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Yesterday, we learned of the retirement of an Indianapolis 500 veteran. It wasn’t a total surprise, but I was still struck by the finality of it all when it was announced. Wednesday morning, Marco Andretti announced his retirement from all motorsports, including the Indianapolis 500.

Next May will be the first Indianapolis 500 without at least one Andretti entered in the race since 2005, when his father Michael was still racing in CART and chose not to race at The Speedway during the heated days of The Split. While Michael chased his dreams of Formula One with McLaren in 1993, his father – the great Mario Andretti – was still racing at Indianapolis until he retired at the end of the 1994 season. Except for those five years from 1996 to 2000, then the 2004 & 2005 races after Michael "retired" following the 2003 race; and the one year in 1979 when Mario was pursuing his second straight F1 championship – there has been at least one Andretti in the Indianapolis 500 since Mario’s rookie year in 1965. That was my rookie year as well.

In 1991 and 1992, there were four Andrettis in the Indianapolis 500. Mario, his sons Michael and Jeff, along with his nephew John (Aldo’s son). Next May, there will be none. As I said earlier…while I’m not surprised, I find it kind of sad that the family name has come to an end after sixty years at IMS. Michael’s name is still carried by the team he used to own – Andretti Global – but how long will they continue to carry that name, before it evolves into with the name TWG, Towriss or something along those lines in the title.

Speaking of Dan Towriss and the team that Michael Andretti used to own…one has to wonder if this was solely Marco’s decision. I don’t like speculating how someone comes to such a decision, as a vulture might do – but people are already bringing up the question on social media. Andretti Global is already running their three cars in the Indianapolis 500. We know that Colton Herta is racing in other types of racing next year besides F2, and we also know that the F2 schedule is wide-open on both sides of the Indianapolis 500 next May. I am guessing that either Herta wants to drive in the Indianapolis 500 next May, or Towriss wants to get some return in the huge salary he is paying Herta and wants him in their fourth car. Chances are, they are not real interested in running a fifth car for Marco.

That is nothing more than me connecting some dots and seeing something that makes sense. Then again, this could be as simple as Marco looking at his age (he will be 39 by next May), and looking at his results since he started running Indy-Only in 2021 (best finish was 17th in 2023). If you saw Marco at Indianapolis anytime last May, he did not look like he was having fun. Some of the old crew guys were still there, but his father was no longer with the team and he probably felt very isolated. I have an idea things had changed so much, just didn’t feel the same.

Keep in mind, when Marco joined the team for the 2006 season, he was replacing Dan Wheldon – who had moved on to Chip Ganassi Racing. His teammates were Bryan Herta, Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan. Michael joined the team for the 500 and the two raced against each other in the closing laps in that year’s race. Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe both joined the team later and were longtime teammates of Marco. All of those early teammates had big personalities, and Marco had a bond with each of them.

Last year, Marco’s teammates in May were Colton Herta, Marcus Ericsson and Kyle Kirkwood – all good drivers, but none of them had the bold personalities that Marco was used to hanging around with for most of his time on the team. That’s why every time I saw Marco last spring, he was on the golf cart – either with his grandfather or his girlfriend. I never saw him with a teammate or crew guy, and I was there all day every day for the practice week. It would not surprise me if the whole thing had lost its luster to Marco.

I get it. My day-job retirement date of Jan 9 is now looming. Ten weeks from today, I will drive to work for the very last time. I had originally set my retirement to be at the end of 2026; but 95% of my close friends (including my One Take Only co-hort, John McLallen) with work have either moved on, retired already or died. I enjoy my current set of co-workers, but I have very little in common with them. The most recent person we hired in our Nashville office was born in 2003. There are many others close to her age. I vividly remember when John F. Kennedy died. She doesn’t remember when Ted Kennedy died, or who he was.

I rarely even attempt to make conversations with most of my co-workers these days. I am over seventeen offices in twenty-seven counties. There are only two people older than me (67) across all of those offices. One of the things that kept running through my mind when I announced last December that this year would be my last in…it just wasn’t any fun anymore. So if Marco felt like he no longer fit in with the team that still bears his last name, I fully understand.

Then again, I’m not sure how comfortable Marco was as an IndyCar driver. The Andretti name is an almost impossible name to live up to. When I was growing up in the 60s, I was an AJ Foyt fan, not a Mario Andretti fan. You couldn’t be both. But over time, I have learned to appreciate everything Mario was on the track, as well as off. As I’ve seen people say; “There’s cool, then there is Mario Andretti cool” He may have ruffled a few feathers with fans and fellow competitors back in the 60s, but there is no denying that Mario is IndyCar’s greatest ambassador and diplomat, and there may not be anyone – living or dead – more respected in motorsports.

Michael Andretti was an outstanding driver in his own right. But he never came close to matching his father’s gravitas off the track. Michael was probably a better businessman than his famous father, but he was not looked up to or respected like his father was. That lack of charisma is what prevented him from getting his long-sought after F1 team, and why he ultimately had to step away and remove himself from the team he started, in order for business partner Dan Towriss and TWG Motorsports to get Cadillac involved and make the team a reality.

As polished and outgoing as Mario has always been, Michael did not have much of a personality – at least from what I observed over the years. Marco looked more like Marion than Michael did, but he inherited Michael’s introverted personality.

After Marco’s success in his very first Indianapolis 500 as a 19 year-old, and winning his first race later that season – much was expected from the third-generation driver. His career never took off, especially away from 16th and Georgetown. After that first win at Sonoma in 2006, Marco collected only one more win – a dominating performance at Iowa in 2010. That was partly what frustrated his fans. Every now and then, he would tantalize you with a brilliant drive like that night at Iowa, or strong finishes at the Indianapolis 500. But mostly, there were mediocre and forgettable drives and sometimes when he would park the car simply because he thought it was unsafe.

Combine that with Marco constantly putting his lavish lifestyle on social media, and his fans turned on him. He presented a lifestyle that few could relate to. It gave the impression that if he would devote more time to his craft, and less time to flying to glamorous parties around the world – his career would have gone a lot better. He did himself no favors by giving fans the impression he was above all that.

Over the years, I have decided that Marco Andretti was very misunderstood, and incredibly shy – almost to the point of being painful. After observing and talking to some of his crew guys and people who know him, I have formed the opinion that Marco would prefer to not even be in the spotlight; and growing up in such a jet-set environment all of his life – he probably had no idea his social media posts were off-putting to most people.

Now that Marco Andretti has officially stepped away, I feel sadness for a number of reasons. I am sad thinking about the enormous shadow he grew up in. I don’t think his family pressured him, but I think his fans, his father’s fans and his grandfather’s fans all had very unrealistic expectations for Marco. I think Marco Andretti had racing talent and probably more than he even realized himself, but it wasn’t out-of-this-world talent that everyone expected of him.

I am afraid that he is stepping away from a career where he will feel unfulfilled. After his rookie season, who didn’t think he would finally end the Andretti curse at Indianapolis? I know I felt that way in the fall of 2006.

From a selfish standpoint, I am sad that there will most likely never be another Andretti racing at Indianapolis in my lifetime. One by one, I keep seeing the names from my childhood being taken by Father Time. I won’t get too philosophical here, but it is becoming a constant reminder of my own mortality – especially at my ripe old age. After 60 years, it’s hard to imagine the Indianapolis 500 without the name Andretti being involved.

Regardless of my selfish wants. Marco Andretti had a good career and should have no regrets. I wish his announcement would have been that next May was going to be his last, so that we could give him a proper sendoff. But knowing of his dislike for the spotlight – this is probably what he prefers.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on October 30, 2025 at 4:01 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.