Conor Daly shares untold story of a "shirtless" Mario Andretti's heroics that he'll never forget

IndyCar star Conor Daly, who's good friends with Mario Andretti's grandson Marco, recently came out and shared stories about the former F1 and IndyCar champion. Daly detailed Mario’s heroics and how the motorsport icon continues to live his life on the edge.

Conor Daly has been racing in IndyCar for over a decade in part-time and full-time roles. The 33-year-old races for Michael Andretti's team, Andretti Autosport (now Andretti Global), in 2019 as a one-off entry for the Indy 500.

Back then, Mario Andretti’s grandson, Marco, was still racing as a full-time entry for Andretti Autosport, and he became good friends with Daly. The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver recently featured on the Mythfits podcast and spoke about all things racing as well as his personal life.

The host of the podcast questioned Conor Daly on whether he had any interesting stories of Mario Andretti, as the former F1 champion, despite being 85 years old, continues to race in motorsport events. Daly came out and hailed the Andretti family, spoke about his friendship with Marco, and the time he raced for Michael Andretti's team.

Revealing an untold story about a “shirtless” Mario Andretti, Conor Daly said,

“They live in Pennsylvania, both Marco and Mario. And they live out in a little lake house. Mario's got a lot of toys out there. He's got four wheeler dirt bikes and ultra lights. The ultra light is like a lawn mower in the sky with two giant wings, one seat and a propeller behind it.” (34:10 onwards)

“I'll never forget, we're out in the lake riding Jetski, or doing whatever, I think I was fishing at one point and Mario, all of a sudden, just appears about 50 feet off the ground, in this ultra light, shirtless, and just flying by us on the lake. I'm like, 'Man this guy is so cool'. I don't even know if there are seatbelts on this thing. But Mario Andretti is in an ultra light, banked in. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen,” he added

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Conor Daly distinguishes Mario Andretti as a “true living gangster.”

Mario Andretti raced in a multitude of series, including IndyCar, F1, Sprint Car and even stock cars during his time. The motorsports legend has a massive collection of cars and still races at promotional events. Conor Daly came out and hailed Mario as he said,

“I love Mario Andretti. I think as a human being, that guy is like just one of the true living gangsters. I feel like he should be in the movie ‘Goodfellas’. You know, an Italian-American guy, he's got great hair, and he was driving two seater IndyCar till he was 85 or something crazy. You know, F1 champion, IndyCar champion. Michael and Marco Andretti, great son and great grandson. Just an incredible family.” (33:15 onwards)

Mario was appointed as a member of the board of directors of the Cadillac F1 team. Michael Andretti left his role as the CEO of Andretti Global last year, and Marco Andretti continues to participate in the Indy 500 as a one-off entry.