While John Andretti’s 1997 victory in the Coca-Cola 400, driving for Cale Yarborough Motorsports, is slightly fading in some people’s memory, there aren’t too many around who remember, his Uncle Mario Andretti’s win in the Daytona 500 in 1967.
John said, after winning his race, that his uncle was relentless. “The funny thing is when I won… he kept calling and my cell phone kept getting filled with voice messages and I kept emptying them out, but he was on there all the time.
Finally, he got a hold of me and we talked for five or 10 minutes about winning the race, and I diverted over to the Daytona 500 and he told me stories you wouldn’t believe about that race and everything leading up to it. It was a good hour-and-a-half later I finally got off the phone that night, but it was a thrilling time for me.”
This week John is driving one of Bob Jenkins, Front Row Racing Fords. Jenkins, an independent, has three cars entered on a limited budget.
John Andretti was asked how was this done? “The stars were aligned,” he added. “Now, are they aligned for three cars? That’s yet to be seen, but Bob actually has a strategy behind all of it and Bob is an extremely intelligent man, so from that standpoint, he understands what he’s doing. Now, will he achieve everything he needs to do? That remains to be seen, but it won’t be because of a lack of effort or something in regard to that. It’s still gonna be a tight program and he’s gonna have to run a tight ship because, just as in anything, funds are limited.”
Part of the program is fund raising for charity. As Andretti explained “the neat thing for me is being part of the Daytona 500 program to raise money for St. Jude, and I’m just glad with Front Row Motorsports and Window World Cares that we were able to pull all that together. It’s really spearheaded by Window World through their program. They want to now raise $1.5 million for St. Jude, which, amazingly, only runs the hospital for a day.”
John said, after winning his race, that his uncle was relentless. “The funny thing is when I won… he kept calling and my cell phone kept getting filled with voice messages and I kept emptying them out, but he was on there all the time.
Finally, he got a hold of me and we talked for five or 10 minutes about winning the race, and I diverted over to the Daytona 500 and he told me stories you wouldn’t believe about that race and everything leading up to it. It was a good hour-and-a-half later I finally got off the phone that night, but it was a thrilling time for me.”
This week John is driving one of Bob Jenkins, Front Row Racing Fords. Jenkins, an independent, has three cars entered on a limited budget.
John Andretti was asked how was this done? “The stars were aligned,” he added. “Now, are they aligned for three cars? That’s yet to be seen, but Bob actually has a strategy behind all of it and Bob is an extremely intelligent man, so from that standpoint, he understands what he’s doing. Now, will he achieve everything he needs to do? That remains to be seen, but it won’t be because of a lack of effort or something in regard to that. It’s still gonna be a tight program and he’s gonna have to run a tight ship because, just as in anything, funds are limited.”
Part of the program is fund raising for charity. As Andretti explained “the neat thing for me is being part of the Daytona 500 program to raise money for St. Jude, and I’m just glad with Front Row Motorsports and Window World Cares that we were able to pull all that together. It’s really spearheaded by Window World through their program. They want to now raise $1.5 million for St. Jude, which, amazingly, only runs the hospital for a day.”