“The worst moment of my life was Indianapolis in 1992,” Andretti said. “It was that close to being the greatest moment in my life and it turned out to be the worst moment. Between Dad and Jeff’s accidents and me breaking down with 10 laps to go with a totally dominant car, it was a killer.”
Andretti missed the 1993 race while competing in Formula 1 and finished sixth while driving for Chip Ganassi Racing in 1994. He returned to Newman/Haas in 1995 and was once again in position to challenge for victory at Indianapolis when he crashed while leading on the 77th lap.
Michael’s next appearance at Indianapolis came in 2001, resulting in a third place finish. He finished seventh a year later and announced he would retire from driving after the 2003 Indianapolis 500 to concentrate on his new role as co-owner of Andretti Green Racing. A broken throttle linkage ended Andretti’s day just short of half distance.
Unhappy with the way his Indianapolis career ended and eager to compete against his son Marco, who was then a rookie in the IndyCar Series, Andretti came out of retirement to drive in the 2006 ‘500.’ A fuel stretching strategy put Michael into the lead from laps 194-97, but he had to back off to make the finish, which he did in third place, just behind Marco.