Andretti dominated the rest of the 1969 USAC season to earn his third Indy car championship in five years. But his luck soured in the 1970s, both at Indianapolis and with Indy cars in general. Later in the decade, he began to concentrate almost exclusively on Formula 1 with great success, winning 11 Grand Prix races and the 1978 World Championship. Andretti remains the last American to have won the F1 world title.
When Andretti finished the 500 during the ‘70s, he was generally near the front, with a sixth and a pair of eighths. But he also suffered five DNFs and skipped the 1979 race when it conflicted with the F1 Monaco Grand Prix.
Mario failed to finish in his return to Indianapolis in 1980, but a year later, he was involved in one of the most controversial decisions in the history of the Indy 500. Driving for Patrick Racing, Andretti finished second on the track behind Penske Racing’s Bobby Unser. But Unser was observed illegally passed nine cars while he was leaving the pits during a caution period, so when the Official Results were posted the morning after the race, Andretti was declared the winner. Mario duly posed for a series of celebratory photographs.
Penske protested the revised result in which Unser was penalized a lap, and in October, Unser was reinstated as the winner of the 1981 Indianapolis 500. “The way the whole thing was handled politically left me with a sour taste,” Andretti said.
Keen to avenge his Indianapolis defeat, Andretti qualified fourth for the 1982 race, but was taken out by Kevin Cogan in the famous start line crash. He was eliminated from the 1983 race in another crash caused by Johnny Parsons. Andretti failed to finish the 500 in 1984, but he went on to win his fourth and final Indy car championship, this time under CART sanction.