I like the swing music. I think it should be here permanently...

Takuma Sato having more Indy wins than the entire Andretti family is pretty funny.

I’m lucky enough to have done 2 laps around Mid-Ohio sitting behind Mario in a 2 seater Indycar in 2013... what a legend, and such a nice guy!

Great video - as always. The 1987 Indy500 retirement was not, actually, an electrical issue. Mario was running the then new Ilmor Chevrolet engine. He had such a lead by lap 180, that he "backed it down", running in 6th gear to save revs on the engine. The lower sustained revs put the intake valve springs at a then unknown natural frequency. The repeated load cycles caused the valve spring to fail prematurely. Mario actually lost the race by "taking it too easy" - probably further fuel to the Andretti curse. BTW - "Electrical" failure is what teams often blamed engine failures on... figuring it was less damaging to the reputations of the engine manufacturers. The Joke was "Electrical failure?! Maybe the connecting rod damaged a wiring harness when it punched through the block..."

You could say the same for Scott Dixon. 6 titles, 56 wins (1 in CART), 32 poles, 138 podiums (3 in CART). Only 1 win at Indy (2008).

Mario Andretti is a legend. I met him in 2017 and won a raffle to have a ride in a sportscar with him. Just the loveliest guy you could meet.

The 2006 500 was heartbreaking. Marco had the lead out of turn 4 and was passed by Sam Hornish, Jr. coming to the checker. Marco was leading untill about 100 yards to go.

At 10:18 I would like to add one more name that has won in F1, IndyCar, and NASCAR, that being Dan Gurney, the man who finished 2nd to Andretti in his 500 win

My dad always said that Mario had so many DNFs because he drove a 500 mile race like it would be over in 30 minutes. Mario is still the most fun guy to see in the IndyCar paddock, standing around greeting a huge line of fans in the Andretti hospitality area, one by one, being cheerful and happy to see everyone. He's an icon.

The Curse of the Billy Goat lasted 71 years against the Chicago Cubs. Mario's 1987 race probably hurt the most. With 25 laps to go while in the lead, he had been backing off to protect his engine. The lower revs developed a harmonic imbalance in the engine, which led to a broken valve spring. He lapped the field by 2 laps and second place was one lap down. Micheal had the mechanical gremlins curse. In the total laps lead at Indy, Michael ranks 11th. Out of the top 32 lap leaders, all but Micheal and Rex Mays have won the race.

I was at LeMans 2000. And during the drivers parade through the city of Lemans, when the car that Mario was in came by the mob of fans surrounded his car all looking for his autograph. I was one and made my way within arms reach of Mario. I handed him my ball cap to sign. As he was doing this I told him that him racing with team Panos this year was one of the exciting reasons I was at LeMans. I said clearly too him that I wished him the best of luck. To which he handed me my signed ball cap back and looked right at me saying, "Thank you." I know it's just a small thing in life but I'll never forget that personal moment.😎

That exploded baseball at the Chicago Sports Museum is a work of art.

Great video as always! As for F1-specific "curses", from 2005 until 2018, there was this Hungarian GP curse where the driver who happened to win at the Hungaroring would end up failing to claim the drivers' title that season.

It's not as bad as some curses - they all have survived. The Unsers may have won the IndyCar series more, but oldest brother Jerry had a fatal crash in a practice session for the Indy 500.

Swing music takes this channel to the next level of cool.

The Bela Gutman curse is still one of my favourites in sport. When Benfica refused to renew his contract he allegedly cursed them and said they'd never win a European cup ever again, they've lost 7 (I think) in a row.

In 1993? John Andretti drove in Indycars, Stock cars, and a top fuel dragster. If i remember correctly the sponsor was Pennzoil.

The real incredible thing about Mario is how many years he remained as an active racer at the top levels, well into his 50s!

Cannot recommend enough Andretti's episode of F1's "Beyond the Grid" podcast. intelligent, well spoken, humble, and incredibly nice guy

Just a FYI the curse was placed by his former chief mechanic Clint Brawner’s wife after Andretti split in 1971.

Worth noting that both Mario and Michael missed chunks of their primes at Indy (F1 and the Split respectively). Also John did complete the Indy/Charlotte double, which was insane then and is still insane now.

Awesome video, got me thinking that it would be a weird twist of fate if the Andretti team where to get into F1 and they started dominnating in a short space of time as it could then be argued that the Andretti curse was either lifted or not an F1 thing, or just lifted in F1 given Michael Andrettie's struggles in 1993

Should Andretti's team be allowed to come to F1, i can only hope their curse doesn't persist

The Bettenhausen family, now that is a family that has been truly cursed!!!

The story of the Bettenhausen family curse at the Indy 500 is also a tragic but good story. Unlike Andretti tho they didn’t even win 1. Their curse goes as for as Tony (the forefather) choosing not to race the sprint car he raced all year in the 500, that car ends up winning in 1951. Then while testing a friends car at the Brick Yard he was killed when the car had a suspension failure.

"...1973 Piston broke..." So was I mate!

For as many members of that family that took to the racetrack, none of em lost their lives on one. The Unsers, The Allisons, the Pettys, and the Earnhardts all lost at least one member on track....snakebit at indy...yes, cursed...no Really enjoying the increased rate of new content this year @aidanmillward. Thank you for all you do!

I love that you're gradually covering more and more American open wheel content. It has such a rich history and I grew up around it as a kid in the 90s. One great American open wheel story is the story of Bobby Rahal's 1986 Indy 500 victory and the relationship between him and his car owner. I'd love to see you do some deeper dives into the American open wheel families like the Unsers, Rahals, and Andrettis.

Just curious how Mario finished 2nd at LeMans in 95, could’ve won but for a pit stop to clean the windshield for sponsor logo. It was an open top WSC car, the windscreen was no more then an air deflector free of logos. How can this be??? Love the channel, keep up the good work

Mario is the man who makes rating systems for drivers impossible. I've seen in car footage of Jimmy Clark and he was as smooth and effortless as anyone who ever held a steering wheel. But Mario raced on dirt, a surface that changes continuously through out the race. He raced fire breathing monsters with more horsepower than F1 cars of that period. On dirt, wheel to wheel for lap after lap and won. Sébastien Loeb is The God of the Forest. No human has ever been better at being at the edge of control on unfamiliar roads for HOURS on end. But Mario won on the steep banks of Daytona. Door to door at 180 mph when understanding of aerodynamics was sketchy at best, in a car that was VISABLY oversteering the entire race. His talent always puts him into the GOAT conversation. The diversity of that talent makes it impossible to compare him with anyone else. Was he the best F! driver, no. The best NASCAR driver, no. The best dirt oval driver, no. The best endurance racer, no. The best paved oval driver, arguably, (Mr. Foyt also has an opinion on that). But he was successful at all of those disciplines. Has there ever been a driving career with such diversity and his level of success? It's the diversity of his career that puts him in the GOAT conversation and at the same time makes top 5 lists obsolete

Michael and that tyre change that cost him the win. Also been a fan of the different line the Andrestti's would take at Indy and Fontana to get around the track. Curse is real.

Hard to argue your top 3 all time drivers, nice to see Ickx getting some love too, possibly one of the most under appreciated drivers out there.

You should look into the “curse” of Talledega. They used to have commercials about the fact that it was built on an Indian burial ground.

Really surprised you didn’t mention Marco losing the 2006 Indy 500 in the last 300 meters of the race. That’s when I KNEW the Andretti curse was real.

You forgot 2006, when rookie Marco and his father Michael held 1-2 in the final laps of the Indy 500 and Sam Hornish Jr. was able to pass them both at the very end

My favourite sporting curse comes from Japan. In 1985, the Hanshin Tigers baseball team won their first Japan Series championship - during the celebrations, some rowdy fans grabbed a statue of Colonel Sanders from a local KFC and chucked it in a nearby canal. Apparently this angered the restless spirit of the Colonel, and the Tigers suffered a horrendous streak of bad luck. The club even hired divers in 2009 to retrieve the statue in an attempt to appease the Colonel. It appears to have worked, as the curse was broken last year.

Don't forget the Unsers at Pikes Peak- a TON of wins there....

I appreciate the music so much

The people that hit dislike obviously did it by mistake. Great video. Can you do a tribute to Murray Walker, I think with your knowledge you can be the next generation F1 commentator

AJ Foyt needs to be in consideration for best all-around driver of all time. I don't think he's #1, or even better than Andretti, but he's got to be in the conversation for top 10. He was more known for his domination on ovals, but did win Leman's in his only attempt. Smokey Yunick is quoted, "A.J. Foyt, I think, was the greatest race driver there ever has been in U.S. racing history so far...A.J. Foyt could beat your ass in anything that had a motor and wheels."

There are a number of curses around the Indy 500... Any green other than the green flags on the flag stand. If you wanting to, you could do a video (series) of all the curses.

It isn't a curse. Reliability is something fans take for granted these days. Even till the nineties cars broke. Everybody on your list, including sainted Senna and Schumacher had a car that broke sometimes. Only the advances in electronics, CAD, CAM, software and engineering talent, not to mention safety that goes with that has made more bulletproof race cars. Andretti, Foyt and Gurney are with ease the greatest American drivers. Thanks.

There's a reason Mario Andretti is the eponym for people that drive fast in America

I was thinking that Marco probably doesn't have a shot, what being semi-retired and on an Indy only schedule with Andretti who hasn't been good as of late. The last guy to win doing it part time was Wheldon, and he almost didn't, and before that was Helio and Penske in 2001 funnily enough, but they don't really count IMO, they were full time in CART, and Gil won the championship even. But then again Helio did get his 4th on an Indy only car, that hadn't been good as of late. Wackier things have happened. But yeah the difference in success between Andretti as a driver and Andretti as a team are stark, they inherited the record of Team Green, such that Villeneuve's 1995 win technically goes to them, but if you're only counting since Michael got involved, they won with 5 with 5 drivers, Wheldon in 05, Dario in 07, Hunter-Reay in 14, Rossi in 16, Sato in 17.

Loving the swing music…..and loving your content, one of my fave go to channels as soon as a new vlog appears, top work Aidan….👍👌🇮🇲

The big band jazz music was a very fun change of pace!

There was a Toronto Maple Leafs story concerning Bill Barilko. He went missing on a fishing trip in 1951 after the Leafs had won the Stanley Cup. The bush plane was not found for over a decade, in the same year that the Leafs next won the Cup.

Good job, Aiden. Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.

Andretti's win at Pikes Peak the same year as his Indy 500 win is often overlooked; his participation in rally/hill climbs is as limited as Loeb's circuit racing, but the big win is much more significant than anything Loeb accomplished in road racing. Most importantly, the understanding of American motorsports in that era is incredibly poor even from most Americans. It's something I'd love to see content on that doesn't exist, but I don't really have the time right now to devote to making it myself. The most well known curse in American motorsports is actually likely the Earnhardt Daytona 500 curse, but that's obviously not open wheel and more modern which is part of it too.

Another obscure football curse is the Mick Jagger one. Every time Mick is at a game in Brazil, the team he cheers for will lose. Sir Jagger has become a meme in the brazilian football fandom.

Finally....I've been asking for how many years?

Love the new music my friend

In Michael's later career (1996-2002) , he was always either stuck with the wrong engine, wrong tires, or wrong chassis, sometimes all 3. By the time he got the Honda Engine and Reynard chassis in 2001, it was too late - Toyota had caught them.

Great video, always a fan of Andretti. However, when I said in an earlier video Ickx deserved to be a World Chapion you disagreed. Incidentally, the best Rally Druver of all time was Hannu Mikkola!

The 1992 Indy 500 is another race you could do a whole video on.

I think it's probably an Indy curse. If you raced through that time in F1, Indy Car and anything else and came out alive and (relatively) uninjured I would say you're actually lucky.

5:47 Yes! Would be an excelent video. Maybe that and the '84 together, like the near misses of Mario

You brits and your curses! Cracks me up every time

A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Jim Clark -- the holy trinity of motorsport gods if you ask me.

9:39 The numbers don't lie and they spell disaster for Andretti....💪

2:45 damn, the leafs just caught a stray lol

Hello Aidan: I agree with your top 3. Have a good day.

anyone ever mentioned (albeit outside of racing himself) nico rosberg's curse.. commentator's curse and all that but nico rosberg's is so potent it affects other sports

The reasons behind not having many globally recognized drivers from the United States are many and it's sad we can produce more notable names. However the fact that he is still the face and ambassador of US Motorsports is to be celebrated. The Andretti family are the kind of person that even when you cheer against them (and many do) you still do so with a mild reverence. American F1 fans are starting to take the battle to get to the grid personally. In light of yesterdays news F1 will need to be careful as many of us will absolutely be insulted if they continue to treat our racing royalty this way.

There is a saying at Indy. What are the most common words heard at the track “Andretti slowing on the track”

The Tommo style hat looks sharp

Interesting perspective. I'm a big indy fan so seeing someone's views on it who is just diving in is interesting. My biggest point of disagree is that top 5 list because how can you not have A.J. Foyt on there?

Mario is one of the coolest legends you will ever meet. As for curses I’m a Cubs fan. We got curses for days.

Lloyd Ruby was even more cursed at Indy than Mario. Given the amount of deaths at the speedway during Marios career l would say if you survived you were not cursed.

About football curses, there is one involving the portuguese Benfica team (the team I support, btw). Béla Guttmann, the coach that led the team to win its Champions Leagues, in 1961 and 1962, left the team due to a pay rise being negated by the administration in 1962. He allegedely placed a curse that said, withouth him, the team would not win an european cup in 100 years. And it was true, so far, in the main team. The team got to 8 european finals and did not win a single one. In 2014 it was built a statue to honor him in the Cathedral (Estádio da Luz, the home field), to try allegedely to break the curse. And in 2022 they conquered the UEFA Youth League. Maybe it was a little bit broken by that statue...

There is kind of a petty curse in NASCAR aswell

I have some kind of weird curse where every time I am in europe something will happen in the royal family, like twice isnt a tonne of times but being Australian it is weird that I was in London when the queen died (I live reported it to my friends from Buckingham Palace because that just happened)

Came close in 2006. Hornish at the line…. -U10

Only family I can think of more cursed is the Allison family which is rough story but deserves a video

Mario and Michael were notorious for driving their cars too hard when it wasn't necessary. That contributed to many DNF's, that otherwise may have been victories. Jeff and John on the other hand. Were just not that good. They both used to race karts with us. Neither was that good. They got to were they did by their last name.

Okay... closing pitlanes definitely needs its own video. WHY THE HELL WOULD THEY WANT TO CLOSE A PITLANE?!

great career but yup lotsa bad breaks . keep up the good work on the channel

The Andrettis were from Albania, so the Americans have had one true born F1 Grand Prix champion, in 61 Phil Hill.

We call it now the Dixon curse.. ;)

Curse my ass. Been hearing that for 60 years. How many Andrettis died racing? He made a fortune and walked away. Many didn't. Ask the Allisons about racing curse.

I mean if the _Cubs_ can win a world series...

The Andretti family has little luck i mean they did win a race here and there and Mario did win the the 1969 500

You missed The Curse of the Billy Goat, which haunted the Chicago Cubs for 71 yrs. And remember, it's unlucky to be supersticious.

If Max gets bored with F1, I’d love to see him try American short track dirt oval racing. He’s an autistic genius of car control with an oversteering, pointy beast of a machine. He’d be a natural fit with the wheelie pulling, 1000 horsepower monsters over here. He’d have tons of fun.

If you do a vid on 81, be sure to watch ESPN Classic’s joint interview with Mario & Bobby in the late-90s. They’re STILL salty about it.

“Andretti is slowing on the backstretch.”

I've seen this in the comments already a couple of times, but I will reiterate. When looking into American racing figures, AJ Foyt is one who's name needs more recognition across the pond (and even in the United States). Only driver to win the Indy 500 (4 times), Daytona 500, Le Mans and 24 Hours of Daytona. In addition, he won the 12 Hours of Sebring to complete the "Triple Crown of Endurance Racing, " he is the all-time leader in IndyCar wins with 67 and won 7 total NASCAR races. He also has a famous temper, most famously and hilariously slapping Arie Luyendyk after the 1997 IRL race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Who are the best 5 drivers of all time? Think about it: Roberto, Roberto, Roberto, Roberto and Roberto because he spits hot fire

As an Unser fan since I started watching racing (about 1970) I always got some schadenfreude out of the annual Andretti miseries. I wouldn't feel that way now, but when you're young you have less sympathy for the misfortunes of others. The younger me always thought of the Andrettis as whiners and crybabies (John being the exception) but the older me thinks their whining was often justified. When Marco came along I was really rooting for him to do well, and he did all right, but seemed not to want it badly enough and fell short on the ability he seemed to have, and I guess that's where the Andretti racing story will end.

im a calgary flames fan and i have no idea what curse you're referring to. Possibly the curse of us not winning in anaheim during the late 2000's early 2010"s???

I would say the Pettys post-Richard are more cursed

You have to make one for Dani Pedrossa Moto GP rider.

Good thing F1 doesn’t run the Indy 500 anymore. 😂

Mario and AJ could be the greatest racing rivalry of all-time. As great as Mario was, it a shame that AJ always overshadowed him in America. It turns in a “What could have been.”

When are you doing a storytime on the great Alan Jones ??

Michael Andretti has had a fair few Indy 500 wins as a team manager though

You missed AJ Foyt on the list of greatest all-around drivers

Cursed? No. It's just really hard.

Loeb is one place down for my taste

There's a podium for the Indy 500?😮