"I was furious": When Mario Andretti exposed his team's sabotage attempt after winning 1967 Daytona 500

Mario Andretti is the only driver in racing history to win the Indy 500, the Daytona 500, and an F1 championship. The first achievement among these three was the prestigious Daytona 500 victory in 1967, where he had to overcome sabotage from his own team.

Even before qualifying, he'd found that his car's engine was 400 RPM weaker than standard (7200 RPM vs 6800 RPM). To compensate, he had to sacrifice some stability to regain top speed. Andretti qualified 12th for the race in the Holman-Moody 1967 Ford, while teammate Fred Lorenzen was further up in fourth place.

The teammates were left in the fight for the race win, with over 40 laps to go. On lap 163, both drivers made their last pit stops. However, to Mario Andretti's surprise, his team intentionally held him on the jack to let Lorenzen get a comfortable lead.

"It was absolutely intentional. They had orders to hold me, and they held me back for about seven seconds. I was furious because they held the car up on the jack. It dawned on me what they were doing because the work was done," he said via FOX Sports.

Andretti emphasized how "upset" he was after that and drove each lap like a qualifying lap to hunt Lorenzen down. Once he passed him within five laps, he held onto the lead to win the Daytona 500 under a caution period at the end.

"It was quite a feather in my cap, quite honestly, and I was very proud of that. I represented the open-wheel dudes down there in a good way. I loved that part. And then A.J. (Foyt) joined me and we are still the only ones that have done that," Mario Andretti added.

The latest IndyCar driver to attempt the Daytona 500 was Helio Castroneves in February 2025. He was collected in a seven-car wreck on lap 72 of 500, prematurely ending his race.

Mario Andretti claimed Ford wanted Fred Lorenzen to win the 1967 Daytona 500

Fred Lorenzen had a terrific track record at the Daytona 500. He competed in the prestigious NASCAR race with Holman-Moody from 1962 to 1967, consistently finishing in the Top five except for 1964, when he retired with an engine failure.

But the very next year, the "Golden Boy" won the Daytona 500. The fan favorite could've earned his second win in 1967, if not for Mario Andretti's sheer pace. Andretti expressed years later how even Ford wasn't happy with him winning, even though Holman-Moody's 1967 Ford had won.

"I'm sure not everyone was happy with it, including Ford. They wanted Lorenzen to win, not me, because it was a one-off race for me," he said via Road and Track.

Mario Andretti returned to the 1968 Daytona 500 with Holman-Moody, but Ford didn't back him that time around. He raced in a 1968 Mercury and crashed out on lap 105 of 200. The racing icon never returned to NASCAR's biggest race again.