What Is Mario Andretti's Net Worth?
Mario Andretti is an American race car driver who has a net worth of $130 million. Mario Andretti is perhaps most famously known for being one of only two people ever to come in first place in races in Formula One, IndyCar, World Sportscar Championship, and NASCAR. Andretti's name in American popular culture has become synonymous with speed, raising the bar in race car driving from the very start of his career.
Early Life
Mario Andretti was born Mario Gabriele Andretti on February 28, 1940, in Motovun, Croatia. Andretti identifies as an Italian-born American and is one of the most successful race car drivers in the history of NASCAR. Both Mario and his twin brother Aldo expressed a deep interest in cars at a very young age. Their mother claims that, amazingly, her young sons would sit in boxes and pretend to drive cars even before either of them truly knew what a car was, much less how to operate one. Mario began to race in real cars not too long after when the Andretti family moved to a location with a racetrack close by. From that point onward, he demonstrated that he was a racer to keep an eye on, rising in the ranks of not just one racing organization, but several simultaneously.
Racing Career
The Andretti family story is akin to the idea of the American dream. Andretti and his family emigrated to the United States, where they would settle in Nazareth, located in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. The entire family had only $125 to their name. Andretti finished high school in 1959 with an original plan and aspirations to become a tradesman in welding. Mario, ironically, had to falsify his driver's license in order to pass for a 21-year-old. It was at this point that Andretti would enter his first amateur race. As mentioned above, Mario and Aldo were pleasantly surprised to discover that, close to their family home, the half-mile dirt racing track Nazareth Speedway was calling their names. The twins worked on a 1948 Hudson that they ended up racing in the Limited Sportsman Class. The twins utilized funds that they had earned working in their uncle's garage. Mario and Aldo would take turns practicing with the old Hudson on their Nazareth dirt dirt track. Of course, the twins did not mention this sort of thing to their parents. Mario and Aldo each chalked up two wins in their first four races. While Aldo would become seriously hurt near the end of their inaugural season, Mario would go on to earn 21 modified stock car wins in only 46 races that took place from 1960 to 1961.
Andretti would enjoy an uncharacteristically and unprecedentedly long career in race car driving. He is the only driver to be named United States Driver of the Year in three different decades, and he is one of only three drivers to claim wins on paved oval courses, road race courses, and dirt tracks in the same season. Mario would accomplish this four times as a race car driver. With Andretti's final IndyCar win, which took place in April of 1993, he solidified his position as the first driver to finish first in IndyCar races across four different decades. He's also the first race car driver to win automobile races of any kind across five decades.
Andretti won championships in NASCAR, Formula One, and more, and he competed in the Le Mans 24 Hour Race for four decades. Since retiring from racing, Mario has maintained a high profile, writing a column about race car driving and making cameo appearances in TV shows such as "Home Improvement" and feature films Pixar's "Cars" and the racing documentary "Dust to Glory."
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Awards and Accolades
During what has now become a highly heralded career, Andretti would go on to seize the 1978 Formula One World Championship, not to mention four IndyCar titles (three of which were won under USAC sanctioning and one under CART sanctioning) and an IROC VI title. Mario remains the lone race car driver to ever win the Indianapolis 500 (won in 1969), the Daytona 500 (won in 1967), and the Formula One World Championship (won in 1978). Along with Juan Pablo Montoya, Andretti is the only driver to win a race in the NASCAR Cup Series and the Formula One series, as well as an Indianapolis 500 Cup. No single American has gone on to finish first in a Formula One race since Andretti's flawless victory at the Dutch Grand Prix, which occurred in 1978. Mario has 109 total career wins — all occurring on major circuits.
Personal Life
Andretti has made it a personal point to stay active after retirement. Although he is no longer a full-time race car driver, he still makes several speaker appearances to various audiences and remains a spokesman for his longtime sponsors (Texaco/Havoline, Firestone, and Magnaflow). Andretti has also been a speaker for the now-defunct Champ Car World Series. He is an active vice chairman of a winery that bears his family name (Andretti Winery, located in Napa Valley, California). Andretti also owns a chain of gas stations and his own Toyota dealership located in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. He stays true to his passions, owning car washes, car-care product lines, go-kart tracks, and replica cars. Since 2012, Andretti has served as the official ambassador for the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), a role in which he actively promotes Formula 1 racing awareness.
