"Worst day of my life" - When Michael Andretti got agonizingly close to breaking family's Indy 500 curse

Since Mario Andretti's victory at the 1969 Indy 500, no one from the Andretti family has won the elusive race again, with Michael Andretti coming close to ending this curse in 1992. However, this backfired on him as it soon transformed into what he later called the worst day of his life.

At the 1992 Indy 500, four Andretti family drivers participated in the race, namely, Mario, Michael, Jeff, and John Andretti. The race began with Michael Andretti dominating the race but on the other hand, his father Mario suffered a massive crash that injured him with broken toes.

On lap 109, his brother, Jeff Andretti suffered a massive crash after a wheel from his car came undone, which broke both his legs. Witnessing his two close ones suffering from major implications, Michael Andretti was lit up to win the race.

However, with 11 laps to go, the 62-year-old's car broke down. This was his closest chance of victory at the infamous race and reflected on the unfortunate race 25 years later, stating (via RACER):

"You’ve got to live with it, but I look at that day, it should have been the best day of my career and it ended up being the worst day of my career. As I retired, that is what it ended up being. It was just a horrible day."

Andretti last raced at the 2007 Indy 500 and then focused on the business side of things for the Andretti brand. This included the team's efforts to venture into F1, though without him spearheading the program anymore.

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Michael Andretti shares about his new role within Andretti Global

Michael Andretti at the 2024 Portland E-Prix Source: Getty

Formula One Management finally accepted the bid for an 11th team on the F1 grid in the form of Cadillac/GM. Moreover, Andretti Global's involvement had to be reduced in the process of approval, which even included Michael Andretti stepping down from his role as CEO of the Indiana-based outfit.

Despite the F1 connections, the former IndyCar champion dismissed any speculation and stated how his new advisor role had been a long time coming, and said (via Associated Press):

"We’ve been working on this for a few months now. For me where I am in my life and what I want to do, the timing was right for me to take a little different role with the team. A role where I don’t have to be on it every day and I can still stay involved because I’ll be involved as an advisor as well as an ambassador. We were able to come to a deal between myself and Dan and I think we are both happy with what we came up with.”

There have been five drivers that have won the IndyCar championship with the elusive Andretti name and the team will be aiming to add another championship to this tally during the 2025 IndyCar season.