Papis is married to Tatiana Papis, daughter of Emerson Fittipaldi. They have two children, who are cousins of Pietro Fittipaldi and Enzo Fittipaldi. The godfathers of his two sons are Alex Zanardi (Marco) and Dario Franchitti (Matteo). He grew up in Italy and began racing in go-karts, winning several races and rounds for racing clubs in Italy.
After serving as a test driver for Lotus in 1994, Papis replaced Gianni Morbidelli in the Footwork team for seven races in the middle of the 1995 Formula One season, bringing valuable sponsorship to the cash-strapped outfit. Despite being a race-winner in Formula 3000, he often struggled with the unfamiliar car and was occasionally outpaced by his teammate Taki Inoue. He suffered a puncture and suspension failure on his debut at Silverstone after clipping the pit lane wall after a tyre change, was left on the grid at Hockenheim due to a transmission failure, and spun on dust and oil kicked up by David Coulthard at the Ascari Chicane on the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix, causing a pile-up and a restart. In the restarted race, Papis narrowly missed a point, being overtaken by Jean-Christophe Boullion's Sauber on the last lap. When Morbidelli returned, Papis lost his drive and moved to America for 1996.
Papis moved to CART Champ Car racing in 1996 as a replacement for Jeff Krosnoff, who had been killed in the previous race in Toronto. In 1999 he joined the Rahal team, nearly winning the US 500 before running out of fuel, and finished fifth in the series. He won the 2000 season-opener but failed to finish in the championship top ten. In 2001 he won twice and finished sixth overall but was dropped by the team, largely due to two collisions with teammate Kenny Bräck. In 2002 he competed with Sigma Autosport, scoring two third-place finishes at Long Beach and Milwaukee before the team folded due to financial problems. He did a partial season with PK Racing in 2003, with a best result of fourth at Road America. Papis also raced in the 2002 and 2006 Indianapolis 500 for Cheever Racing, claiming a fourteenth-place finish in his second appearance. As the series struggled to fill its grid for 2003 after many teams defected to the IRL, Papis remarked that "Champ Car needs me more than I need it" and concentrated increasingly on sportscars from 2001 onwards.
Papis earned the nickname "Mad Max" at the 1996 24 Hours of Daytona. In his final stint, driving a battered second-place Ferrari 333SP — its bodywork held together in part by tape — Papis unlapped himself by passing race leader Wayne Taylor's Doyle Racing Riley and Scott-Oldsmobile and proceeded to set some of the fastest laps of the entire race. Taylor was nursing the Oldsmobile due to overheating and would otherwise have cruised to victory, but Papis' pace made a theoretical win possible. The speed was achieved at the cost of maximum fuel consumption: late in the race Papis entered the pits at near full speed for fuel — pit lane speed limits were imposed the following year. Taylor was still 64 seconds ahead at the finish.
Papis raced in the IRL early in his career, driving for Roger Penske, Andretti-Green Racing, and Panther Racing from 2001 to 2009. In 2013 at the Indianapolis 500, Papis and Zanardi were present in the victory celebration when Kanaan won his first Indy 500. In 2016, Papis was hired by the IndyCar Series as a race steward, alongside Arie Luyendyk and Dan Davis.
On 8 June 2003, Papis made his debut in the ASCAR Racing Series, joining Team HTML for Round 3 of the British Stock Car racing series at Rockingham Motor Speedway, driving the No. 68 Pontiac and placing fourteenth overall. This was his only race in the series; he was replaced by Derek Hayes for the rest of the season.
Papis made his NASCAR debut in August 2006 in the Busch Series at Watkins Glen International for McGill Motorsports, following the release of Tim Sauter. He attempted to qualify for the NASCAR Cup Series race at the same event but failed. In 2007 he ran two races for James Finch's Phoenix Racing No. 01 Chevy: at Montreal in the inaugural NAPA 200 he finished third after avoiding Marcos Ambrose's crash caused by a disqualified Robby Gordon; at Watkins Glen his engine failed on lap 2.
Papis made his Cup Series debut at Infineon Raceway in 2008, piloting the No. 66 Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet in place of Scott Riggs. Haas CNC Racing also hired him to drive the No. 70 Chevrolet Monte Carlo at Watkins Glen in the Sprint Cup later that year. In 2009 he was announced as driver of the No. 13 GEICO Toyota for eighteen races, then took on a full-time ride in 2010 in the Sprint Cup. That year he recorded a career-best eighth-place finish at Watkins Glen, a twelfth at Infineon Raceway, and a fifteenth starting position at Fontana. At Daytona in February 2010, Papis had the fastest truck in a Truck Series event and led for several laps before being collected in an accident with fifteen laps remaining while running towards the lead. At Montreal in the Nationwide Series, driving for Richard Childress Racing, Papis was leading on the final lap but took too much curb in the last turn, was passed by Boris Said, and finished second. After Watkins Glen in 2010, the team announced Papis would be replaced by Casey Mears for 2011; Papis moved to the Truck Series for the team, finishing eighteenth in the standings.
In subsequent years Papis had strong road-course showings without victories. In 2011 at Road America he was spun out by Jacques Villeneuve with two laps remaining; after the race Papis blocked Villeneuve's car on pit road and the two argued. In 2012 he finished fourth at Road America and ran one race in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series at Kawartha Speedway for Scott Steckly, starting sixteenth and finishing twenty-first. In 2013 at Road America he was spun out twice in the waning laps; after the race he slapped Billy Johnson and the two were separated by officials before Papis apologised to the media. In August 2013, Papis substituted for Tony Stewart in the No. 14 Chevrolet in the Sprint Cup at Watkins Glen after Stewart suffered a broken leg in a sprint car accident, posting a top-fifteen finish. He also competed in the inaugural Nationwide Children's Hospital 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for Richard Childress Racing, finishing fourth.
In 2013, Papis drove for NTS Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series' inaugural race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park — the Chevrolet Silverado 250 — finishing sixth. Following the race, he suffered a dislocated jaw after being slapped by the girlfriend of driver Mike Skeen, with whom he had crashed on the final lap.
In 2013, Papis ran two races in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series Elite 1 Division driving No. 33 Chevrolet for OverDrive, and two races driving No. 19 Chevrolet for his own team, Max Papis Racing, with a best finish of second at Tours Speedway. In 2014, his team fielded the No. 99 car for Kevin Gilardoni in the Elite 1 Division. In 2017, Papis ran one race in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East at Watkins Glen, driving No. 13 Toyota for Eric McClure; he started seventeenth and finished eighteenth after engine failure.
In 2016, Papis made his debut in the Stadium Super Trucks series, running the Honda Indy Toronto rounds in the No. 9 truck. He finished eleventh and seventh.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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