Andretti was born to Mario Andretti and his wife Dee Ann (née Hoch). His brother Jeff Andretti competed in IndyCar. His uncle Aldo Andretti was an open-wheel racer until an accident ended his career. Aldo's son John Andretti raced in IndyCar and later NASCAR; Aldo's other son Adam also raced. In 2006, Michael's son Marco made his IndyCar debut, making the Andretti family — Michael, Mario, Marco, Jeff, and John — the first family to have five members compete in the same series (CART/Champ Car/IndyCar). Andretti graduated from Nazareth Area High School and attended Northampton Community College in Bethlehem.
Following a kart career in which he won fifty of 75 races over eight years, Andretti obtained his SCCA National License in 1980 and won the SCCA's Northeast Division Formula Ford championship in 1981. In 1982, he won six of eleven races to claim the Robert Bosch US Formula Super Vee Championship, and won the FIA Formula Mondial North American Cup the following season.
At the 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans, Andretti was denied the opportunity to race when the Mirage M12 he was entered in with his father was disqualified eighty minutes before the start. He and Mario returned to Le Mans in 1983, finishing third in a Porsche Kremer Racing Porsche 956, joined by Philippe Alliot. The father-and-son pair also raced together at the Riverside 6 Hours alongside A. J. Foyt and Preston Henn, but their Porsche 935 failed to finish. At the 1984 24 Hours of Daytona, driving a full-works Porsche 962 making its race debut, they took pole position but retired with engine failure.
Andretti made his CART debut in 1983 for Kraco Enterprises. In 1984 he finished seventh overall and shared the Rookie of the Year award with Roberto Guerrero, having finished fifth in the Indianapolis 500. He won his first IndyCar race in 1986 at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. That season developed into a two-man championship battle with Bobby Rahal; Andretti took the points lead after winning on the Milwaukee Mile, but at Portland on Father's Day, leading on the final lap, his March-Cosworth 86C ran out of fuel, allowing his father Mario to beat him by just 0.07 seconds — one of the most shocking finishes in IndyCar history. Rahal clinched the title with a nine-point lead at the finale at Tamiami Park, where Andretti retired with a broken halfshaft.
In 1987, the championship again came down to Andretti versus Rahal. Andretti won the Marlboro 500 and dominated at Nazareth Speedway, but Rahal clinched the title before the final race. Andretti finished runner-up for the second consecutive season. He also took part in the inaugural World Touring Car race at Monza, paired with Alessandro Nannini, finishing sixteenth overall and second in class. In June 1987, Andretti joined Hendrick Motorsport to race a Chevrolet Corvette GTP at the Mid-Ohio 500 km alongside his cousin John Andretti; they finished eleventh. Following Porsche's defeat in the 1988 Daytona 24 Hours, Porsche entered a 962C at Le Mans for Michael, Mario, and John, and they ran competitively in the first half before finishing sixth overall on five cylinders. The 1988 CART season produced only one win — the non-championship Marlboro Challenge.
Andretti joined Newman/Haas Racing in 1989, partnering with his father Mario. He won at Molson Indy Toronto and the Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway, finishing third in points. In 1990, he won five races and four poles, finishing runner-up to Al Unser Jr.. With Unser crashing out at Nazareth in the second-to-last race, Andretti had a chance to close the gap but managed only sixth, leaving Unser to clinch with a 27-point margin. Together with his father at Newman/Haas from 1989 to 1992, the pair established the first father-son front row (1986 Dana 200 at Phoenix) and achieved 15 father-son podiums, from the 1984 Cribari Wines 300K at Laguna Seca through the 1992 Daikyo IndyCar Grand Prix at Surfers Paradise.
Andretti won the 1991 CART PPG Indy Car World Series championship. He won eight of seventeen races and eight poles, leading more than half of the total race laps. After a slow start — including DNFs in the opening two events and a heartbreaking second place at the Indianapolis 500 — he won four of the last five races. With Rahal retiring during the title decider at Laguna Seca, Andretti clinched the title. He also won the non-championship Marlboro Challenge for the second time.
In 1992, remaining at Newman/Haas, Andretti led four-fifths of the laps at the Indianapolis 500 but, with eleven laps remaining after holding a two-lap lead, his fuel pump failed and he coasted to a stop, classified thirteenth. He won three races in four mid-season events and took two more wins later, including the season finale at Laguna Seca, but Rahal beat him to the title by just four points. Andretti then departed for Formula One, with his seat going to the reigning Formula One World Champion Nigel Mansell, who won the 1993 CART title in his rookie season.
Andretti holds the record for the most laps led in the Indianapolis 500 without achieving a victory — 431 laps across his career. He competed in sixteen Indy 500s with a best finish of second, in 1991, when he led with twelve laps remaining before finishing behind Rick Mears after the pair traded late-lap outside passes for the lead. In 1992 he dominated and led four-fifths of the race before the fuel pump failure described above. He also dropped out while leading in 1989, 1995, and 2003. The Andretti family's misfortune at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is known as the Andretti curse.
Andretti's first Formula One prospect came in 1986, when the American-owned Haas Lola team needed a replacement driver for the Detroit Grand Prix after Patrick Tambay was injured. Team owner Carl Haas had originally sought Mario Andretti, but Mario pushed for his son Michael instead. The governing body FISA controversially refused to grant Michael a Super Licence; the drive went to Eddie Cheever instead.
For the 1993 season, Andretti signed with Marlboro McLaren to partner with three-time World Champion Ayrton Senna in the Ford HBD V8-powered MP4/8. The deal was announced at Monza over the 1992 Italian Grand Prix weekend. McLaren team principal Ron Dennis said at the time: "I think he can win Grands Prix and become the World Champion." New for 1993, a restriction to just 23 laps in the morning untimed session and twelve in qualifying hampered Andretti's ability to learn the unfamiliar circuits. He crashed at Kyalami and Interlagos; at Interlagos he had a heavy collision at the start with Gerhard Berger. At the Sega European Grand Prix at Donington Park he qualified sixth but collided with Karl Wendlinger's Sauber on the opening lap. Andretti finished fifth in the Spanish Grand Prix, his first completed race of the season, though he was lapped by Senna. He finished in the points on three occasions. He finished third at Monza — his final Formula One race — holding off Wendlinger, then left McLaren by mutual agreement with three races remaining.
His son Marco later claimed that McLaren "sabotaged" Michael's chances electronically in order to replace him with test driver Mika Häkkinen, who required a smaller salary. Häkkinen himself later said that Andretti's commuting from the United States meant he was not present enough for testing. Some commentators argued that had Andretti remained for 1994 — when most electronic driver aids were banned — the cars would have been closer in specification to CART machinery, potentially allowing him to improve.
Andretti returned to IndyCar in 1994 with Target Chip Ganassi Racing, winning his first race back at the Australian FAI Indycar Grand Prix at Surfers Paradise — also Reynard's first CART win in their debut. He also won his record fourth time at Toronto's Exhibition Place. In 1995, he returned to Newman/Haas, winning once and finishing fourth in points. In 1996 he finished runner-up to Jimmy Vasser, winning five races in a season also marked by the death of Jeff Krosnoff and the CART-IRL split. Newman/Haas adopted Swift chassis from 1997 to 1999 without great success. In 2000, Andretti won at Twin Ring Motegi and again in Toronto.
Andretti's career in CART ended in 2002 with his 42nd and final career victory at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, placing him third all-time in championship car racing victories behind his father Mario (52 wins) and A. J. Foyt (67 wins). He is tied with Al Unser Jr. for the most wins in a single CART/IndyCar season with eight victories, set during his 1991 championship season. He finished in the top ten of the championship standings on seventeen occasions throughout his IndyCar career.
For 2001, Andretti moved to Team Green, run by brothers Kim and Barry Green, to compete at the Indianapolis 500. He led sixteen laps and was leading during a rain delay beyond halfway; the red flag did not come out, and after a punctured tyre and a minor pit collision with eventual winner Hélio Castroneves, he finished third. In July 2001, he announced he had bought the team and renamed it Andretti Green Racing, moving it to the IRL.
Andretti entered the first four IRL events in 2003, including the Indianapolis 500, where a throttle linkage failure ended his challenge after he led the opening 28 of 94 laps; that was his final full-time racing season. Under his ownership, Andretti Green Racing claimed consecutive IndyCar Series titles in 2004 and 2005 with Tony Kanaan and Dan Wheldon respectively, winning eleven of seventeen races including the Indianapolis 500. In 2007, Dario Franchitti captured a third Series title and second Indy 500 for the team in four seasons.
Andretti returned to the driver's seat for the 2006 Indianapolis 500 to assist his son Marco's development. He led with four laps to go before falling to second behind Marco a lap later; he finished third, while Marco was passed on the final straight by three-time IndyCar champion Sam Hornish Jr. and finished second. Andretti qualified eleventh and finished thirteenth at the 2007 Indianapolis 500, after which he announced it would be his last Indy 500 as a driver.
By 2012, the team operated under the name Andretti Autosport. Andretti served as team owner and strategist on Ryan Hunter-Reay's four race victories in that period; Hunter-Reay captured the 2014 Indianapolis 500 with a close victory over Hélio Castroneves. In 2018, Andretti partnered with Ryan Walkinshaw's Walkinshaw Racing and Zak Brown's United Autosports to create Walkinshaw Andretti United for the Australian Supercars Championship. In 2021, Andretti United expanded into Extreme E. On February 18, 2022, Andretti submitted a request to the FIA to enter Formula 1 under the name Andretti Global; on January 31, 2024, Formula One announced it had rejected the bid for 2026 but left the door open from 2028. In October 2024, Andretti stepped down as CEO of Andretti Global, remaining in a strategic advisory role.
Andretti was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 2002, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2008, the Long Beach Grand Prix Walk of Fame in 2010, the Canadian Motorsports International Division Hall of Fame in 2012, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame in 2012.
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