA cited competitiveness and value addition to the sport as the main concern. Michael Andretti soon stepped down as the CEO and Chairman of Andretti Global in 2024 after sensing "political" tension with Formula One management.

Dan Towrris soon took charge and had Cadillac's bid approved this year.