INDY DIARIES: How Roger Penske accidentally gave Mario Andretti his start Monday, 23 May 2016
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Over 99 runnings, the Indianapolis 500 has become the most famous event in motorsport. That iconic status is built on a bedrock of hundreds of small stories, and to celebrate the centennial race, RACER.com has asked some of the people who are part of Indy's fabric to share a few of those stories with us. Check back with Tampa racing every day between now and race day for a new 'Indy Diary' entry.
Mario Andretti's third-place finish in 1965's Indianapolis 500 earned him that year's rookie-of-the-year honors. Four years later, he won the race. The key? Talent - and an eye for an opportunity.
"I look back and I can spot key points in my career which made a difference. It's just amazing. The opportunity came up – boom, seized it. And what if I hadn't? My first test, my first time in a roadster ... it was a tire test, and I got it because Roger Penske couldn't make it. He was supposed to do it. I killed his career as a driver!
"My confidence came from being with top teams. I knew enough to know that I needed to be with a top team. And at that time, the Dean Van Lines Champ Car was one of the top three. They gave AJ [Foyt] the rookie test, and they had Jimmy Bryan, and all the guys that drove for them ... and of course they were one of the top teams on Firestone tires as well, so that was a big deal because they helped with the development, so you got a lot of [testing] miles, a lot of opportunities.
"And they hired me, and the first test was at Trenton. They had Rodger Ward, and Parnelli Jones, and I think myself, and they wanted to get feedback from somebody fresh. So I started that way, and developed a relationship with the Firestone engineers. And all of those miles of testing were just precious. I was pinching myself. I wanted to be in a race car, and I was in a race car all the time. If there was a test coming up, boom, we were there. And I was so lucky to be able to accelerate my learning curve because I was just getting a lot of miles under my belt."