Instead, Brawner was allegedly let go by Granatelli when he assumed ownership of the team after the big win. But behind the scenes, Autoweek says that McGee and Brawner weren't really big fans of Granatelli, and it wasn't long before they took their leaves from the team.īut Racer Magazine puts forward a slightly different version of the tale. Per IndyStar, McGee and Brawner were basically the brains behind Andretti's win in 1969, overcoming some pretty wild technical challenges, and by all accounts, it seemed like everything was going pretty well after the win. The main players in this version of the story were Mario Andretti himself, his engineers Jim McGee and Clint Brawner, and team owner Andy Granatelli. Of course, there were the occasional glimpses of hope (fast laps, good starting positions), none of which ever fully panned out. Then there were the countless times when his car just kind of died – engine issues, throttle and piston issues, and vague mechanical problems. He's experienced more than his fair share of crashes and wrecks that ruin the car beyond repair, putting him out of the race early.

Even stranger than that, he actually retired twice from the race in 1968, climbing into his teammate's car, only for it to suffer the same mechanical issue that his original car did.Īnd after 1969? To be entirely honest, it's harder to find a good year than a bad one.

Sure, yeah, he won in 1969, but his races in the three years prior? He didn't finish a single one – to add insult to injury, he didn't even make it halfway through in any of those races (the Indy 500 is 200 laps long, and the furthest Andretti got was to lap 58).

Bleacher Report has an extensive report of just what happened to Andretti every year he's raced in the Indy 500, and, in short, it's quite the comedy of errors.

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