Top 25 IndyCar drivers of all-time
By Asher Fair
Top IndyCar drivers of all-time: #14 – Emerson Fittipaldi
When it comes to all-time best race car drivers, not just IndyCar drivers, Emerson Fittipaldi deserves a much higher spot than #14 on that list.
The two-time Formula 1 world champion and 14-time Grand Prix winner made the move to American open-wheel racing a few years after his final season of Formula 1 competition in 1980.
He did not find immediate success, but it didn’t take him that long to start winning either. He found victory lane in his first full season in the sport with Patrick Racing in 1985, and after four straight top 10 finishes in the championship standings, he broke through by winning the 1989 championship.
The 1989 season also saw him win the Indy 500 for the first time after placing second in the race the year before.
Over the next five seasons, he never finished outside the top five in the championship standings, but he could never manage to win another title. He did go on to win the Indy 500 again in 1993, prompting his infamous orange juice moment in victory lane.
He retired with 22 victories to his name, and like Bobby Rahal, he secured his final victory at the now defunct Nazareth Speedway, doing so in 1995.
The Fittipaldi name is still involved in open-wheel racing to this day. Emerson’s grandson Pietro, who has two Formula 1 starts to his name and made the family name the first to compete in the sport with four different family members, competed in six IndyCar races in 2018 and is set to return to the sport in the 2021 season for the four oval races on the schedule.