page_title: Mario Andretti
section_title: Start in racing
hierarchical_section_title: Mario Andretti / Racing career / Stock car racing / Start in racing
caption_attribution_description: Mario Andretti at the 1991 Monterrey Grand Prix, CART
context_page_description: Mario Gabriele Andretti is an Italian-born American former racing driver and one of the most successful Americans in the history of the sport. He is one of only two drivers to have won races in Formula One, IndyCar, World Sportscar Championship, and NASCAR. He also won races in midget cars and sprint cars.
  During his career, Andretti won the 1978 Formula One World Championship, four IndyCar titles, and IROC VI. To date, he remains the only driver ever to win the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500 and the Formula One World Championship, and, along with Juan Pablo Montoya, the only driver to have won a race in the NASCAR Cup Series, Formula One, and an Indianapolis 500. No American has won a Formula One race since Andretti's victory 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. He was also one of only three drivers to have won major races on road courses, paved ovals, and dirt tracks in one season, a feat that he accomplished four times.
context_section_description: In 1955 the Andretti family emigrated to the United States of America, settling in Nazareth in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley with just $125 to their name. In 1959, after finishing high school, he planned to become a welder, but he falsified a driver license so he could pass for 21 and enter an amateur race. Mario and Aldo were surprised to find a half-mile dirt racing track Nazareth Speedway, when they moved to Nazareth. The twins worked on a 1948 Hudson and raced it in the Limited Sportsman Class, funded by money that they earned in their uncle's garage in 1959. They took turns racing the old Hudson on oval dirt tracks near Nazareth in 1959. They did not tell their parents that they were racing. The twins each had two wins after their first four races. Aldo was seriously hurt near the end of the season, and their parents were unhappy to find out that the twins were racing. Mario had 21 modified stock car wins in 46 races in 1960 and 1961.
caption: Andretti in 1991
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