Welcome to Dan the Road Trip Guy . I'm your host , dan , and each week we'll embark on a new adventure , discovering memories and life lessons of our incredible guests , from everyday travelers to thrill seekers and everyone in between .
This podcast is your front row seat to inspiring stories of passion , resilience and the pursuit of happiness , so buckle up and enjoy the ride . I'm on a solo drive today . I hope you enjoy it .
If you've listened to this podcast , you know it's about stories and , again , my encouragement to you is to record stories of family and friends that are close to you so that you can preserve those stories . I am sure , like me , you've had people come into your life over the years .
Some stay for seasons , some stay for decades , some stay for years , some stay for a day or two , but no matter what , people impact our lives on a daily basis . We're not here living on an island all by ourself . We're surrounded by people . I was recently reminded of one of those people that came into our life for basically two days back in November of 2013 .
And I thought of him recently because of a note I wrote in February of 2020 , shortly after his death in January . His name is John Andretti . Yes , he's of the Andretti family . He was a racer , but my note was entitled A Racer and a Gentleman , and that's exactly what he was . John's career covered IndyCar . It covered NASCAR , nhra , imsa , rolex , sports cars .
If you know anything about racing , you know those are the pinnacles of racing . He's the nephew of Mario Andretti , the son of Mario's twin brother , aldo , and here's how that note went .
If you know me well , then you likely know my affinity for auto racing , and in my lifetime I've had the honor of having dinner with one of the great racing legends , john Andretti . I remember it was like yesterday . Henry had just returned from Canada . John Andretti , I remember it was like yesterday . Henry had just returned from Canada .
He was signed up with the Bertel Roos Racing School to be a part of their enduro race at Roebling Road . In this particular race , each driver is partnered up with a teammate for a one and a half hour race in a formula car , but the teammate was a surprise . Henry had no idea who he'd be paired up with .
Upon arriving at the track , the first person I see is John Andretti . Of course , I tried to remain calm and act casual . There was no denying I was starstruck . This was John Andretti and , lo and behold , henry's partner was none other than John's son , jared .
Later that evening , henry and I had the pleasure of swapping racing stories over dinner with John and Jared . To say it was fun would be an understatement . Indie winner , nascar winner , 24 hours of Daytona winner All I could think about were the titles this man held and what an inspiration he had been to a lot of people .
Though the stories were pretty cool and his track record rather impressive , what struck me the most was John's character . He was both thoughtful and humble , and not once did he or Jarrett , and not once was he or Jarrett dissatisfied . They had been partnered with Henry , just 18 years old at the time .
Rather , john spoke words of encouragement into Henry , giving him practical instruction and tips on the track . He didn't know it to us , but he did it anyway , and I even recall that when Jared noticed Henry didn't have tear-offs on his visor , he prepared Henry's helmet for the 45-minute race .
You hear people talk about random acts of kindness , and though our time was brief together , I experienced just this with John . After everything I'd read about him , I can attest that John was not only remembered for his talent behind the wheel , but he will be remembered for his heart and what he did for others .
Never take for granted what kind of impact you might leave on someone else's life . I know I will never forget the experience of meeting John and his son , jared . I think the thing we can take away from this story and I'm sure you have many like it is that people come into our lives for a reason and we need to embrace the time with them .
One of the things that Lauren gave me for Christmas in 2023 was StoryWorth . It's a product where she picked 53 questions that I would be prompted with each week to answer . I fell off schedule a bit , so I was left with about nine questions a couple weeks ago and I've been knocking those off one by one .
One of those questions this week was what qualities do you value in friends ? And this made me think back to our time with John Andretti and his son , but it also made me just wonder Go way back to my childhood and think about all the people who have come into my life and the things that I landed on that were important in these friendships .
As I said early on , friendships can last a day or two , like ours with the Andrettys , or they can last lifetimes or anywhere in between . So you need to embrace why people are sent into your life in the moment .
I hope you've enjoyed this little short podcast today and I do hope you'll record stories with those that are around you and if you've got an old friend that you need to call up , hop on the phone today . Give them a call and catch up . You might be surprised . You might just pick up right where you left off the last time .
In case you were wondering how Jarrett and Henry finished up in 2013 in that race , they finished second , second only to the owner of the school , so we walked away from that feeling pretty good . Jarrett has gone on to be a racer in his own right , following in the steps of his father . John Henry spent 10 years out on the road making drivers go fast .
He focused his attention last year to his BMW performance and tuning shop here in Cincinnati , and so that's where you find him today off the road and in his shop , still making people go fast in their BMWs . John Andretti's memory still lives on today .
With the Check it for Andretti Foundation , they are on a mission to bring awareness to colon cancer , which is what , unfortunately , took John's life . I hope you'll visit their website and learn more about their cause . Thank you for tuning in to Dan the Road Trip Guy . I hope you enjoyed our journey today and the stories that were shared .
If you have any thoughts or questions or stories of your own , I'd love to hear from you . Feel free to reach out to me anytime . Don't forget to share this podcast with your friends and family and help us to spread the joy of road trips and great conversations . Until next time , keep driving , keep exploring and keep having those amazing conversations .
Safe travels and remember you can find me on the internet at dantheroadtripguycom .