Rear View: The Andrettis' darkest day - Indy 1992

Pain. Anger. Regret. All three worked inside Mario, Jeff and Michael Andretti during the Indy 500 in 1992. The remnants of that day in May, some items burrowed deep, others permanently attached, stressed the Andretti family to its limits.

Mario, the patriarch of the Nazareth, Pa., clan, was out first on the critically cold day. A rare mistake sent the 1969 Indy 500 winner hard into the Turn 4 wall, which left his Newman/Haas Racing Lola crumpled and his feet a battered mess. Jeff was next, victim of a broken wheel that sent his A.J. Foyt Racing Lola into the Turn 2 with obscene force. The damage to his lower extremities made Mario's crash look tame.

Michael was fortunate to escape Indy 1992 intact physically, but the crushing manner of his defeat – on a day where his mastery of the 500 was so thoroughly complete – left a mark that time might not be able to erase.

The renowned 200-lap contest, led by Michael's identical Newman/Haas Racing Lola for 160 of those tours, surrendered with 11 laps to run when his mighty Ford/Cosworth turbo V8 lost fuel pressure. Winless in 16 attempts spanning 1984-2007, the 1992 edition was his best chance of joining his father as a victor at Indy, but fate had other intentions.

• Rear View: Jeff Andretti's life-changing 1992 500

Although the sting of defeat being snatched from the jaws of victory has lessened in the quarter-century since it took place, the hardships faced by Mario and Jeff have framed the 1992 race as a viciously dark day for the Andretti family.

"You've got to live with it, but I look at that day, it should have been the best day of my career and it ended up being the worst day of my career," Michael said. "As I retired, that is what it ended up being. It was just a horrible day.

"God, to dominate this race the way we did...we were five miles per hour quicker than anybody else; [my] quickest lap was literally five miles per hour quicker than anybody else. And it was the easiest day of my life. But yet it was a really difficult race because first my dad crashes."

Michael dealt with the challenge of trying to win his first Indy 500 while processing the rush of emotions from seeing the aftermath of his father's and his brother's crash.

"OK, then I get the report that [Mario] broke some feet but he's going to be OK," Michael said. "Then Jeff (pictured above) crashes and I saw his car when I was going around. And I knew it was really bad. And I never got a report. So every yellow, I'd be like, 'So what is going on with Jeff?' Nobody ever gave me a report.

"At that point, it's all most like, is he even alive? Keeping your concentration was really difficult. What motivated me to do it was, screw it, I'm going to win this race for Jeff. And then I'm just cruising. I was just literally cruising."

The precariously low temperatures meant pit stops to take on new tires came with a risk. Drivers would normally spin the rear tires leaving their pit stall to remove the slick sheen that coated the rubber surface. The small burnouts would also cause friction between the tire and the track surface, which warmed the tires and increased grip. Choosing to adhere to those norms, as Mario explains, would made the difference between finishing the race and crashing.

"It was one of those years where obviously I'm in a hospital from a mistake that I made, because what was happening in the last pit stop – I was running pretty good, I was right up front," he said. Losing time in the pits under a caution period would influence his next actions.

"So by the time I went, I was [at the] back of the field," he continued. "What I did, which I figure I'm going to be easy on the gearbox and I didn't spin the tires to try to take the glaze away from the tires. So I took off easily. I figured I was in the back anyway.

"Obviously, the green went, I was in the back and I thought, 'S••t, I'm going to pick up half the field before I get to the start/finish line.' And I really dove down and really forced it down on the apron and the inevitable happened."

With rear tires that weren't ready to handle the speed he unleashed on the restart, Mario was about to pay a heavy price.

"I think if I would've just taken the glaze away from the rears, which I even do that with the two-seater, I don't get caught out," he said. And everything went wrong because [of] the temperature of the day and everything. It was something I was really forcing. So I made a stupid mistake."

Taken to the infield care facility, Mario was in his hospital bed while Jeff's unnerving crash happened.

"I'm in the hospital and they had me on ice; I didn't have anything threatening, [just] my feet and so forth," he said. "And all of a sudden, we hear a 'Code 3' and hear 'Andretti,' hear 'Jeff.'

"And then I remember one of the doctors coming over to me and saying, 'Michael is leading, Michael is leading,' giving me courage. I was in pain – he tried to put me away a little bit with happy pills. Meanwhile, Jeff was being cared for and so forth with his injuries."

Father and son Andretti, in the same infirmary, while Michael raged around the 2.5-mile oval. Before long, all three would be out of the 1992 race.

"And I come up on Al Sr., who is driving in the Buick, and I start smelling something and I'm like, 'I think that Buick might be ready to blow so I better get by him,'" Michael recalled. "So I pass him. And right when I pass him the engine just quits. So what I was smelling was my belt in the engine, which was what was burning. That was me that I was smelling, not him."

With his fuel pump no longer spinning, Michael's engine – starved of fuel – left him to coast to a halt as Al Unser Jr and Scott Goodyear inherited the chance to earn their first Indy 500 victory.

"Yeah, it's a great feeling," Michael said of owning the race until his motor quit. "Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy it because I was just thinking about my family, with Dad and Jeff. It even ruined that. And not to capitalize on it and to end up coming to a stop with 11 laps to go, it's like, geez, the easiest race of my career turned out to be nothing. I had nothing to show for it except two of my family members in the hospital."

In the care center, hazy from the pain medication, Mario eventually figured out something had gone terribly wrong.

"All of the sudden, I wake up from a daze and the race is over and nobody's coming over to congratulate me," he said. "So I ask the nurse, 'Who won the race?' She said, 'Are you sure you want to know?' I said, 'Oh my God. Michael, lap lead almost two laps lead, nine laps to go. All my goodness. Oh, gosh. At least we are alive.' God. What a day."

EPILOGUE

The one member of the Andretti family to end the race unscathed and running was Mario's nephew, John Andretti (pictured above). The Jim Hall Racing driver cruised home to eighth in his Lola-Chevy, which gave the greater Andretti family a small win of sorts. Twenty-five years later, Mario, Jeff and Michael live full and complete lives. For Aldo Andretti's son, the clean experience of 1992 has been replaced by a physical fight of his own.

The scourge of colon cancer – a far more serious concern than a bad day of racing at Indy – has thrust John into an important role at the 2017 500. Michael's entire Andretti Autosport team, six cars in all, have rallied to support John in his effort to raise awareness for the disease that manifested within his cousin.

"He is going through a tough time, no question about it," Michael said. "But John is an amazing guy, he's really strong. I just feel like he's going to pull himself through it. What is awesome is the message that he is been putting out there. And I believe with what has happened with him, because of it a lot of lives are going to be saved because I can't tell you how many people of come up to me and said that I went, I'm getting it, I made my appointment, I'm getting [a colonoscopy] done."

As the one bright spot for Mario, Jeff and Michael back in 1992, now it's their turn to repay the favor.

Listen to the full interview with the Andrettis in the podcast below: