1,000 Greatest Drivers: Michael Andretti

This ended up being unexpectedly timely...

I started this a little late because I didn’t start writing until after the Cup race, my post-race Cup Series statistics, and my decision to calculate all the Xfinity Series lead change data today, and obviously I had to pare a lot down since I always overwrite before I reduce down to 500 words (the original version of this column had over 1,200 words). I moved Michael Andretti off his birthday of October 5 because Klaus Ludwig was born the same day and I consider him a bigger legend than Andretti, so I decided to write this entry for October 20, which was the day Andretti clinched his only CART title in 1991, but I didn’t quite make it. Since I mention Mario a bunch of times in the article, I decided to always refer to Michael as Michael in the column to avoid any confusion. This entry ended up being weirdly timely since he relinquished control of the day-to-day operations of Andretti Global in September (after I had already scheduled the entry). I have written here that he was forced out because that is what I think happened, since this does seem to be a result of his failure to enter F1 as a car owner as he had wanted to do, but that could be an assumption that was incorrect and if I find out I’m wrong about this, then I’ll edit that small piece of this article. I couldn’t rate his 1993 but I was tempted because he actually had a better overtake record (27-3) than his teammate Ayrton Senna (23-9), but then again, it’s easier to make overtakes when you have a fast car and you qualify worse…