Get Your Car Spring Ready with Racing Legend Mario Andretti!

He has won just about everything the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 and the Formula One World Championship to name a few. During his racing career, Mario Andretti, competed in 879 races, had 111 wins and 109 poles in all forms of motor sports. Mario Andretti not only knows how to handle a car from behind the wheel, but also knows how your car should be taken care of under the hood. April was National Car Care Month, and today, Mario joins us from his home garage in Pennsylvania to give us some tips to help keep our cars running at peak performance. Car Care Tips: The information that follows will help you to improve vehicle safety, longevity and fuel economy, while protecting the environment 1. Keep your tires inflated at the correct pressure. Under inflation causes tire wear and wastes fuel. 2. Do not carry unneeded weight in your vehicle. Excess weight puts a heavier load on the engine, causing greater fuel consumption. 3. Accelerate slowly and smoothly. Avoid jackrabbit starts. Get into a higher gear as quickly as possible. 4. Avoid long engine idling. If you have to wait for a long period of time, it is better to turn off the engine and start again later. 5. Avoid engine lag or over-revving. Use a gear position suitable for the type of road you’re traveling. 6. Avoid stop-and-go driving. Stop-and-go driving wastes fuel. 7. Do not rest your foot on the clutch or brake pedal. This causes needless wear, overheating and poor fuel economy. 8. Keep all wheels in proper alignment. Improper alignment not only causes faster tire wear but also puts an extra load on the engine. 9. Keep your vehicle tuned up and in top shape. 10. Getting more miles from a liter or gallon of fuel is actually easy. Just take it easy while driving. It will also make your vehicle last longer 11. Take to the shade rather than keep the air conditioner running. 12. It is a good idea to do a safety check before starting out on a trip. A visit to your dealer can help ensure safe and pleasant driving the whole summer long. More about Mario Andretti, Racing Legend: Mario Andretti’s love of cars began at an early age in his native Italy, when he saw the great Alberto Ascari race at Monza. Influenced by this legendary driver, Andretti began his own racing career in 1959 at the age of 19 in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, four years after he and his family immigrated to the United States and discovered a dirt track, virtually in their back yard. The first of Mario’s victories came in the very first race he entered in Nazareth, at the wheel of a 1948 Hudson Hornet Sportsman stock car that he and his brother and some friends had built. Mario’s career flourished as he won 20 races in the Sportsman class in his first two seasons. His first Champ Car event was April 19, 1964 in Trenton, NJ, where he finished 11th after starting 16th. A year later, he won his first Champ Car race (the Hoosier Grand Prix) and earned Rookie of the Year honors at the Indianapolis 500 (with a third place finish). He went on that year to win the first of his four National Championships. Mario repeated as USAC National Champion in 1966 before branching out to test his skill in other forms of racing. He won NASCAR’s Daytona 500 in 1967. In 1968, he entered the Formula One Grand Prix racing circuit, capturing the pole position in his very first race at Watkins Glen. His first win on the Formula One circuit came in 1971 in South Africa. After finishing second in the National Championship in 1967 and 1968, he regained the title in 1969. He won nine races that year, including the Indy 500. As a measure of his versatility and passion for the sport, Mario juggled Champ Car, Formula One, Formula 5000 and sports car racing in the late 60s and early 70s. He won the grueling 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race three times (1967, 1970 and 1972) and the USAC Dirt Track national championship in 1974. He also won several Formula 5000 races, finishing second in that series in 1973 and 1974. From 1975 to 1981, he focused primarily on the Grand Prix circuit, winning 12 races and earning 16 pole positions. The highlight of his international career was in 1978 when he won six Formula One races and the World Championship. Mario returned to Champ Car racing full time in 1982 and two years later he won his fourth National Championship. The last of Mario’s record 407 Champ Car races was October 9, 1994 at Laguna Seca Raceway in California. And at that point he had won just about everything, including The Indy 500, the Daytona 500, the Formula One World Championship and four Champ Car National Championships. He won races in sports cars, sprint cars and stock cars on ovals, road courses, drag strips, on dirt and on pavement. Assessing his legacy is easy: He drove the careers of three men. He drove with a passion that few have equaled and he won. Mario took the checkered flag 111 times during his career a career that stretched five decades. And he was competitive all those years: he was named Driver of the Year in three different decades (the 60s, 70s and 80s), Driver of the Quarter Century (in the 90s) and was selected by both the media and fans as America’s Driver of the 20th Century. For more information, visit http://www.newhavoline.com