Mario Gabriele Andretti is an automobile racing driver (IndyCar, Formula One, sports cars, stock cars), team owner, and businessman. He was an Italian-born American. Born February 28, 1940, in Montona, Istria, Kingdom of Italy (now Motovun, Croatia). | Silent Generation (born in 1940, between the interwar and World War II/postwar cohorts). |Chinese Zodiac: Dragon (1940 is a Metal Dragon year in the traditional 12-year animal cycle)|Zodiac Sign: Pisces (Sun in Pisces for February 28)|Age in 2026: 86 years old in 2026.|Marital Status: Widowed (married to Dee Ann Hoch from 1961 until she died in 2018)| Children: Four children, including sons Michael and Jeff Andretti who became racing drivers, and other children often listed as Barbie and a fourth child involved in family and business interests; he is also the patriarch of a multigenerational racing family that includes grandson Marco Andretti. | Description: Mario Andretti is one of the most versatile and successful racing drivers in motorsport history, an Italian-born American competitor whose career spanned more than three decades and encompassed victories in nearly every major discipline, from IndyCar and Formula One to sports cars and NASCAR; born in Montana, Istria, then part of Italy, he and his twin brother Aldo grew up in the difficult aftermath of World War II, spending several years in a displaced individuals camp before the family emigrated to Nazareth, Pennsylvania, in 1955, where the brothers fell in love with American short-track racing and secretly began competing in modified stock cars as teenagers. Andretti rose rapidly through the ranks in the U.S. He competed in open-wheel racing, winning United States Auto Club (USAC) championships in the 1960s and claiming victory at the 1969 Indianapolis 500. He then broadened his achievements with a win at the 1967 Daytona 500 in stock cars and major sports car triumphs, demonstrating an exceptional ability to adapt between very different machines and series. Internationally, he is best known for capturing the 1978 Formula One World Championship with Team Lotus in the ground-effect Lotus 79, becoming one of the few drivers to win both the F1 title and the Indy 500, even as that season was overshadowed by the fatal Monza crash that killed his teammate and friend Ronnie Peterson. Over his career, he amassed 109 major race wins. He was widely honored, including being named “Driver of the Century” by the Associated Press and RACER magazine around 2000. After he retired from full-time driving in the 1990s, he remained a visible ambassador for the sport, participating in testing, giving high-speed passenger rides at IndyCar events, and launching business ventures, including a winery bearing his name. As of 2026, he is still alive, celebrated as the patriarch of the Andretti racing dynasty and regarded as a symbol of competitive fire, technical know-how, and the immigrant success story in American motor racing, with no publicly reported terminal illness or cause of death.