Thirty-eight years after winning the Indy 500 in 1969, Mario Andretti exclaimed, “I can still smell the garlic,” when I gave him a copy of the photo of that moment. The photo showed his sponsor, STP’s Andy Granatelli, planting the famous kiss on his cheek in the winner’s circle.

Mario was one of the winningest drivers of his time, in all forms of racing, but the Indy 500 was the one prize he almost never achieved. If you look closely at the photograph, you will see the scabs around his mouth where he was burned just days before in a practice crash into the Turn Four wall. Amazingly, he was fit enough to drive, and his crew, headed by Jim McGee, was able to repair the damage to his STP Brawner Hawk.

What Mario didn’t do, however, was pose for the post-race photos taken by the Speedway for promotion of the following year’s race.

That job was handled (and few knew it) by Mario’s then twin brother, Aldo. I say “then” twin, because a subsequent sprint-car crash changed Aldo’s face and he was no longer Mario’s “identical” twin.