Thanks to Newey!

Mario Andretti stated that the best car he had ever driven at the Indianapolis 500 was the Lola-Ilmor entered by Newman-Haas in 1987. He readily credited his engineer at the time with the exceptional performance of his car. That engineer was the now legendary Adrian Newey, pictured above alongside his driver.

The Italian-American was indeed dominating the race, was in the lead and was no less than two laps ahead of field in the closing stages, was driving without straining his machine, when suddenly, his engine gave out… (photo below from the Marshall Pruett Archives). The curse of the Andrettis at Indianapolis had struck again and Mario would not score a second victory, after that of 1969, on the famous Speedway.