Through the grogginess, I reach for my phone, open the recording app and whisper, “It’s 3 in the morning and I’m awake and sweating because I just had a nightmare I got into a car accident with Mario Andretti.”
I was spending the night 15 minutes outside of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, the quaint hometown of racing icon Mario Andretti. As the 50th anniversary of his Indianapolis 500 victory approaches, I have arranged to meet the living legend at his villa and chauffeur him to the first track he ever called home: Nazareth Speedway.
The plan was to walk around the now-defunct 1-1/8-mile race track and reminisce about the Italian immigrant’s auspicious beginnings — the place where the legend began.